World News Roundup

ARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2015

12INTERNATIONAL

Stateless

Britain

Preventable tragedy

‘Stop’ lockingup people: UNLONDON, Dec 1, (RTRS):European countries must stoplocking up stateless peoplelike criminals, human rightscampaigners said, describingtheir detention as “a preventa-ble tragedy” that risks beingworsened by the migrant cri-sis.

Thousands of stateless peopleare being held in immigrationdetention centres across Europeeven though they cannot bedeported because no countryrecognises them as citizens, thecampaigners said late onMonday.

They urgedE u r o p e a ngovernmentsto introducep r o c e d u r e sfor identify-ing statelesspeople sothey can beprotected inthe same way

as refugees and given a chanceto rebuild their lives.

There are an estimated 10 mil-lion stateless people worldwide.With no nationality, they aredenied basic rights most peopletake for granted, includingaccess to education, healthcareand jobs. Many live in destitu-tion and risk detention andexploitation.

SilentFrancois Crepeau, UN spe-

cial rapporteur on the humanrights of migrants, said theimmigration detention of state-less people was “one of thesilent tragedies of our globalisedworld”.

“It is a tragedy that is com-pletely preventable, but due toa lack of will and attention,continues to harm thousands oflives all around the worldevery year,” he said in a fore-word to new guidelines on pro-tecting stateless people fromdetention.

Chris Nash, director of theEuropean Network onStatelessness (ENS), which pro-duced the guidance, said thedetention of stateless people forlong periods was an “extremelydisturbing trend.”

“Across Europe a failure bystates to put in place effectivesystems to identify stateless per-sons leaves thousands exposedto repeated and lengthy deten-tion,” he added.

FleeingCampaigners say there are

likely to be stateless peopleamong the hundreds of thou-sands arriving in Europe, asmany of the countries they arefleeing, including Syria, Iraq andAfghanistan, have significantstateless populations.

The guidance, intended forlawyers, judges, legislators andpolicymakers, was issued a yearafter the United Nationslaunched a global campaign toeradicate statelessness in adecade.

Stateless people detained inPoland, the Netherlands andMalta told ENS researchers theyhad been made to feel like crim-inals.

Kafil Kafil, an ethnicRohingya from Myanmar, spentmonths in detention in Maltaafter being rescued off a burningboat in the Mediterranean.Myanmar does not recognise theRohingya.

“The policewoman could notbelieve me when I said I camefrom Myanmar,” Kafil told ENS.“Nobody spoke my languageand there was no translator.”

Kafil said people often fellsick because of overcrowding,poor food and lack of exercise.On one occasion he developed afever and was taken to the clinicin handcuffs “as if I was a crim-inal”.

Others interviewed by ENSbecame stateless following thebreak-up of the Soviet Union.

Ivan Niyazov, an ethnicRussian born in the SovietUnion in what is nowUzbekistan, can obtain neitherRussian nor Uzbek nationality.

He has been in and out ofdetention in the Netherlands,losing more three years toimprisonment.

“(I’m from) a country that isnow seventeen countries. I don’tknow who I am,” said Niyazov,who suffers from post-traumaticstress syndrome.

“I can’t trust people any more.Detention changed me.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron walks out of 10 Downing Street in London on Dec 1. Britainlooks poised to join air strikes on Islamic State (IS) group targets in Syria this week after PrimeMinister David Cameron announced that a vote would be held in parliament on Wednesday. (Inset):In a file picture taken on Sept 27, 2014 a Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR4 fighter jet prepares

to land at the Akrotiri British airbase, near the Cypriot port city of Limassol, after returning from amission over Iraq to strike at Islamic State jihadists. Britain’s parliament is to hold a vote on Dec 2,on joining air strikes against Islamic State (IS) group targets in Syria, Prime Minister DavidCameron said on Nov 30. (AFP)

British Foreign Secretary PhilipHammond (right), and GermanForeign Minister Frank-WalterSteinmeier (left), arrive for a pressconference in London on Nov 30.Hammond hosted Steinmeier forbilateral talks on a range of issues,ranging from Syria, tackling thethreat from ISIL, migration and theEU-Turkey summit (which takesplace this weekend) and the UK’s EU

reform renegotiation. (AFP)

Monarch, Thomson extend stop:Thomson Airways and Monarch onMonday said they were delaying theresumption of regular flights to theEgyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh until mid-December and after thenew year respectively.

