/commentisfree

  • @fred_
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    The Covid vaccine will benefit humanity – we should all own the patent | Owen Jones | Opinion | The Guardian
    The pharmaceutical industry has long made exorbitant profits by free-riding on research carried out by the public sector
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/12/covid-vaccine-patent-pharmaceutical-industry-profits-public-sector
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/324af79666dca4a29b07ee45dc26b26b6cd25938/0_76_5263_3158/master/5263.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali

    Hooray for Pfizer! As news of a vaccine potentially offering 90% protection against Covid-19 offers a life raft for lockdown-weary humanity, perhaps those home-drawn posters on people’s windows thanking the NHS will soon be applauding big pharma instead.

    The hope of a successful vaccine to liberate us from protracted economic misery should be embraced – but we should be sparing with the bunting for the pharmaceutical industry. If you want a particularly egregious case study of “socialism for the rich”, or of private businesses dependent on public sector research and innovation to make colossal profits, look no further than big pharma.

    Pfizer and its German biotech partner, BioNTech, stand to make an astonishing £9.8bn next year from a coronavirus vaccine. Suggestions that pharmaceutical companies should not profit from the world’s most severe crisis since the second world war were dismissed in July as “radical” by Pfizer’s CEO; and, perhaps, many will overlook such profiteering amidst the wave of gratitude. But Pfizer’s claim to “have never taken any money from the US government, or from anyone” does not stand up to scrutiny: big pharma is reliant on public-sector munificence.

    The Pfizer/BioNTech experimental vaccine itself uses a spike protein technology reportedly developed by the US government: without the state, this vaccine would probably not have been developed so speedily. While nearly 10,000 human lives are lost across the world each day to the pandemic, Pfizer’s CEO cashing in on the vaccine news by selling $5.6m in shares should cause more than discomfort. (A spokesperson told Axios that “the sale was part of a predetermined plan created in August”.)

    “Essentially, pharmaceutical companies are global monopolies, which are given the right to charge whatever the market is willing to tolerate for the new medicines they produce,” says Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now, which is calling for patents on the Pfizer vaccine to be suspended. Patents award them exclusive rights to make and sell their drugs for 20 years, preventing the supply of cheaper, generic versions. Here is a sector not driven by curing illness but rather by shareholder profits: for example, recent research found that revenue from soaring insulin prices has been splashed on shareholders rather than research and development. When startup companies spring up developing innovative new drugs, big pharma buys them up and even shuts down the development of such novel treatments in order to stifle competition.

    Take two particularly horrifying examples of this broken pharmaceutical industry. While millions of Africans were dying in the HIV/Aids pandemic, big pharma attempted to block cash-strapped governments importing cheaper versions of life-saving drugs. Here’s another: the rise of infections resistant to antibiotics is an emergency perhaps even comparable to the climate crisis. Yet pharmaceutical companies have failed to invest in developing new drugs – shockingly, there has been no new class of antibiotic developed for nearly four decades – because it simply isn’t profitable. This colossal failure led the government’s former “superbug tsar” Jim O’Neill to suggest nationalised drug companies might be the only answer.

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  • @colporteur
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    Vietnam is not pitting economic growth against public health as it fights Covid | Tran Le Thuy | Opinion | The Guardian, 20 Oct 2020
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/20/vietnam-covid-economic-growth-public-health-coronavirus

    My country seemed to have all the ingredients for a coronavirus disaster, so what has it done right ?

    On the evening of 7 March 2020, I received an email from the manager of the office building where I work in central Hanoi. It said the father of Nguyen Hong Nhung ▻https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/style/fashion-coronavirus-patient.html, the 17th Covid-19 patient in the country and first in the city, had dined on the third floor of the building the night before. Although he had twice tested negative for the virus, the building managers had reported his presence to the authorities. Seven staff who had been in contact with him were isolated and the building was immediately cleaned with disinfectant spray.

    To date, Vietnam (population: 95 million) has recorded 35 deaths from the novel coronavirus. My office building’s response was typical of the aggressive contact-tracing strategy the country adopted from the beginning of the pandemic. During the first phase, the government managed to cut off all the virus transmission routes promptly and comprehensively. Every infected person was hospitalised. People in contact with them were traced to the fourth layer and isolated. Their homes and neighbourhoods were put under local lockdown and sanitised by the army. The country has effectively been acting as if this were biological warfare.

    Vietnam had all the ingredients for a Covid-19 disaster. It has a 1,300km (800-mile) border with China, with lots of informal trade via secret mountain trails, and an under-developed healthcare system (albeit a well functioning one). So, beyond contact-tracing, why has Vietnam been so good at dealing with the pandemic?

