Around 1,000 migrant children from war-torn regions are struggling to survive in Greece, where there is a “systematic” failure to protect them, global lobby group Human Rights Watch said yesterday.
“Greece completely fails to protect these children,” HRW children’s rights researcher Simone Troller said in a statement.
“Instead of making sure they’re being cared for, officials leave them living on the street without any assistance whatsoever,” she said.
In a 111-page report titled Left to Survive: Systematic Failure to Protect Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Greece released at a press conference, HRW said the children faced a daily fight for survival in Greece and had “close to zero” chances of seeking asylum.
The report documents alleged abuses at the hands of Greek officials including coast guards, regular police and port police officers, noting that even girls as young as 10 are routinely detained and often held with adults.
“They took us out and beat us,” said 16-year-old Jafar F. from Afghanistan, alleging ill-treatment by port police in Patras. “I was thrown inside the sea, taken out and beaten, thrown into the water again, taken out and beaten again.”
“These children find themselves trapped in Greece,” Troller said. “They don’t receive state assistance, they can’t leave the country legally, they are without regular status in Greece and they can’t return home ... they work in dangerous and exploitative jobs, they beg, and they live in squalid places or sleep in parks.”
FOX HUNT: To suppress dissent, Chinese living abroad that Xi Jinping sees as threats are told to either return to China or commit suicide, Christopher Wray said Chinese agents have been pursuing hundreds of Chinese nationals living in the US in an effort to force their return, as part of a global campaign against the country’s diaspora, known as Operation Fox Hunt, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday. In a speech about the security threat posed by China, during which he said Beijing’s counterintelligence work was the “greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality,” Wray gave the example of one Fox Hunt target who was given a choice of going back to China or killing themselves. Fox Hunt was launched
‘WOULD NOT COMPLY’: The company’s user data are kept in Singapore and it would not turn the data over to Beijing even if asked, TikTok chief executive Kevin Mayer said Social media app TikTok has distanced itself from Beijing after India banned 59 Chinese apps in the country, according to a correspondence seen by Reuters. In a letter to the Indian government dated on Sunday last week and seen by Reuters on Friday, TikTok chief executive Kevin Mayer said the Chinese government has never requested user data, nor would the company turn it over if asked. TikTok, which is not available in China, is owned by China’s ByteDance, but has sought to distance itself from its Chinese roots to appeal to a global audience. Along with 58 other Chinese apps, including Tencent
‘FIGHT FOR FREEDOM’: Hong Kongers will never bow to Beijing, the advocate said, while the US’ envoy to the territory called China’s new security law a ‘tragedy’ The world must stand in solidarity with Hong Kongers after Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation on the semi-autonomous territory, advocate Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) said yesterday, vowing to continue campaigning for democracy. Wong, one of the territory’s most prominent young advocates and a figure loathed by Beijing, was speaking outside a court where he and fellow advocates are being prosecuted for involvement in last year’s pro-democracy protests. China last week enacted sweeping security legislation for the restless territory, banning acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. The legislation has sent a wave of fear through the territory, and criminalized dissenting
A squad of gun-toting police officers patrolled Myanmar’s sacred site of Bagan under the cover of night, taking on plunderers snatching relics from temples forsaken by tourists due to COVID-19 restrictions. Each evening as dusk falls, about 100 officers fan out across the plain of Bagan covering 50km2, sweeping flashlights over the crumbling monuments to scour for intruders. “Our security forces are patrolling day and night,” Police Lieutenant Colonel Sein Win told reporters. “We have it under control for the moment, but it’s a challenge.” The central Burmese city is strewn with more than 3,500 ancient monuments — stupas, temples, murals and sculptures
RSS