“Monarch can confirm that it has nowcancelled all flights from the UK toSharm El Sheikh up to and includingWednesday 6 Jan 2016,” the companysaid in a statement.

Thomson said it was suspending flightsuntil Dec 16 — a week later than the pre-vious deadline.

The two companies said they wereextending the suspension of flights as theForeign Office still had a travel advice warn-ing against air travel to the resort in place.

Easyjet and British Airways last weekhad already delayed flights until Jan 6 and14 respectively. (AFP)

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Palace state dining room shut:The state dining room of Britain’sBuckingham Palace, where visiting headsof state retire for coffee after banquets,has been closed off due to safety con-cerns, a palace spokesman said onMonday.

“As the result of a routine survey, anissue was found with one of the ceilingbeams in the roof space of the state diningroom,” the spokesman said.

“Following further assessment, accessto the room has been suspended as a pre-cautionary measure while additionalinvestigation work takes place.”

The palace is Queen Elizabeth II’sLondon residence and where she hosts vis-its by foreign leaders, including ChinesePresident Xi Jinping last month. (AFP)

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‘You’re fat’ card prompts action:British police stepped in on Monday after

Britain

Parliament to hold debate, vote Wednesday

UK set to back Syria air strikesLONDON, Dec 1, (Agencies): Britainlooks poised to join air strikes on IslamicState (IS) group targets in Syria thisweek after Prime Minister DavidCameron announced Monday that a votewould be held in parliament Wednesday.

The announcement came after themain opposition Labour party decidedto let its MPs vote with their individ-ual consciences rather than trying toforce them to oppose military action,meaning Cameron is set to get theclear majority he wanted.

But Labour was left looking deeplysplit on the issue after its left-wingleader Jeremy Corbyn confirmed thathe would vote against air strikes whilea string of other centrist MPs said theywould support them.

“I can announce that I will be recom-mending to Cabinet tomorrow that wehold a debate and a vote in the House ofCommons to extend the air strikes,”Cameron said in a televised statement.

“We will make sure that we have avery long and full debate on Wednesday.”

Cameron has wanted Britain toextend its operations against ISjihadists in Iraq to Syria for monthsbut held back because he would nothave been able to gain support fromparliament due to Labour opposition.

ActionHis previous government suffered

one of its most embarrassing defeats in2013 when it was defeated on a plan totake military action against the regimeof President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

However, in the wake of this month’sParis attacks which killed 130 people,he has made a fresh push for Britain toextend its role in the fight against IS.

In his statement, the prime ministersaid Britain wanted to “answer the callfrom our allies and work with thembecause ISIL (another acronym for IS)is a threat to our country and this is theright thing to do.”

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammondsaid he was now “confident” that mostMPs would support air strikes whenthere was a vote.

Meanwhile, Corbyn faces the tough-est challenge of his nearly three-monthleadership over the air strikes vote.

His party is split between left-wingMPs, supported by many of the grass-

roots activists who swept him topower, who oppose the strikes andcentrist lawmakers who are in favour.

Monday’s shadow cabinet meetingwas told that some 43 percent ofLabour MPs — nearly 100 out of 231— supported air strikes while 57 per-cent or 132 would oppose them.

His decision to call a free vote wasseen as a way of trying to prevent anyresignations from his team over the issue.

But analysts said it risked makinghim look weak because he could notcontrol his party.

The Stop The War Coalition, whichCorbyn helped found and which held a5,000-strong anti-strikes protest atDowning Street Saturday, said a freevote made war “much more likely”.

Corbyn’s spokesman said there was

“no question” that most of the Labourparty was against air strikes.

“I don’t think it’s a shambles, it’s tak-ing account of the fact that there are verysignificant differences of opinion,” headded of the decision to hold a free vote.

In a sign of the splits, Laboursources said that in Wednesday’s pre-vote debate, Corbyn would open pro-ceedings speaking against air strikeswhile his foreign affairs spokesmanHilary Benn would speak in favour.

SensitiveAnother reason the issue is so sensi-

tive for Labour is the legacy of pastconflicts such as the Iraq war, whichformer Labour leader Tony Blair ledBritain into in 2003 on evidence thatwas later hotly disputed.