    The central reason is perhaps the way the government has depoliticised the pandemic, treating it purely as a health crisis, allowing for effective governance. There was no political motive for government officials to hide information, as they don’t face being reprimanded if there are positive cases in their authority area that are not due to their mistakes. I haven’t heard about any religious opposition to the government’s strategy either. With the head of Hanoi centre for disease control being arrested ▻https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/hanoi-cdc-chief-arrested-for-graft-in-coronavirus-test-kit-purchase-408 for suspected corruption in relation to the purchase of testing kits, and small traders getting fines for price-gouging face-masks, the government has also been clear that public health cannot be entangled with commercial interests.

    The second reason is Vietnam knows China well – it learned from the Sars outbreak in 2003 that the Chinese authorities might downplay it. In January, when Wuhan announced the first death, Vietnam tightened its border and airport control of Chinese visitors. This wasn’t an easy decision, given that cross-border trade with China accounts for a significant part of the Vietnamese economy. When the first Covid cases were announced in Vietnam – a father and son from China – it took precautionary measures above and beyond World Health Organization recommendations, including health declaration and temperature screening at every border entry point and stopping flights to and from Wuhan. Preparations for a pandemic were implemented a week before ▻https://blogs.worldbank.org/health/containing-coronavirus-covid-19-lessons-vietnam the outbreak was officially a public health emergency of international concern, and more than a month before WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic.

    The government also decided to embrace freedom of information on Covid-related matters. Although the Vietnamese media is state-owned, featuring ideological control similar to that of China, they are free to report about the pandemic. When a member of the central theoretical council of the central committee, the brain of the Communist party of Vietnam, contracted the virus on a trip to the UK, and risked infecting the minister of planning and investment who was on the same flight as him, his whereabouts were published ▻http://cand.com.vn/y-te/Benh-nhan-thu-21-nhiem-COVID-19-o-Viet-Nam-ngoi-cung-chuyen-bay-voi-co-gai- for contact tracing. This was another lesson learned from the experience of Sars.

    The motto for the first phase was that if we stay alive, the question of wealth and the economy can come later. Ordinary people did suffer, such as the gig economy workers: whenever I order a Grabcar (a south-east Asian version of Uber) these days, the vehicle that arrives is always newer and more expensive that what I’m used to; as a driver explained, those who used to pick me up in their cheaper cars have had to sell them to stay afloat, leaving only those with deeper pockets left in the market.

    But now the government has shifted its anti-Covid strategy towards the economy. The tactics for the second wave are more sophisticated. Contact tracing is still prompt and aggressive but lockdown and isolation are more selective; international flights have been opened for foreign workers, such as engineers from South Korea’s LG, who are needed to keep the economy functioning.

    For now it looks like Vietnam has seen off the threat of a second wave. There will be challenges ahead – the shops and hotels in the most fancy streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City remain empty, and South Korea, one of Vietnam’s biggest investors, is pushing for it to shorten the time for compulsory isolation for foreign workers. But given that Vietnam is one of the few countries in the world currently experiencing positive GDP growth, the supposed trade-off between the economy and public health, which countries around the world are negotiating, looks to be something of a false choice.

    • Tran Le Thuy is director of Centre for the Media and Development Initiatives in Hanoi

    ▻https://seenthis.net/messages/870978
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    rapatriements :
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    politique de santé
    ▻https://seenthis.net/messages/867379

    #covid-19 #Vietnam #santé_publique

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  • @veronique_petit
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    How the link between racism and Covid is being ignored | Ciaran Thapar | Opinion | The Guardian
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/02/link-racism-covid-ignored-report-black-and-minority-ethnic-people-dying
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/76e480c1bd9e0a9495a0c81092efcabb9e6a0706/0_224_3500_2101/master/3500.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali

    Powerful people like to point out that Covid-19 does not discriminate. Indeed, the rain, too, does not discriminate against those it falls on. But one’s ability to stay dry beneath a downpour is dependent on the availability of an umbrella. Similarly, our access to security in a pandemic depends on the safety net of the state. Umbrellas can be shared or withheld. Those without one can be listened to – or ignored. I’m a youth worker, and throughout 2020 I have mentored young people from black African and Caribbean, and south Asian origins who mostly live in population-dense social housing. More often than not, their parents worked on the frontline throughout the national lockdown – carers, bus drivers, NHS receptionists, cleaners – or have pre-existing health conditions. As part of a book I’m writing, I have also interviewed many community members, including pastors, rappers and youth club managers, who fall into these same demographic groups.
    In doing this, I’ve detected a melancholic harmony among these voices – an awareness that, while the virus is affecting everyone, everywhere, it is affecting particular people disproportionately. It has been reported widely that race is a metric that can illuminate this disparity. In the summer, for example, 36% of critically ill Covid-19 patients were from an ethnic minority group, despite representing only 13% of the general population. This disproportionality can be subtly inferred from the anecdotes I’ve heard: grandparents died, uncles were denied operations, friends were misdiagnosed. My impression that race is relevant to the clarity of this picture is, of course, in some way explained by the relative multiculturalism of the capital, where I live. But still. The Racial Disparity Unit (RDU), led by the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, recently published its first quarterly report addressing the repeatedly proven high impact of Covid-19 on ethnic minorities in the UK. It made 13 recommendations for action, including the mandatory recording of ethnicity as part of the death certification process, the monitoring of how policies affect people from ethnic minorities and the forging of culturally sensitive communications with relevant communities about the virus. All of them have been accepted by the prime minister. At a glance, this appears positive. The devil, however, is in the detail.
    Structural racism led to worse Covid impact on BAME groups – report
    The report explains the disproportionality faced by black and Asian groups – particularly African, Bangladeshi and Pakistani men – by focusing on factors such as people’s occupations, where they live and pre-existing health conditions. In other words, it acknowledges that non-white people are dying at a higher rate and puts this down to the fact that they tend to live in particular circumstances such as overcrowded households, or work in jobs that have greater exposure to the public.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#grandebretagne#sante#minorite#inegalite#race#bame#santementale#racisme

