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Half a million Ethiopian migrants have been deported from Saudi Arabia in 5 years – what they go through

Half a million Ethiopian migrants have been deported from Saudi Arabia in 5 years – what they go through

TENS of thousands of migrant Ethiopian workers have been forcibly repatriated from Saudi Arabia each year since the early 2010s. Although this is carried out as part of a crackdown on illegal migrant workers, legally documented workers have frequently been caught in the dragnet. Another 102,000 Ethiopian citizens will soon be repatriated in another round that began in April 2022. Girmachew Adugna, who has researched Ethiopian migration for years, explains the background to the deportations along with concerns about human rights violations and the challenges that returnees face. Author GIRMACHEW ADUGNA, Advisory Board Member, Research Center for Forced Displacement and…
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EXCLUSIVE: China seeks to stop UN rights chief from releasing Xinjiang report – document

EXCLUSIVE: China seeks to stop UN rights chief from releasing Xinjiang report – document

EMMA FARGE CHINA is asking the United Nations human rights chief to bury a highly-anticipated report on human rights violations in Xinjiang, according to a Chinese letter seen by Reuters and confirmed by diplomats from three countries who received it. United Nations High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet has faced severe criticism from civil society for being too soft on China during a May visit and has since said she will refrain from seeking a second term for personal reasons. But before she leaves at the end of August, she has pledged to publish a report into the western Chinese region of…
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Petra Diamonds reaches settlement on rights abuse claims

Petra Diamonds reaches settlement on rights abuse claims

PETRA Diamonds has reached a settlement with claimants at its Williamson mine in Tanzania who accused the firm of being responsible for widespread human rights violations including beatings and detentions, both sides said. Last year, the firm said it was investigating allegations that artisanal miners who trespassed on the firm's Williamson mine in Tanzania were detained, beaten and shot at, killing at least seven of them. The abuses were allegedly committed by security contractors and security employees of Petra's subsidiary Williamson Diamonds Limited (WDL). "Petra Diamonds Limited today confirms that a settlement has been reached, on a no admission of…
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U.S. imposes visa curbs on Ugandan election officials

U.S. imposes visa curbs on Ugandan election officials

THE United States is imposing visa bans on Ugandan government officials accused of human rights violation and repressive acts that tainted the January election, putting pressure on longtime Western ally President Yoweri Museveni. The visa restrictions will apply to "those believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the democratic process" during the January 14 election and its preparations, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. "There are consequences for interfering in the democratic process," Blinken wrote later on Twitter. The statement did not name those targeted. The Ugandan government rejected the allegations and accused the United…
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EU slaps sanctions on Eritrea

EU slaps sanctions on Eritrea

THE European Union has imposed sanctions on Eritrea over human rights violations and blacklisted the country's National Security Office which is tasked with intelligence gathering, arrests and interrogations. At the beginning of March, the United Nations said Eritrean troops were operating throughout Ethiopia's northern Tigray region and reports suggested they were responsible for atrocities. "The National Security Office is responsible for serious human rights violations in Eritrea, in particular arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances of persons and torture," the EU said after foreign ministers of the 27-nation bloc agreed the measures. The sanctions mean an asset freeze in the…
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“Choose – I kill you or rape you”

“Choose – I kill you or rape you”

MICHAEL GEORGY THE young coffee seller said she was split from family and friends by an Ethiopian soldier at the Tekeze river, taken down a path, and given a harrowing choice. "He said: 'Choose, either I kill you or rape you'," the 25-year-old told Reuters at the Hamdayet refugee camp in Sudan where she had fled from conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region. The doctor who treated her when she arrived at the camp in December, Tewadrous Tefera Limeuh, confirmed to Reuters that he provided pills to stop pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases, and guided her to a psychotherapist. "The soldier ...…
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Human Rights Watch slams China’s ‘appalling year’ of violations

Human Rights Watch slams China’s ‘appalling year’ of violations

CHINA had an "appalling year" for human rights in 2020, a leading advocacy group has said, with a crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong, repression of Muslim Uighurs and the silencing of people reporting on the coronavirus outbreak. A Chinese court last month handed down a four-year jail term to a citizen-journalist who reported from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus before it spread across the globe, while others who did the same have disappeared. "To crack down on whistleblowers and citizen-journalists at this particular moment ... helps highlight to the rest of the world what the consequences of violations…
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Britain sanctions 11 individuals over human rights violations

Britain sanctions 11 individuals over human rights violations

BRITAIN has imposed sanctions on 11 individuals, including the former President of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, in a coordinated move with the United States on human rights violations. "The UK and our allies are shining a light on the severe and systematic human rights violations perpetrated by those sanctioned today," foreign minister Dominic Raab said in a statement. Others named in the sanctions were security figures and officials from Russia, Venezuela, Pakistan and Gambia, including Jammeh's wife. - Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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Alongside Sisi, Macron says France will sell arms to Egypt irrespective of rights

Alongside Sisi, Macron says France will sell arms to Egypt irrespective of rights

JOHN IRISH FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has said would not condition the sale of weapons to Egypt on human rights because he did not want to weaken Cairo's ability to counter-terrorism in the region, a comment likely to draw the ire of critics. Both states - which share concerns about instability across the Sahel, threats from jihadist groups in Egypt and the political vacuum in Libya - have cultivated closer economic and military ties during President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's rise to power. But 17 French and international human rights groups issued a statement ahead of a visit by Sisi to…
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Intersex surgery ‘abuses’ condemned by 34 states at U.N. rights forum

Intersex surgery ‘abuses’ condemned by 34 states at U.N. rights forum

RACHEL SAVAGE  MORE than 30 countries have condemned "medically unnecessary surgeries" on intersex children as a human rights violation, amid mounting efforts to ban such operations. It is the first time that unnecessary surgeries on children born with an indeterminate sex have been criticised at the United Nations, advocates said, with 34 countries signing the statement at a U.N. Human Rights Council session. "Intersex people - that is, individuals who are born with sex characteristics that do not fit the typical definition of male or female bodies - continue to face serious and widespread human rights violations and abuses," the…
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