The conflict, which left a total of179 British personnel dead, is nowdeeply unpopular in Britain.

A YouGov opinion poll publishedlast week found that 59 percentapproved of Britain joining air strikesin Syria, compared to 20 percent whodisapproved and 21 percent who didnot know.

Some 127,000 people have alsosigned a petition to parliament urginga vote against military action in Syria.

Britain has eight Tornado fighterjets and an unconfirmed number ofarmed and surveillance drones alreadydeployed in the international missionagainst IS.

But it currently only conducts sur-veillance and intelligence missionsover Syria.

EU OKs UK state aid for RWE biomass-fired power plant

Labour party launches campaign to stay in EULONDON, Dec 1, (Agencies): TheLabour party on Tuesday launchedits campaign for Britain to remain inthe European Union, saying thatthe Paris terror attacks showed theneed to “stand shoulder to shoul-der” with European partners.

The Conservative governmenthas promised an in-out referendumby the end of 2017, with recent pollsshowing the public split neck-and-neck on the issue despite all themain parties campaigning to stay in.

Former interior minister AlanJohnson launched his party’s cam-paign to stay in the 28-memberbloc in Birmingham, centralEngland, arguing that Britain wouldbe less safe on its own.

“The first duty of any governmentis to keep our country safe and Ifirmly believe that leaving the EUwould fail that test,” he said.

“The lesson from Paris is clear:to tackle terrorism we must standshoulder to shoulder with our alliesin Europe. The security of Britain isinextricably linked to staying inEurope.

Britons will be asked whetherthey want to “Remain” in the bloc or

“Leave” after the electoral commis-sion ruled that a “Yes” or “No”question could favour those whowant Britain to stay in the EU.

Labour has been a solid support-er of the EU since the premiershipof Tony Blair, but that was throwninto doubt with the election of vet-eran leftist Jeremy Corbyn as partyleader in September.

He had previously opposed thebloc’s free-market rules, but threwhis weight behind the “Remain” cam-paign shortly after being elected.

Johnson also said that Britishworkers, businesses, universities andscientists will all be “damaged anddiminished” in the event of a “Brexit”.

“There is nothing patriotic aboutcondemning this country to isola-tion,” he added.

Prime Minister David Cameronhas pledged to campaign to stay in,but only if he secures EU reformson issues such as welfare pay-ments for migrants and the balanceof power between Brussels andnational parliaments.

The Labour campaign is sepa-rate to the cross-party, pro-EU cam-paign Britain Stronger in Europe.

They will be opposed byLeave.EU, which has the backingof UK Independence Party chiefNigel Farage, and Vote Leave,which is supported by euroscepticConservative and Labour MPs andbusiness figures.

Also:BRUSSELS/LONDON: TheEuropean Commission hasapproved British plans to subsidisethe conversion of RWE’sLynemouth coal-fired power plantin northern England to burning bio-mass, sending the German utilitycompany’s shares higher.

The European Commission saidon Tuesday a nine-month investiga-tion showed that the project accordswith European environmental andenergy goals, giving the green lightto an agreement struck underBritain’s contracts-for-difference(CfD) electricity pricing mechanismto support the project until 2027.

RWE, which bought the coal-fired power plant in 2012, said itwould now take 18 months to adaptthe station to run 100 percent onbiomass with a generation capacityof 420 megawatts.

a woman on London’s metro system washanded a card calling her a “fat, uglyhuman”.

Health worker Kara Florish said in atweet the card she was given on theUnderground was “hateful” and “coward-ly” and “could potentially upset peoplestruggling with confidence”.

She tweeted a picture of the card,which on one side said “fat” and on theother read: “Our organisation hates and

resents fat people. We object to the enor-mous amount of food resources you con-sume while half the world starves.” (AFP)

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Doctors call off planned strike:Junior doctors in Britain called off aplanned strike on Monday after last-minute talks with ministers, the BritishMedical Association (BMA) said.

The government had planned to impose

a new type of contract on junior doctorsthat it says will improve healthcare duringevenings and weekends, but medics saythe terms would drastically cut their pay.

“Following conciliatory talks withNHS (National Health Service) employ-ers and the Department of Health, wehave agreed to suspend industrial actionin England, which was due to begin at8:00 am tomorrow,” the BMA said in astatement. (AFP)

Crepeau

Elizabeth Xi