Cyprus Says 8 EU States Back Plan to Return Syria Refugees

Migrants leave Pournara refugee camp during clashes in Kokkinotrimithia on the outskirts of Nicosia, Cyprus October 28, 2022. (Reuters)
Migrants leave Pournara refugee camp during clashes in Kokkinotrimithia on the outskirts of Nicosia, Cyprus October 28, 2022. (Reuters)
TT

Cyprus Says 8 EU States Back Plan to Return Syria Refugees

Migrants leave Pournara refugee camp during clashes in Kokkinotrimithia on the outskirts of Nicosia, Cyprus October 28, 2022. (Reuters)
Migrants leave Pournara refugee camp during clashes in Kokkinotrimithia on the outskirts of Nicosia, Cyprus October 28, 2022. (Reuters)

Cyprus said Friday it is among at least eight EU member states who want safe zones to be declared in parts of Syria to allow the repatriation of refugees from its more than decade-old civil war.

The Mediterranean island, which is much the closest EU member state to Syria, was hosting a conference of member states who support its proposal, just days after the 27-member bloc signed off on a major overhaul of its migration and asylum policies.

The other participants were Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Malta and Poland. The eight countries are part of a wider group of 15 member states, who called Wednesday for "new ways" to handle irregular migrants, including sending some to third countries, as the bloc plots out how to implement its overhaul of asylum policy.

Cypriot Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said the eight governments believe that after 13 years of conflict, the bloc needs to reassess changing security conditions in Syria.

"It is time for the European Union to... redefine our stance" on Syria, Ioannou said in a statement.

"Stability in the country has not been fully restored... (but) we must expedite the processes to take all necessary measures to create conditions that will allow the return of individuals to Syria," he added.

Less than 200 kilometres (125 miles) away across the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus has long been a favored destination for Syrian refugees and arrivals have risen sharply in recent months. In a bid to stem the influx, the government has stepped up maritime patrols and suspended the processing of asylum applications for Syrians, denying arrivals access to benefits.

The Cypriot minister also called for more financial support for Lebanon, a major transit country which has been mired in economic crisis since 2019. "If Lebanon is left to collapse, the consequences for the entire European Union will be incalculable," he said.

Lebanon says it hosts around two million people from neighbouring Syria -- the world's highest number of refugees per capita -- and needs help from donor governments.

The EU approved $1 billion in aid for Lebanon earlier this month to help it stem the exodus of Syrian refugees seeking to reach Europe. But the bloc's focus on preventing refugees reaching its shores rather than helping them return to their homeland has sparked criticism in Lebanon and beyond.



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
TT

Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."