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Turkey Bans Syrians From Spending Adha Eid at Home

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu speaks at the Migration Board Meeting held in the Golbasi Provinces House in the capital Ankara, Turkey, June 9, 2022. (AA)
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu speaks at the Migration Board Meeting held in the Golbasi Provinces House in the capital Ankara, Turkey, June 9, 2022. (AA)
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Turkey Bans Syrians From Spending Adha Eid at Home

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu speaks at the Migration Board Meeting held in the Golbasi Provinces House in the capital Ankara, Turkey, June 9, 2022. (AA)
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu speaks at the Migration Board Meeting held in the Golbasi Provinces House in the capital Ankara, Turkey, June 9, 2022. (AA)

Turkey on Sunday said it would ban Syrian refugees living in Turkey from visiting their families back home during Eid al-Adha, similar to the restrictions imposed on their visits to Syria during Eid al-Fitr holiday last April, said Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.

Each year, thousands of Syrian refugees cross the border into Syria to celebrate the holidays and then return to Turkey.

“This is currently not acceptable. Those wishing to return to Syria will receive a one-way transit permit,” Soylo said at a press conference Saturday in Ankara.

The Adha festival is set for mid-July this year.

The Interior Minister also spoke about the new quotas that his country will begin imposing on the number of residence permits for foreigners.

He said that as of July 1, Turkey will limit residence permits for foreigners to 20 percent of the population of certain neighborhoods, adding that the rule will effectively shut 1,200 neighborhoods to more foreign residents.

Soylu addressed the new procedures and controls that will be applied in the next stage, saying that the percentage of foreigners allowed to reside in each neighborhood will be reduced from 25 percent to 20 percent, starting from the first of July.

Accordingly, 1,200 neighborhoods will be closed to requests for residence in Turkey.

The Turkish authorities had announced in the past months a number of measures to enforce stricter restrictions on the areas where Syrians can reside.

The new rules came as anti-immigrant sentiment piles pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before next year’s elections.

On Wednesday, the Turkish Interior Minister said taxi drivers are allowed to check the travel permit documents of foreign passengers, in a move to limit the transportation of illegal immigrants.

He said a camera system will be installed in truck stops to prevent stowaways from cutting holes and hiding in the tarpaulins of trucks.

In the framework of combating illegal immigration, the Turkish Interior Ministry said that 34,112 immigrants who entered the country illegally early this year have been deported.

There are about 3.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.

In February, the Turkish authorities said 16 provinces, including Istanbul, Bursa, Ankara, Antalya, Izmir and Hatay, where the Syrian population is particularly high, have already stopped issuing residencies for newly arrived foreigners.

Soylu also announced on Saturday that some Syrians will not receive the temporary protection cards, or Kimlik, after they enter Turkish territory in certain ways.

He said Syrians coming from their country will be transferred to camps in Hatay and will be questioned about their places of residence in Syria. The Minister said that if those Syrians reside in Damascus, they will be returned home immediately.

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World

Jolted by Ebola, Countries Try Again to Finish Pandemic Treaty

Posters for Ebola prevention are displayed at the hospital in Mongbwalu, Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo, 26 June 2026. (EPA)
Posters for Ebola prevention are displayed at the hospital in Mongbwalu, Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo, 26 June 2026. (EPA)
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Jolted by Ebola, Countries Try Again to Finish Pandemic Treaty

Posters for Ebola prevention are displayed at the hospital in Mongbwalu, Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo, 26 June 2026. (EPA)
Posters for Ebola prevention are displayed at the hospital in Mongbwalu, Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo, 26 June 2026. (EPA)

WHO member states kicked off one more attempt at finalizing the missing piece of the pandemic treaty on Monday, with the Ebola outbreak injecting a fresh sense of urgency.

Wealthy countries and developing nations are at loggerheads in talks at the World Health Organization's headquarters over how the pandemic agreement, adopted last year, will work in practice.

Though the treaty was agreed in May 2025, how its key mechanism would operate was left out to get the deal over the line.

The agreement's Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system deals with sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential, then sharing benefits derived from them such as vaccines, tests and treatments.

It was meant to be finalized long before May 2026, but progress has been agonizingly slow.

Negotiations have often gone late into the night, producing miniscule advances and leaving diplomats drained -- especially those from small countries with only a handful of staff in Geneva covering every branch of the UN.

