Category: 2. World

In July, the government stopped processing asylum requests from migrants arriving from North Africa by sea for three months in an effort to curb arrivals from Libya to Crete
Plevris said he could not rule out an extension to the suspension if there was a “new crisis“

ATHENS: Greece could extend a suspension on examining asylum applications passed by parliament last month if migrant flows from Libya start rising again, Migration Minister Thanos Plevris said on Thursday.

In July, the center-right government stopped processing asylum requests from migrants arriving from North Africa by sea for at least three months in an effort to curb arrivals from Libya to the Greek island of Crete.

In an interview with public broadcaster ERT, Plevris said he could not rule out an extension to the suspension if there was a “new crisis.”

Arrivals of irregular migrants in Crete declined rapidly after the new legislation took effect from 2,642 in the first week of July to 900 in the whole period since then.

New legislation is being prepared that will clearly define that “whoever comes into the country illegally will face a jail term of up to five years,” Plevris said, referring to those who are not fleeing armed conflict, who could qualify for asylum.

Human rights groups accuse Greece of turning back asylum-seekers by force on its sea and land borders. This year, the European Union border agency said it was reviewing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece.

The government denies wrongdoing.

“All European countries now understand that it is not possible to have open borders, it’s not possible to welcome illegal migrants with flowers,” Plevris said.

“There should be a clear message that countries have borders, (that) Europe has exceeded its capabilities and will not accept any more illegal migrants.”

Greece has sent two frigates to patrol off Libya and has started training Libyan coast guard officers on Crete as part of a plan to strengthen cooperation and help the two countries stem migrant arrivals.

Greece was on the European front line of a migration crisis in 2015-16 when hundreds of thousands from the Middle East, Asia and Africa passed through its islands and mainland.

Since then, flows have dropped off dramatically. While there has been a rise in arrivals to the outlying islands of Crete and Gavdos, sea arrivals to Greece as a whole dropped by 5.5 percent to 17,000 in the first half of this year, UN data show.

Israel’s security cabinet is meeting on Thursday to decide on whether to order a complete military takeover of the Gaza Strip – a move the UN says would risk “catastrophic consequences”.

Israeli media say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees this as the only way to destroy Hamas and free hostages still held by the group following the breakdown of ceasefire talks.

Reports, though, say the head of the military and some ministers disagree, amid warnings such a move could be disastrous for the hostages and Palestinian civilians.

Top UN official Miroslav Jenča told the UN Security Council earlier this week that it would be against international law and was a “deeply alarming” prospect.

The Israeli military currently controls about three-quarters of Gaza. The vast majority of Gaza’s population has already been displaced by the war and many more would be uprooted if the army takes over remaining areas.

The security cabinet of top government ministers is scheduled to meet at 18:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Thursday.

According to Israeli media, tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers would need to be sent to Gaza to carry out the takeover.

Reports say the plan initially focuses on taking full control of Gaza City, relocating its one million residents further south. Forces would also take control of refugee camps in central Gaza and areas where hostages are thought to be held.

Reports say a second offensive would follow weeks later in parallel with a boost in humanitarian aid.

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Fox News there would be a significant scaling up of distribution sites operated by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The GHF has been strongly criticised by the UN and aid agencies, who have accused it of being chaotic and forcing hungry Palestinians to travel long distances in perilous conditions to try to get food.

Hundreds have been shot dead in or around the four sites run by GHF since it began operating in May. The Hamas-run health ministry and witnesses have accused Israeli forces of being responsible. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has denied targeting civilians, saying soldiers have fired warning shots to keep crowds back or in response to threats.

The war has created a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, most of which UN-backed experts say is at the point of famine in terms of food consumption. The territory is also experiencing mass deprivation as a result of heavy restrictions imposed by Israel on what is allowed in – something it says is aimed at weakening Hamas.

Netanyahu is reported to have decided in recent days on the conquest of Gaza, raising tensions with military chiefs.

