More than 1,600 boat migrants from sub-Saharan Africa reached Europe by way of Spain’s Canary Islands over the weekend, with a record-breaking 321 migrants arriving on a single vessel on Saturday.
The islands off the north-west of Africa, popular with expatriates and tourists from Britain and Germany, have seen around 23,500 migrants land on their shores since January. Much of the influx has been concentrated in recent months, with 8,561 arriving in the first two weeks of October. Arrivals are currently up around 90 percent on last year overall.
Once they reach Spanish soil and claim asylum, boat migrants are often able to move on to Continental Europe, where they have mostly unfettered access to the European Union’s borderless Schengen travel area. There is also little to stop them from making a second voyage to the United Kingdom, as the British authorities do not as a matter of policy ever turn back boat migrants at sea, and often actually help them to complete their journeys.
Migrants have also been reaching Europe by taking boats directly to the Spanish mainland, or by breaking through the border barriers around the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, bordering Morocco. Further east, even more migrants have been reaching Europe via Italy, and Greece, bordering Turkey, has also seen an increase in border crossings on land and at sea.
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More than 1,600 boat migrants from sub-Saharan Africa reached Europe by way of Spain's Canary Islands over the weekend, with a record-breaking 321 migrants arriving on a single vessel on Saturday.
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The small Mediterranean island of Lampedusa has witnessed surging numbers of illegal migrants arriving on small boats and vessels from the African coast over the past week, causing tensions to grow between the migrant population and natives.
Lampedusa – situated between Malta and the Tunisian coast and belonging to Italy – saw some 7,000 migrants arrive on its shores over the past week alone, more than the number of permanent residents living on the island – around 6,000. The island itself is a tiny 7.8 square miles in size, which is around one-third of the size of the island of Manhattan, with the entire city of New York stretching 468.9 square miles.
The island’s migrant reception center has a total processing capacity of 400 migrants, requiring authorities to declare a state of emergency. The vast majority were quickly transferred to the European mainland by the Italian government to assist with the administration, with over 1,700 transferred to Germany. Around 3,800 remained on the island on Friday, with another 500 arriving on Saturday.
The migrants arriving on the island are predominantly from sub-Saharan Africa and embark across the Mediterranean from the Tunisian coast and also Libya. Around 90 percent of those crossing illegally into Europe pay people smugglers and criminal gangs to assist them. The price often varies depending on the longevity and risk of the journey, but gangs usually charge anywhere between €3,000 to €10,000.
The invasion of Lampedusa in the last few days spells catastrophe for the EU and for us.
I warned them all in 2015 but no-one listened.
These young men must be sent back or millions more will come.
Local residents were quick to protest plans to house illegal migrants in tents across the island, highlighting the need for Italian and European authorities to introduce meaningful policies to limit the flow of migration, which has consistently plagued the island for going on three decades and seen way over 250,000 people landing on its shores.
A number of residents even protested the visit of European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, with one telling the BBC: “Lampedusa says stop! We don’t want tent camps. This message is for Europe and for the Italian government. Lampedusa residents are tired.”
“We want to preserve the little piece of life that touches us, the little piece of dignity that we have. We want to enjoy it, otherwise we have to change the country,” said another.
The EU chief was joined by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who has demanded the European Union take action. “If somebody here in Europe were to think that this crisis that we are tackling and facing could just be solved within Italian borders, then it would be a very big and huge mistake,” Meloni said on Sunday.
Whether forthcoming measures will be effective remains to be seen, however, they are widely recognized as a last resort for the inhabitants of the island after the mayor of Lampedusa, Filippo Mannino, explained, “We have now reached a point of no return and the island is in crisis.”
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The small Mediterranean island of Lampedusa has witnessed surging numbers of illegal migrants arriving on small boats and vessels from the African coast over the past week, causing tensions to grow between the migrant population and natives.
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Media reports on Uganda’s first prosecutions under the capital crime of “aggravated homosexuality” have framed them as “controversial” and “anti-gay,” with CNN amongst others appearing to take the side of a pedophile, as well as a man who took advantage of a disabled person.
CNN, which illustrated its coverage of the prosecutions with a picture of a black man praying while draped in a Progress Pride flag, waited until its third paragraph before disclosing that “aggravated homosexuality” involves “incest, sex with children as well as people with disabilities or the elderly” under the terms of the “much-criticized” legislation. They did not mention that it also includes spreading HIV.
While acknowledging that one of the two reported prosecutions involves a man accused of taking advantage of a 41-year-old with a disability early on, the network did not tell readers that the second prosecution involves “a child aged 12” until the report’s eleventh paragraph.
Two men in Uganda are facing separate charges of “aggravated homosexuality,” an offense punishable by death under the country’s controversial new anti-gay laws https://t.co/vwNet7XDuJ
The Guardian was even more disingenuous in its reporting on the prosecutions, merely saying that a 20-year-old was accused of “unlawful sexual intercourse with … [a] male adult aged 41” under “anti-LGBTQ+ legislation”. The pedophile prosecution was not mentioned at all.
Several news outlets besides CNN, such as NPR and the Associated Press, chose to illustrate their reporting with emotionally charged imagery of black men carrying Pride flags, or bearing messages like ‘Some Ugandans are gay. Get over it!’
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Media reports on Uganda's first prosecutions under the capital crime of "aggravated homosexuality" have framed them as "controversial" and "anti-gay," with CNN amongst others appearing to take the side of a pedophile, as well as a man who took advantage of a disabled person.
