Eastern
Europeans Flown in to UK to Pick
Fruit And Veg
Farm workers are being flown to the UK
on charter flights to pick fruit and
vegetable crops. Air Charter Service has
told the BBC that the first flight will
land on Thursday in Stansted carrying
150 Romanian farm workers. The firm told
the BBC that the plane is the first of
up to six set to operate between
mid-April and the end of June.
Government department Defra said it was
encouraging people across the UK "to
help bring the harvest in".
British farmers recently warned that
crops could be left to rot in the field
because of a shortage of seasonal
workers from Eastern Europe. Travel
restrictions due to the coronavirus
lockdown have meant most workers have
stayed at home. Several UK growers have
launched a recruitment drive, calling
for local workers to join the harvest to
prevent millions of tonnes of fruit and
vegetables going to waste. However
concerns remain that they won't be able
to fulfil the demand on farms. One of
the UK's biggest fresh food producers,
G's Fresh, based in Cambridgeshire,
confirmed it chartered two out of the
six flights carrying Eastern European
farm workers from Romania.
Read more: BBC News, https://is.gd/1yIGdJ
While
'Low-Skilled' Migrants Are Saving
us, the Government is Cracking Down
on Them
Millions of key workers in the UK are
migrants – approximately 23% of all
hospital staff, including 29% of doctors
and 18% of nurses, 20% of agricultural
workers, more than 40% of food
production workers and 18% of care
workers, rising to 59% in London. These
are the human beings who, for decades,
politicians have blamed for holding down
wages, ruining “British culture” and
overburdening public services. This
crisis has revealed how arbitrary the
phrase “low skilled” is: how we value
people, their rights, what they’re paid
and the conditions they work in is all
wrong. For all its warm words about key
workers, the government should be
reminded of this.
The day Dominic Raab encouraged us all
to clap for the workers who are risking
their lives to keep society going, the
government restated that some of those
same people won’t be allowed in the
country come January 2021. While Priti
Patel is conspicuously absent – notably
on immigration issues – the department
she oversees decided now was the time to
reiterate that as part of its new
immigration rules, “low-skilled” people
would not be able to apply for a UK work
visa. If the government forges ahead
with its plans, recognising them as key
workers will be just a momentary
suspension of the norm. Many of them
were dismissed as low skilled before the
crisis, and it seems they will be once
again when it’s over.
Read more: Maya Goodfellow, Guardian, https://is.gd/hLOoFO
Bolivia
Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous
president, resigned in November 2019
amidst nationwide protests that erupted
after the opposition claimed that the
results of the previous month’s
presidential election—in which Morales
had sought a controversial fourth term
in office—were marred by fraud. The
Organization of American States (OAS) in
December published its final audit of
the vote, which affirmed the presence of
“a series of intentional operations
aimed at altering the will expressed at
the polls.”
Following the departure of Morales and
many other top officials, Senator
Jeanine Áñez, the highest-ranking
political figure who had not yet
resigned, declared herself interim
president; the Constitutional Court
quickly affirmed the move, despite the
lack of a quorum in the legislature
needed for her formal appointment. Her
government has since ramped up
repressive measures against her critics,
including in the form of a worrying
presidential decree that granted carte
blanche for impunity to security forces
acting to reestablish internal order in
the face of continued protests in
support of Morales. Looking toward
elections set for early May, it remains
to be seen whether more stable
representative politics will be restored
in Bolivia in 2020.
Haiti
Haiti spent much of 2019 bogged down by
a political stalemate that blocked
ordinary government functions and
prevented authorities from tackling
critical problems, old and new. The
stalemate was the result of an impasse
between President Jovenel Moïse and the
parliament concerning the replacement of
former prime minister Jean-Henry Céant,
who was voted out of office in a
no-confidence vote in March 2019. This
resulted in the indefinite postponement
of local and legislative elections—a
hindrance to any political movement. The
failure to hold elections in 2019 led to
the expiration of most of the Haitian
legislature in January of this year, and
Moïse has been ruling by decree since.