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  • @veronique_petit
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  • @veronique_petit
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  • @veronique_petit
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    Covid-19 is still worsening health inequality. Why hasn’t anything been done? | Gurch Randhawa | Opinion | The Guardian
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/06/covid-19-still-worsening-health-inequality
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b2fe54b5ef7afd4d35b28c9281b4db4de7fd7cd6/123_90_1833_1100/master/1833.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali

    The first wave of Covid-19 threw the UK’s existing health inequalities into stark relief. Black people were most likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19, and people from a Bangladeshi background were twice as likely to die from the virus compared with white British people. The Public Health England (PHE) review has only confirmed what we all knew anecdotally: Covid-19 hit the black and minority ethnic (BAME) population very hard, both in the community and among healthcare staff.
    Now infection rates are creeping up again, and weekly data shows ethnic minority communities are once again being disproportionately affected by the virus. And yet nothing appears to have been done to reinforce their protection: there is silence from the government as to how and when it will implement PHE’s review recommendations.
    We need urgent action to tackle the structural inequalities affecting these communities. If we fail, we risk sleepwalking into a nightmare version of Groundhog Day, witnessing another significant and disproportionate rise of Covid-19 related deaths among ethnic minority communities.
    Health inequality goes back a long way. We’ve known for a long time that some BAME doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants in the NHS receive poorer treatment than their colleagues. This is a well-documented phenomenon backed by decades of research. During the first wave, ethnic minority staff had worse access to PPE, more trying shift patterns and greater exposure to Covid-19 patients. The recent surveys of staff by the British Medical Association and Royal College of Nursing lend credence to the fact that BAME staff continue to suffer from a lack of PPE. Too little was done to combat this in the years before the virus struck, and now we’re seeing the consequences of this neglect.
    It is not just failed policy initiatives we have an abundance of, it’s laws too. In theory the UK has some of the most progressive laws on equality in the world. We have the Equality Act 2010, the public sector equality duty and equality impact tools, but none were evident in the government’s Covid-19 action plan, published in March. Had they been applied, the government may well have taken a more sophisticated and tailored approach towards public health, rather than the “protect the NHS” position that was adopted.
    The original government action plan didn’t appear to focus very much on preventing people getting the virus. The government response of “people will get ill, we need to protect NHS” translated into political messages of “take it on the chin”, and “we need herd immunity”. It was a medical approach, not a public health approach, and it ignored existing inequalities and specific community sensitivities. Inevitably those on lower incomes, in more crowded housing and with long-term health issues suffered the most. This explains the high and disproportionate death toll in many ethnic minority communities.

    #Covid-19#migration#migrant#grandebretagne#sante#inegalite#minorite#race#BAME#NHS#systemesante

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  • @etraces
    e-traces ART LIBRE

    We need to rethink social media before it’s too late. We’ve accepted a Faustian bargain
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/27/social-dilemma-media-facebook-twitter-society

    A business model that alters the way we think, act, and live our lives has us heading toward dystopia When people envision technology overtaking society, many think of The Terminator and bulletproof robots. Or Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984, a symbol of external, omnipotent oppression. But in all likelihood, dystopian technology will not strong-arm us. Instead, we’ll unwittingly submit ourselves to a devil’s bargain : freely trade our subconscious preferences for memes, our social (...)

    #Google #Facebook #Instagram #Twitter #YouTube #algorithme #émotions #addiction #bénéfices #comportement #microtargeting #profiling #santé #SocialNetwork (...)