In a meeting with Netanyahu on Tuesday, the IDF Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, is said to have warned that controlling Gaza could entrap troops and further endanger the hostages. He is reported to have presented an alternative plan involving encircling remaining Hamas strongholds rather than full occupation.

Israeli media say that, despite some misgivings, the security cabinet is expected to approve Netanyahu’s plan.

The families of hostages have reacted with alarm, fearing such a move could push their captives into killing them.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that taking over Gaza was “really up to Israel”. The US has been mediating in indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas for months, but negotiations broke down two weeks ago.

The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military offensive in response, which has killed at least 61,158 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

EPA

Getty Images

Getty Images

SUMY: At a funeral home in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, Svitlana Ostapenko paced around as she prepared the dead for their final journey.

After five years of working in the funeral home, she was used to seeing dead bodies, but the growing number of dead — including young people from Russia’s invasion — was starting to overwhelm even her.

“Death doesn’t discriminate between young and old,” the funeral director told AFP, breaking down in tears.

Ukraine’s funeral workers, who are living through the war themselves and have been repeatedly exposed to violent death throughout Russia’s invasion launched in early 2022, are shouldering a mounting emotional toll while supporting grieving families.

What’s more, Ostapenko’s hometown of Sumy near the Russian border, has come under bombardment throughout the invasion but advancing Russian troops have brought the fighting to as close as 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.

Every day, Ostapenko lays the region’s dead in coffins.

“One way or another, I’m getting by. I take sedatives, that’s all,” the 59-year-old said.

There has been no shortage of work.

On April 13, a double Russian ballistic missile strike on the city killed 35 people and wounded dozens of others.

Residents pass without giving a second thought to the facades of historic buildings that were pockmarked by missile fragments.

“We buried families, a mother and her daughter, a young woman of 33 who had two children,” said Ostapenko.

During attacks at night, she said she takes refuge in her hallway — her phone in hand in case her services are needed.

Every day, the Ukrainian regional authorities compile reports on Russian strikes in a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Petro Bondar, Svitlana’s colleague, said he noted the names of the victims in his notebook to “understand how much grief these bombings cause.”

“They’re not just numbers,” he told AFP.

“They were living people, souls.”

Igor Kruzo knew them only too well.

His job is to immortalize their names in granite tombstones, along with portraits he paints stroke by stroke.

The 60-year-old artist and veteran said he found it difficult to live with the faces he has rendered for gravestones.

Soldiers, civilians, children, “all local people,” he said.

“When you paint them, you observe their image, each with their own destiny,” he said, never speaking of himself in the first person, avoiding eye contact.

At the cemetery, bereaved families told him about the deaths of their loved ones.

“They need to be heard.”

The conversations helped him cope psychologically, he said.

“But it all cuts you to the bone,” he added.

He used to paint elderly people, but found himself rejuvenating their features under his brush.

He remembered a mother who was killed protecting her child with her body at the beginning of the war. “A beautiful woman, full of life,” whom he knew, he said.

“And you find yourself there, having to engrave her image.”

In recent months, his work had taken an increasingly heavier toll.

In the new wing of the cemetery reserved for soldiers, a sea of yellow and blue flags was nestled among the gravestones.

Enveloped by pine trees, workers bustled around a dozen newly dug holes, ready to welcome young combatants.

In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since 2022, and “tens of thousands” more were missing or in captivity — a figure that observers believed to be an underestimate.

Russia has not published its combat losses, but a tally by the independent newspaper Meduza and the BBC estimates the military death toll at more than 119,000.

“The dead appear in my dreams,” Kruzo said.

He said he saw soldiers crying over graves, or his daughter’s friends lying lifeless in the cemetery aisle.

“For the past three years, all my dreams have been about the war. All of them.”

Ironically, he said he was drowning himself in work because “it’s easier.”

He said he had never broken down, that he was tough man who served in the Soviet army, but that he was living in a “kind of numbness.”

“I don’t want to get depressed,” he said, taking a drag on his cigarette.

Behind him, a young, pregnant woman fixed her eyes on the portrait of a soldier smiling at her from the marble slab set in the earth.

Reuters

Reuters