In the meantime, the country has been
paralyzed by fuel shortages and
widespread protests, during which
demonstrators demanded Moïse’s
resignation over the alleged misuse of
$3.8 billion in aid from Venezuela, and
an end to the nation’s endemic
corruption. Schools, hospitals, and
businesses were closed from September
until December, during which time the
security crisis worsened as violent
police responses to protests left at
least 35 dead, and violence by armed
gangs increased. As of April 2020, Moïse
has continued his one-man rule in a
political vacuum, and crisis conditions
persist across much of the country.
Iran
A significant and abrupt hike in
gasoline prices, initiated against
existing public discontent over Iran’s
worsening economy, sparked mass protests
across the country in November 2019.
Security forces responded with a brutal
crackdown, opening fire on unarmed
protesters and ultimately causing the
death of at least 304 individuals, with
some sources reporting the death toll to
be as high as 1,500. Credible reports of
torture and enforced disappearance
emerged from some of the thousands
detained by security forces for their
involvement in the protests. In another
attempt to quash the protests, the
government implemented a near-total
internet shutdown, upending daily life
for citizens, stifling the media’s
ability to report on the lethal
government reprisal, and setting a
worrying precedent for future
repression.
Millions of Desperate
Zimbabweans Plunging Deeper Into
Hunger
With Zimbabwe’s already severe climate-
and recession-induced hunger crisis
deepening and COVID-19 taking hold, the
United Nations World Food Programme
(WFP) urgently needs US$130 million to
sustain through August an emergency
operation to prevent millions of the
country’s most vulnerable people
plunging deeper into hunger. A recent
nationwide assessment – the Integrated
Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)
– shows that the number of acutely food
insecure Zimbabweans has risen to 4.3
million, from 3.8 million at the end of
last year. “
With most Zimbabweans already struggling
to put food on the table, the COVID
pandemic risks even wider and deeper
desperation,” said Eddie Rowe, WFP’s
Country Director. “We must all do our
utmost to prevent this tragedy turning
into a catastrophe.” WFP assistance in
recent months has helped ease hunger in
six of nine districts classified late
last year as suffering “emergency” food
insecurity (IPC 4), allowing them to be
downgraded to the less severe “crisis”
level (IPC 3). However, 56 of the
country’s 60 districts are now
categorised as experiencing “crisis”
hunger. WFP supports communities
afflicted by “crisis” and “emergency”
food insecurity.
Relief Web
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Corona
Fears as UK Asylum Seekers Made to
Share Cramped Rooms
Asylum seekers are being made
to share cramped rooms and even beds
with strangers in breach of strict
measures to contain coronavirus,
charities have warned. Overcrowding in
government accommodation has led to new
people being brought into shared rooms
in hostels since the UK-wide lockdown
began last month, according to Refugee
Action, Asylum Matters and the Scottish
Refugee Council. The charities said that
although the Home Office had stopped
evictions from its asylum accommodation
for three months because of Covid-19,
there was insufficient capacity to
safely house the growth in the asylum
seeker population. They added that the
crisis would increase because up to
50,000 more people need to be
accommodated due to the decision to
allow people whose asylum claim or
appeal has been rejected, as well as
those granted refugee status, to stay
put.
An asylum seeker in a south London
hostel said that since the lockdown two
strangers had shared the only double bed
in his room for a week. He said there
had been four people in the room – a
video seen by the Guardian shows three
beds a few inches apart – but two of
them left last week and a new person
moved in. The man, who has latent
tuberculosis, said another occupant of
the hostel had been taken to hospital
with coronavirus symptoms.
Read more: David Batty, Guardian,
https://is.gd/h9jo6u
Why
We Should Be Worried about India's
Response to Coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic
emerged as national authorities are
enacting discriminatory measures against
India’s Muslim minority. Now, Muslims
are being blamed for the pandemic. The
COVID-19 pandemic arrived in India
against a backdrop of intensifying
discrimination against the country’s
Muslim minority. Since winning elections
in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
have pursued a stridently Hindu
nationalist agenda that has damaged
India’s democracy. The country’s
response to the virus, and the
government’s actions while international
attention remains focused on the
pandemic, should be carefully
scrutinized to ensure that emergency
restrictions do not cause further harm.