    ##santé ##surveillance
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9f77718e08e23282d272df642b39e17b91473bfb/0_543_5590_3354/master/5590.jpg

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  • @veronique_petit
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    The Guardian view on India’s strongman: in denial about a Covid crisis | Editorial | Opinion | The Guardian
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/13/the-guardian-view-on-indias-strongman-in-denial-about-a-covid-crisis
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7cc3b994a52fa35d34b81804c0f1407bb108994a/0_124_1859_1115/master/1859.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali

    The pandemic is not Mr Modi’s fault, but he owns his government’s dysfunctional response. He imposed a draconian lockdown in late March with no warning and no planning. The prime minister seemed to revel in the drama of a primetime announcement and its muscular message. But the national shutdown, which ended in June, destroyed millions of people’s livelihoods. Many of the most affected sit on the bottom rungs of Indian society, who were forced with no notice to leave cities for distant villages. Although the national lockdown has been lifted, local versions continue in many states.
    One way of dealing with the economic crisis would be to boost India’s job guarantee scheme. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is designed to offer any citizen in rural India 100 days of work with (admittedly low) minimum wages provided by the government. The world’s largest public works programme kept India’s vast countryside economy afloat after the 2008 global financial crash. Yet Mr Modi resists wholesale adoption of the scheme and adequately financing it. Experts warn NREGA’s funding will run dry this month. Mr Modi appears unable to reconcile his dislike of a programme (it was introduced by his Congress opponents) with its obvious utility. Broadening and deepening the scheme – so that it could expand naturally to accommodate anyone who demands work at a living wage – would provide a timely fiscal stimulus to keep people in work when the urban economy cannot soak up labour.Mr Modi’s short-sightedness will cost India dear. The country’s second Covid wave may strike harder than the first. Initially its major cities, which have the best hospitals, were hit by the virus. Now cases are taking off in rural areas, which have poor medical facilities. With tax revenue a fraction of normal levels, regional governments struggle to provide more than symbolic care or relief. This has been exacerbated by the central government’s refusal to send states the money it owes to them. The cash trail is deliberately obscured and Mr Modi should come clean about Covid spending to dispel concerns about corruption.
    Rather than rebuild India’s social fabric, Mr Modi wants to build a panopticon. Critics of his government’s woeful performance have already been muzzled or locked up. A cold war with China blows dangerously hot in the Himalayas. To buttress support Mr Modi stokes Hindu nationalism. The temple ceremony is a way of stirring the emotions of Mr Modi’s fanatical supporters. It also reveals the depths of his denial about India’s Covid crisis.

    #Covid-19#migration#migrant#inde#travailleurmigrant#confinement#rural#urbain#circulation#sante#politique#nationalisme

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  • @veronique_petit
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    Covid-19 has exposed the reality of Britain: poverty, insecurity and inequality | Richard Horton | Opinion | The Guardian
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/08/covid-19-britain-poverty-insecurity-inequality-fairer-society
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a811224c27b705b5ec7d7d5b75addb8c10ef3054/0_317_6048_3629/master/6048.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali

    he writer Elif Shafak, in her recently published essay How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division, recalls seeing signs in public parks during the pandemic asking: “When all this is over, how do you want the world to be different?” She points out that we are suffering from a widespread disillusionment about our bewildering predicament, and describes how people are feeling anxious and angry. She argues that alienation and exclusion are breeding mistrust, that communication between people and politicians is broken, and that despite the crisis we face we are nowhere near being able to answer a question about how we want the world to be.
    How do we begin to answer that question? First, we must understand the true nature of the crisis that confronts us. Our nation suffers from a political disease of historic proportions. The bonds that once held communities together are fraying. The confidence we once felt that generations after our own would have greater opportunities has ebbed away. And the beliefs we once embraced about the inherent strength and resilience of our national institutions and welfare state have been exposed as mere illusions. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the reality of contemporary Britain: the country is defined by poverty, insecurity and inequality.
    To solve this crisis, we must begin by hearing the stories and listening to the experiences of those who have borne the brunt of Covid-19, especially the families who have suffered grievous losses and those who fell ill on the frontlines of the response. Illness and death have been concentrated among the elderly, those living with chronic disease, people from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, and those who have been working in frontline public services, from health and social care to transport, food production and distribution.
    The closure of schools has placed a particular burden on children and young people. And a shadow pandemic has harmed women and children, who have suffered rising levels of violence and domestic abuse at home. A more equal society is a safer, kinder and more prosperous society. Specific policies to meet the urgent needs of these groups can lay the foundations for economic recovery and build resilience to future crises. We must demand parental support to improve prospects for child development and policies to advance adolescent physical and mental health. We should have stronger assistance and legal protections for women and children at risk of domestic violence and abuse. And we need more interventionist disease prevention and health promotion campaigns across people’s lifetimes, prioritising cancer prevention, heart disease and severe lung disease – and recognising the role that poverty and insecurity play in determining ill health

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#grandebretagne#sante#minorite#inegalite#vulnerablite#diaspora#pauvrete#insecurite#santementale

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  • @rumor
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    Beirut explosion: The missing Lebanese link | Middle East Eye
    Article by Mayssoun Sukarieh
    ▻https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/beirut-explosion-how-much-responsibility-lies-world-global-shipping
    ▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/images-story/beirut+port%202020%20afp_0.jpg

    Is it certain that the ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut purely accidentally and remained there purely through local incompetence and international shipping lawlessness? Or was political agency involved?