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In response to a string of coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel region by U.S.-trained military personnel, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has authored an amendment to the 2024 defense spending bill, requiring the Pentagon to inform Congress about trainees who overthrow their governments, and collecting data on U.S.-mentored mutineers.
The Intercept reports at least 15 officers who received U.S. security assistance have been involved in 12 coups in the region during the war on terror. The proposed legislation, approved by the House Armed Services Committee in June, would require the U.S. Defense Secretary to submit a report listing the number of partner countries whose military forces have participated in U.S. training programs and subsequently engaged in coups or attempted to overthrow democratically-elected governments.
Several U.S.-trained military personnel were involved in coups in Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. At least five leaders of the recent coup in Niger received American training, and they appointed five U.S.-trained members of the Nigerien security forces as governors. Despite these findings, neither AFRICOM nor the State Department tracks U.S.-trained African mutineers or the number of coups they have conducted. Rep. Gaetz’s proposed amendment seeks to address this lack of data by requiring the Pentagon to report on military personnel who, after receiving U.S. training, engage in coups or attempts to overthrow elected governments. The legislation is currently part of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act under consideration by Congress.
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In response to a string of coups in West Africa and the greater Sahel region by U.S.-trained military personnel, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has authored an amendment to the 2024 defense spending bill, requiring the Pentagon to inform Congress about trainees who overthrow their governments, and collecting data on U.S.-mentored mutineers.
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Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has posted a video of himself and his men, apparently in Africa, as tensions between Western-backed African governments a new military government in Niger are heating up.
“We are working, the temperature is 50 degrees – everything we love,” said the 62-year-old, whose future had seemed in doubt after his mercenaries attempted to march on Moscow following the Battle of Bakhmut in Ukraine, resulting in their being banished to Belarus.
“The Wagner Group conducts reconnaissance and search activities, makes Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free. Justice and happiness for the African people,” he continued, claiming that his forces are “making life a nightmare for ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other bandits.”
Prigozhin’s reemergence comes after the Western-backed government in Niger, which hosts American and French military bases, was toppled by a military coup.
Western-backed governments in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali toppled by similar coups are now aligned with Russia, with the latter hosting Wagner forces, and supporters of the Niger junta are regularly seen carrying Russian flags.
In early August, it was reported that Niger’s military regime had appealed to Wagner for assistance, with the Nigeria-led, West-aligned ECOWAS having threatened to invade the country to restore its ousted president.
The Joe Biden regime has refused to rule out supporting military intervention in Niger.
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Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has posted a video of himself and his men, apparently in Africa, as tensions between Western-backed African governments a new military government in Niger are heating up.
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Joe Biden’s National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has refused to rule out U.S. support for an invasion of Niger, where the Western-backed president has been turfed out of office the military amid accusations of corruption.
“On Niger, we… want to see President Bazoum’s administration sustained,” Kirby said when asked if the U.S. would support an ECOWAS invasion. “I’m not going to speculate about intervention one way or another from ECOWAS or anybody else,” he added, refusing to rule out U.S. support for or participation in military action.
Niger, a key state in the Sahel region which stretches along the Sahara from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, hosts thousands of soldiers from America and France, many of them driven there after military coups in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali saw their new rulers realign with Russia and, in Mali’s case, bring in Wagner Group forces.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), comprised of Western-backed governments, has vowed to invade Niger to reinstate the ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum – and the Joe Biden administation, which strongly backs Bazoum, has refused to rule out supporting such an initiative.
An ECOWAS invasion, which is likely to be spearheaded by Nigeria, to Niger’s immediate south, could result in a substantial regional war, with Burkina Faso and Mali having warned they will consider an attack on Niger an attack on themselves.
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Joe Biden's National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has refused to rule out U.S. support for an invasion of Niger, where the Western-backed president has been turfed out of office the military amid accusations of corruption.
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The Biden government is preparing a partial evacuation of its embassy in Niger, West Africa, after launching a sanctions war against its new military government.
Niger’s former leader, Mohamed Bazoum, was seized by the Presidential Guard last week, in a move that ultimately won the backing of the wider armed forces. Announcing the coup in a televised address, officers cited “the continuing degradation of the security situation [and] bad economic and social governance” as motivating factors, with many believing Bazoum had not adequately supported their efforts to contain insurgents from the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram.
Niger plays host to over a thousand U.S. troops and a similar number of soldiers from France, tasked primarily with helping combat jihadist militants in the Sahel region. Both countries have condemned the coup, not least because similar coups in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso have seen their new military governments align with Russia, with the former expelling French troops and inviting Wagner mercenaries in.
Niger citizens protesting in support of the coup and carrying Russian flags have already attacked the French embassy, and the French are conducting a more extensive evacuation than the one the Biden administration is planning, with all French nations urged to leave the country.
The Western-backed Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) claims it will take “all measures necessary” to restore Bazoum to power, up to and including “the use of force” – a contingency that would likely involve an invasion via Nigeria, which has already cut power supplies to Niger.
Burkina Faso and Mali, however, have warned they would consider such an invasion a “declaration of war” on their own countries, potentially sparking a substantial regional war. The news comes as yet another major international and foreign policy embarrassment for President Joe Biden.
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The Biden government is preparing a partial evacuation of its embassy in Niger, West Africa, after launching a sanctions war against its new military government.
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