An outgrowth of a Hindu nationalist
militant group, the BJP has not only
tolerated prejudice against Muslims; it
is now cementing this discrimination
into government policies. Following the
BJP’s victory in spring 2019 general
elections, the central government
escalated its attacks against India’s
Muslim population, and with that
accelerated the country’s democratic
decline. In August, the semiautonomous
status of the only Muslim-majority
state, Jammu and Kashmir, was
unilaterally revoked by the Indian
government, and the state placed under
lockdown. Shortly thereafter, the state
of Assam unveiled a citizens’ register
that rendered almost two million people
stateless, many of them Muslims. In
December, the government enacted the
Citizenship Amendment Act. The law
accelerates the citizenship process for
members of six religions, but excludes
Muslims, leading to fears that, if
coupled with a national citizens’
register, longtime Muslim residents of
the country will be deported en masse.
Read more: Amy Slipowitz, Freedom House, https://is.gd/myl4EA
Corona Lockdowns Shut off
Healthcare to Millions of Women
Llockdowns have triggered the closure of
more than 5,600 sexual and reproductive
healthcare clinics in 64 countries,
according to data from the International
Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
The closures are making it difficult for
millions of women to access
contraception, abortions, HIV testing,
or support for gender-based violence.
Within the federation’s network, South
Asia has seen the largest number of
closures overall, with more than 1,872
clinics and other service facilities
affected. Africa has seen the largest
number of mobile clinics closed, with
447 shut.
Countries particularly affected by the
closures include Pakistan, El Salvador,
Zambia, Sudan, Colombia, Malaysia,
Uganda, Ghana, Germany, Zimbabwe, and
Sri Lanka, IPPF said. Some clinics and
centres still operating have also
reported a shortage of contraceptives
and HIV-related medicine. “These
figures show that millions of women and
girls across the world now face an even
greater challenge in trying to take care
of their own health and bodies,” said
Alvaro Bermejo, IPPF’s director general.
IRIN News
Nigeria
National elections held in February 2019
were marred by serious irregularities,
widespread intimidation, and political
violence. Moreover, a one-week delay in
polling announced just five hours before
polls were set to open weakened voter
confidence and contributed to the lowest
voter turnout ever recorded in a
Nigerian electoral contest. Incumbent
candidate Muhammadu Buhari won a second
term, a result that international
observers deemed credible despite the
flawed voting process. Following on the
heels of landmark elections in 2015,
which featured the first opposition
victory at the national level and a
peaceful rotation of power, the 2019
polls had carried hopes for a continued
consolidation of democratic gains and
reliable electoral processes, which
ultimately went unrealized.
Sudan
Sustained protests that began
in December 2018 led to the military
overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in
April 2019, marking the end of a 30-year
reign that featured multiple wars and
allegations of genocide in Darfur.
Dissatisfaction with the military junta
that replaced al-Bashir led the protests
to continue despite brutal crackdowns by
the armed forces, including the killing
of 127 protesters in Khartoum in June.
Demonstrations finally ended when
protest leaders secured a power-sharing
deal with the ruling military council in
August, setting up a transitional
government that has raised hope for
justice and free elections in 2022. It
remains to be seen whether the military
will abide by its power-sharing
agreement, but Sudan entered 2020 with a
gradually opening civic space, and real
improvements that may set the stage for
political transformation.
Turkey
The opposition in Turkey saw landmark
victories during March 2019 municipal
elections, winning the mayoralties of
the country’s two largest cities,
Istanbul and Ankara. The victory in
Istanbul held despite a revote ordered
by the Supreme Electoral Council, the
highest electoral authority and one
effectively controlled by the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Though these gains signified a limit to
the near-total authority of President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP, the
government continued intensifying
restrictions on basic human rights
throughout the year, and into 2020. Many
opposition politicians and civil society
activists were arrested or remain in
prison, including hundreds detained for
speaking out against the state’s latest
military offensive into northern Syria.
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