    Interesting discussion on Facebook between Reinoud Leenders and Laleh Khalili, among others.

    Before we let this getting buried by the ‘this is all to blame on global neoliberalism’ mantra. Besides, how many other cities in the world get blown up at 4.5 on the scale of Richter just because global shipping is so awfully capitalist and unruly?

    ▻https://www.facebook.com/reinoud.leenders/posts/3272992076122766
    The first criticizes a neoliberal understanding of the blast that is used by Lebanese elites to divert responsability outside of Lebanon.

    Laleh Khalili answers that her argument, in the Guardian article (▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/08/beirut-explosion-lawless-world-international-shipping-) linking the blast to the lawless world of international shipping has been edited by the Gardian in a way that almost absolves the local elites.

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  • @etraces
    e-traces ART LIBRE

    Palantir filed to go public. The firm’s unethical technology should horrify us
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/04/palantir-ipo-ice-immigration-trump-administration

    Palantir powers Ice immigration raids, the defense sector and police surveillance. It is the big tobacco of the tech world In 2017, the Trump administration first set its sights on a target it would return to repeatedly in the coming years : immigrant children. Thousands of kids were crossing the border alone, often seeking to reunify with families living in the United States. The journey is harrowing for children, but the alternative is life in a separated family – an easy choice for most (...)

    #Palantir #DHS #ICE #algorithme #migration #racisme #BigData #enfants #frontières #surveillance (...)

    ##travail
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4e82f06a86fcae5603f47c2cba3a920864538245/0_0_3500_2099/master/3500.jpg

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  • @veronique_petit
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    Young Australians have long felt like citizens of the world. Covid has ended that | Brigid Delaney | Opinion | The Guardian
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/04/young-australians-have-long-felt-like-citizens-of-the-world-covid-has-e
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fe25f3f6a27cabe3087b6526be96c553ccf0ff49/0_155_5026_3014/master/5026.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali

    It is the mark of a privileged person, in the Before Times, that they never really had to think about borders. Their passport has allowed them to go pretty much anywhere, and to come and go from their home country as they pleased. Until Covid-19 hit and borders became hard, many Australians held, at least in their minds and imagination, a sort of dual citizenship. The first citizenship was Australia, a citizen of the world was the second.
    If you came of age in or after the 1990s, reciprocal working visas, cheap flights, the opening up of the international job market and the subsequent ease of movement lulled lucky Australians into thinking that borders were irrelevant.

    For the rich, talented, well-connected, well-educated and those under 31, visas for Australians in places such as the UK, Canada, the US and Europe were easy enough to come by. Dubbed “gold-collar workers”, so many Australians enjoyed the fruits of participating in a global economy that by 2004, a Senate committee was set up to quantify the number of Australians that had left and to investigate how their skills and experience might one day circulate back into the Australian job market and economy. By 2018 there were estimated to be around one million Australians living and working overseas. Freedom of movement was a right that was so fundamental as to be barely considered. That is until this year, when Australia became one of the only democracies in the world that has effectively banned its citizens from leaving the country. Now an Australian citizen or permanent resident is not permitted to travel outbound unless they apply to Border Force for an exemption. The criteria is strict. For sound public health reasons, we’ve built a fortress unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes This long run of hypermobility – ruinous for the environment with all those flights but enriching for those selling their skills to the highest bidder in the global marketplace – came to a dramatic halt on 25 March. What a strange thing it is to log on to Instagram these days and see your British or European friends enjoying holidays on Greek Islands or in Portugal, while we’re locked in our own country. For sound public health reasons, we’ve built a fortress unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes. Almost no one gets in and no one gets out. So far there’s been widespread public support for such far-reaching measures. And in Australia, like New Zealand, there seems to be some antipathy towards those who are stuck overseas and trying to get back in.They had their chance in March, goes the refrain from politicians, including the prime minister and New South Wales premier. Suck it up. An Essential poll has shown last week that a majority of respondents support a hardline approach on border closures. Whether this is due to concerns about more virus getting into Australia, or latent, cultural resentments about those who leave – a new manifestation of tall poppy syndrome – it’s hard to say.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#australie#hypermobilite#sante#tradition#forteresse#immobilite#frontiere#nouvellezelande#santepublique

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    • @biggrizzly
      BigGrizzly CC BY-NC-SA

      David Graeber: American-Born Anthropologist Dies in at 59 | Heavy.com
      ▻https://heavy.com/news/2020/09/david-graeber

      https://heavy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/pjimage-2020-09-03T100104.871.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=780

      Graeber’s death was confirmed on the morning of September 3 by his wife, Nika Dubrovsky. Dubrovsky tweeted, “Yesterday the best person in a world, my husband and my friend. @davidgraeber died in a hospital in Venice.”

