The UN refugee chief on Friday welcomed Tokyo’s decision to accept a handful of Myanmar refugees but called on the Asian economic giant to improve its assistance to asylum seekers.
“Japan is the first Asian country to adopt a resettlement program,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said. “This is indeed a very important symbolic measure.”
Japan said Thursday that it was ready to take about 30 Myanmar refugees who are living in camps on the border with Thailand. The announcement came as Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, met Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso.
While small by global standards, Guterres said he hoped it would pave the way for Japan — which only accepts dozens of refugees each year under strict conditions — to take in more people in future.
“For us what is important is quality,” he told reporters, adding that a successful integration would require helping the refugees learn the language and obtain jobs.
“Of course what is important is that this small program becomes a success and based on that Japan develops a more substantial resettlement program,” he said.
Guterres said he hoped the move would “also be symbolic of improvements in the general asylum policy of Japan.”
The UN refugee chief, who held talks with Japanese officials in charge of refugee recognition, said he focused on improving examinations that determine refugee status and on detention conditions.
Human rights groups have often criticized Japan for detaining rejected asylum seekers indefinitely.
About 1,000 people seek refugee status in Japan annually, a number that has doubled over the past few years.
The Refugee Assistance Headquarters, an auxiliary body under the foreign ministry, said it temporarily had to suspend financial aid for asylum seekers this month due to the growing number of applicants.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
BIGGER ROLE: Beijing has said it maintains an impartial stance on the war in Ukraine, but by training Russian troops, China is far more involved than previously known China’s armed forces secretly trained about 200 Russian military personnel in China late last year, and some have since returned to fight in Ukraine, according to three European intelligence agencies and documents seen by Reuters. While China and Russia have held a number of joint military exercises since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Beijing has repeatedly said that it is neutral in the conflict and presents itself as a peace mediator. The covert training sessions, which predominantly focused on the use of drones, were outlined in a dual-language Russian-Chinese agreement signed by senior Russian and Chinese officers in Beijing on
RSS