This two-week session until July 17 is the seventh such round of talks.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to grasp the nettle.

"You could have given up," saying "that we will never agree", Tedros told countries as the talks opened.

However, "you said we don't agree yet, but we believe we can."

"Please keep the destination in sight," urged the UN health agency's director-general.

"A future in which pathogen samples and information move quickly, without needless delay; and in which the benefits that come from them reach the people who need them most, fairly and in time."

- 'Danger can emerge from anywhere' -

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, declared in mid-May, is a reminder that the next pandemic threat could spring up from anywhere, Tedros said.

There have been 1,528 confirmed cases, including 492 confirmed deaths, in DR Congo, and the outbreak has spilled over into neighboring Uganda.

"Ebola may not be the next pandemic. But it is a reminder, a painful one, that the threat never truly goes away," said Tedros.

The deadly hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship, declared over on Thursday, also shows "danger can emerge from anywhere, at any time, in ways we don't always expect".

The outbreak on the MV Hondius, sailing the Atlantic Ocean, led to a global health alert affecting 33 countries and territories.

"Every month that this annex remains unfinished is a month the world stays less prepared than it could be. It is people -- real people, real families -- left less safe than they deserve to be," said Tedros.

The pandemic agreement was struck after more than three years of negotiations sparked by the shock of Covid-19.

The accord aims to prevent a repeat of the disjointed international response that surrounded the coronavirus crisis, by improving global coordination, surveillance and access to vaccines.

Only once the PABS annex is complete will countries be able to start ratifying the treaty.

World

HRW: Ethiopia's Tigray Forcibly Recruiting Children for War

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the cityscape of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, December 19, 2025. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the cityscape of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, December 19, 2025. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo
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HRW: Ethiopia's Tigray Forcibly Recruiting Children for War

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the cityscape of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, December 19, 2025. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the cityscape of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, December 19, 2025. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo

Authorities in Ethiopia's Tigray region have been abducting and forcibly recruiting children as young as 15 as it prepares for renewed conflict with the federal government, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday.

Officials have been grabbing men and boys in nighttime house-to-house searches, from offices and other workplaces such as gold-mining sites, the rights group said.

AFP has previously reported on the forced recruitment in the northern state, which fought a brutal civil war against the central government in 2020-2022 and again looks on the verge of conflict.

"The Tigrayan authorities' campaign to forcibly recruit men and boys into their forces is creating a climate of fear throughout the region," said Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director at HRW.

Human Rights First-Ethiopia previously told AFP that "forced military recruitment is taking place across most areas of Tigray".

Local officials have been calling for veterans to re-enlist, and in June issued a proclamation compelling military service.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front, which dominates the region, has denied using forced recruitment.

But HRW says the campaign intensified in late April with "mass roundups in streets, markets, and gold-mining sites... and used neighborhood informants to identify potential recruits".

"Three armed men came to my house... wearing TDF (Tigray Defense Forces) uniforms," one former fighter who escaped recruitment in April told HRW.

"I was not the only one: about 17 others were taken with me to the town's police station. There were four or five youth around 16 or 17 with us."

A witness in Adi Gudem town told HRW that police and soldiers abducted workers and farmers one morning in late June.

"One cart owner tried to escape, but the militias began beating him so hard, he fell unconscious," the witness said.

Potential recruits told HRW they were sleeping outside, or fleeing Tigray entirely, to escape recruitment.

"We have to change locations every night," said one 30-year-old.

"But you can't feel secure while running and hiding... If they can't find you, they take your younger relatives."

World

Fleet of 10 Japan-related Ships Exit Hormuz, Data Shows

Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
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Fleet of 10 Japan-related Ships Exit Hormuz, Data Shows

Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

A fleet of 10 Japan-linked vessels was exiting the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, shipping data on LSEG showed, after the ships were stranded in the Gulf for months because ‌of the ‌Iran war, Reuters reported.

The Japan-linked ships ‌include ⁠six very large crude ⁠carriers loaded with 12 million barrels of Middle Eastern crude, two chemical tankers, a vehicle carrier and a container ship, the data showed.

Most ‌of the vessels are managed by ‌Japanese shipper Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) which had said it would prioritize the safety of its seafarers, cargo and vessels when traversing the ‌strait.

Mitsui OSK declined to comment.