      BigGrizzly CC BY-NC-SA
    • @colporteur
      colporteur CC BY-NC-SA

      Un type bien sympathique semble-t-il, dont les travaux (pour ce que j’en connais) sont un des innombrables indices d’une crise de la critique (éclipse de la pensée ?). Sa dénonciation des " bullshit job" avait le mérite d’affirmer que bien des emplois n’existent que pour (non seulement "occuper", comme il le souligne, mais) justifier le fait qu’avoir les moyens de vivre sans emploi ne doit en aucun cas être à la portée de n’importe qui (ce qui était aussi le cas sous le socialisme réel où on pouvait coller trois personnes là où une aurait suffit). Il suffit d’avoir lu Maurizio Lazzarato ( La fabrique de l’homme endetté, essai sur la condition néolibérale, ►http://www.cip-idf.org/article.php3?id_article=6238) pour savoir que son "histoire" de la #dette est des plus faibles, une anthropologie trans-historique, une éternité qui récuse l’historicité.
      Je détaille pas, faute d’avoir pris le temps de la lire pour de bon (j’avais laissé tomber...), mais voici une note de lecture (dont je partage pas les présupposés) qui en relève le peu de consistance.

      « Quand David Graeber étale la dette : une critique du livre " La dette : 5000 ans d’histoire " », par Franz Schandl
      ▻http://www.palim-psao.fr/article-quand-graeber-etale-la-dette-une-critique-du-livre-la-dette-5000-

      « La langue du marché a envahi toutes les dimensions de la vie humaine[14] », dit Graeber. Cependant, la façon dont il se sert de cette langue est complètement acritique. C’est bien trop souvent que la terminologie dominante est aussi la sienne. On est frappé par la naïveté totale avec laquelle sont employées des catégories quotidiennes telles que économie, politique, démocratie, capital, crédit. Celles-ci sont utilisées sans la moindre distance critique, comme si aucune d’elles n’était problématique. Il y a un rapport positif constant, voire lassant, à la justice et, bien sûr, aux valeurs. [...]

      Conformément aux postulats anarchistes, le mauvais rôle échoit le plus souvent à l’#État, tandis que le marché s’en sort assez bien la plupart du temps. En de nombreux endroits l’État et le #marché sont pensés comme des antipodes, et non comme des éléments qui se complètent et qui sont indispensables à la domination du capital. Le bon marché remonte toujours à la surface.

      colporteur CC BY-NC-SA
    • @parpaing
      parpaing

      Une critique du concept de « Bullshit Jobs » par les auteurs de Boulots de Merde (Cyran & Brygo, La Découverte, 2016) :

      ►https://lundi.am/Boulots-de-merde-Du-cireur-au-trader

      Lorsqu’on a lu l’essai de David Graeber, on s’est dit qu’il y avait une belle matière pour commencer un travail reliant le haut et le bas du monde du travail, puisque Graeber avançait l’idée selon laquelle les cadres chargés de faire tourner la machine capitaliste étaient rincés, déprimés, accablés par la conscience de leur inutilité et incapables de trouver une consolation dans leurs salaires princiers. C’est en cela qu’il parle de « bullshit jobs », des boulots bidon où les gens s’emmerdent à mettre des coups de tampon et à pianoter sur Facebook au lieu de faire un « vrai » travail, productif, visible, palpable. On avait trouvé stimulante cette réhabilitation du critère de l’utilité sociale, mais sa focalisation sur le sommet de la pyramide salariale nous posait problème , raison pour laquelle nous avons claqué notre enveloppe de frais de reportage pour aller rencontrer Graeber à Londres. Les réponses qu’il a apportées à nos questions n’ont pas franchement levé nos doutes, comme on l’explique dans l’introduction de notre bouquin. Ce qui nous a le plus scié, c’est l’explication qu’il nous a fournie sur sa méthodologie : pas d’enquête de terrain, pas de chiffres, pas de sources, seulement une compilation de données récupérées sur des blogs d’avocats d’affaires… Du coup, on a changé notre fusil d’épaule et laissé derrière nous les affres existentielles des cols blancs cholestérolés, choqués de découvrir que leur dévouement à l’économie capitaliste n’était pas aussi sexy que prévu. C’est un sujet qu’on laisse volontiers aux journalistes des grands médias, qui se sont tous pris de passion pour les thèses de Graeber, en raison peut-être de leur proximité sociale avec les cadres d’entreprise. En revanche, la souffrance ordinaire endurée par la majorité de la population active, dans les boîtes de sous-traitance comme dans les anciens fleurons du service public, dans les bureaux de poste comme dans les restaurants en passant par les guichets de Pôle emploi, cette souffrance-là n’intéresse pas grand monde. Ce désintérêt résulte en grande partie de la propagande quotidienne pour la « valeur travail » et le « plein emploi », du matraquage verbal et administratif infligé aux chômeurs soupçonnés de fraude et de désertion. Pour beaucoup de journalistes, il faut bien qu’il y en ait qui fassent le « sale boulot » de leur nettoyer leurs burlingues au petit matin. On a voulu remettre à leur place ces réalités sociales : 80 % du livre est consacré aux trimardeurs du bas, 20 % aux cols blancs. Loin de nous l’intention de minimiser le cafard des bureaucrates de l’économie capitaliste, mais on a choisi de ne pas oublier les conditions de travail autrement plus rudes de ceux que ces mêmes cols blancs réduisent à l’état de larbins.

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  • @veronique_petit
    CEPED_MIGRINTER_ICMigrations_santé
    1
    @veronique_petit
    1

    Greece has a deadly new migration policy – and all of Europe is to blame | Daniel Trilling | Opinion | The Guardian
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/27/greece-migration-europe-athens-refugees
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/35b3d2f1b4b923b386c7831a5e351ac9b729ef65/12_159_4086_2453/master/4086.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali

    But if every country looks only to its own interests, and behaves as if asylum seekers are someone else’s problem, then you very quickly end up with a system that traps people in situations where their lives are at risk. That is the system bequeathed by Europe’s panicked response to the 2015 refugee crisis, and in recent months, partly under cover of the emergency conditions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, it has got worse. The revelation by the New York Times that Greece has secretly expelled more than 1,000 asylum seekers, abandoning many of them on inflatable life rafts in the Aegean Sea, is the latest example of this disturbing trend. Since 2015, Greece has effectively been used by the rest of the EU as a buffer zone against unwanted migration, leaving thousands of refugees in unsanitary camps on islands in the Aegean and on the mainland. At the same time, a hastily arranged EU deal with Turkey saw the latter agree to act as border cop on Europe’s behalf, preventing refugees from crossing to Greece in return for financial aid and other diplomatic concessions.This spring, amid rising geopolitical tensions, Turkey decided to send thousands of migrants towards the Greek border as a way of exerting pressure on Europe. It provoked a nationalist backlash, followed by several hardline and legally questionable border control measures from Greece’s conservative New Democracy government. Earlier this year, the New York Times also reported that Greece was operating a secret detention centre at its land border with Turkey, so that it could carry out summary deportations without giving people the right to claim asylum; the latest revelations about its actions in the Aegean fit the same pattern.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#grece#UE#politiquemigratoire#asile#sante#politique

    CEPED_MIGRINTER_ICMigrations_santé
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  • @etraces
    e-traces ART LIBRE

    Did you protest recently ? Your face might be in a database | Facial recognition
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/17/protest-black-lives-matter-database

    In the United States, at least one in four law enforcement agencies are able to use facial recognition technology. The implications are troubling In recent weeks, millions have taken to the streets to oppose police violence and proudly say : “Black Lives Matter.” These protests will no doubt be featured in history books for many generations to come. But, as privacy researchers, we fear a darker legacy, too. We know that hundreds of thousands of photos and videos of protesters have been (...)

    #Microsoft #Clearview #NYPD #FBI #IBM #Amazon #algorithme #CCTV #drone #activisme #biométrie #militaire #facial #reconnaissance #biais #discrimination #surveillance (...)

    ##bug
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1172b43c30f12d91234aa9a928d47e2705431b12/0_0_3108_1866/master/3108.jpg

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  • @etraces
    e-traces ART LIBRE

    We need a full investigation into Siri’s secret surveillance campaign
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/14/apple-siri-secret-surveillance-campaign-investigation

    The public deserves to know the extent to which Apple employees have been listening to our private conversations and intimate moments No one wants their most private activities secretly monitored. That’s why wiretapping is strictly regulated in the US and most of the world. Federal law makes it a crime for the government to surveil communications without a court-ordered warrant. This is not the issue here. Nor is this a case involving one-party consent. Who authorized the makers of Apple’s (...)

    #Apple #Google #Microsoft #Amazon #Facebook #algorithme #Alexa #Assistant #Cortana #Siri #domotique #consommation #procès #consentement #reconnaissance #écoutes #voix #travail (...)

    ##FTC
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a043de08a6156dde538cdd6e00c76affe13506ac/0_0_4592_2755/master/4592.jpg

    e-traces ART LIBRE
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  • @cdb_77
    CDB_77
    @isskein

    #Priti_Patel derided over #Royal_Navy threat towards France as Home Office’s approach to migrants is questioned

    Priti Patel’s threat to send the Royal Navy into the English Channel has been derided and her department’s border policy questioned on Twitter.

    The home secretary’s threats come after suggestions a record number of migrants crossed the Channel on Thursday.

    The BBC reports up to 235 migrants made the perilous journey across Britain’s maritime border with France, bringing the total of arrivals since January at nearly 3,900 people.

    ▻https://twitter.com/Otto_English/status/1291633665475334145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E12

    According to a Home Office source in the Daily Mail, Patel has accused France’s border force of deliberately allowing migrants to make the crossing and has now threatened to deploy the Royal Navy to tow any new arrivals back to France.

    The move could be illegal under international maritime law and risks alienating the French government, who has partnered with the Home Office to stem the flow of crossings.

    Patel has said the Navy may be used to deploy floating “booms” to block the way for migrant dinghies or stop boats by clogging their propellers with nets.

    A government source acknowledged these were “all [the] options that are being considered”. The source added: “She [Patel] has instructed her officials to speak to the Ministry of Defence about how we can proceed. She has also requested a discussion with the French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin.”

    People vented their frustration with the approach on Twitter, while others questioned the effectiveness.

    Otto English wrote: “When Priti Patel says she ‘wants to send in the Navy’ to stop Channel migrant crossings - what’s her intention? Are warships going to fire shells at kids in rubber dinghies? Is a destroyer going to run them over? What are they going to do that the Border Force isn’t?”

    Rae Richardson called it a load of “meaningless posturing”. “It’s just a load of meaningless posturing to make the government seem effective. (Good luck with that!),” he wrote.

    “The Royal Navy have no authority in French waters so they can’t escort any boats out of UK waters, i.e. they can only do what Border Force are already doing.”

    Michael Moran said: “Sending a gunboat is a tried and trusted method of making things worse.”

    In October, Patel made a pledge to eliminate crossings by spring and negotiated a deal with French authorities.

    The news comes as footage of migrants arriving on the Kent coastline on Thursday surfaced on social media.

    The boat carrying the asylum seekers had ten young children and a heavily pregnant woman, among others, on board.

    In the footage, the woman is seen holding her head in her hands and appears weary while one of the children lays exhausted on the pebbled beach with his arms spread out.

    The Daily Mail suggested the total number of asylum seekers reaching Britain this year is double that from 2019. It failed to provide an explanation for the spike.

    ▻https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/priti-patel-mocked-on-twitter-over-daily-mail-royal-navy-threat-1-

    #UK #Angleterre #France #frontières #Manche #asile #migrations #réfugiés #militarisation_des_frontières #Calais #armée
    ping @isskein

    CDB_77
    • @cdb_77
      CDB_77

      ‘Inappropriate and disproportionate’: Priti Patel suggestion to use navy to combat migrant crossings attacked by MoD

      Priti Patel is discussing using the royal navy to tackle the number of migrants crossing the Channel, prompting accusations from Ministry of Defence sources that the idea is “inappropriate and disproportionate”.

      While facing increasing pressure from MPs on her own back benches, the home secretary also called on France to help prevent people coming to the UK’s shores.

      At least 235 people arrived on small boats on Thursday – a new high for a single day.

      The Home Office is yet to provide a full breakdown of the crossings, meaning the total number could be higher still.

      The home secretary is understood to be keen to know what royal navy vessels and other assets could be deployed.

      It is thought they would be expected to stop boats and send them back to France.

      But a Ministry of Defence source told the PA news agency the idea of using the navy was “completely potty” and could put lives at risk.

      “It is a completely inappropriate and disproportionate approach to take,” they said.

      “We don’t resort to deploying armed force to deal with political failings.

      “It’s beyond absurd to think that we should be deploying multimillion-pound ships and elite soldiers to deal with desperate people barely staying afloat on rubber dinghies in the Channel.

      “It could potentially put people’s lives at even greater risk.

      “Border Force is effectively the Home Office’s own navy fleet, so it begs the question: what are they doing?”

      Ms Patel is facing increasing calls, including from Tory MPs, to deal with the issue.

      The Commons Home Affairs Committee has announced that it has launched an investigation into the crossings.

      Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP and chair of the Commons Defence Committee, backed the use of navy patrols.

      Natalie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover, also backed the use of the royal navy, saying: “All options need to be on the table.”
      Immigration minister Chris Philp said he shares “the anger and frustration of the public” at the “appalling number” of crossings.

      Mr Philp is to visit France next week to speak with counterparts following what is understood to have been a “constructive” meeting with the country’s deputy ambassador earlier this week.

      Earlier Ms Patel appeared to call on France to do more.

      She tweeted that the number of illegal small boat crossings was “appalling and unacceptably high” and said she was working to make the route unviable.

      She added: “We also need the cooperation of the French to intercept boats and return migrants back to France.”

      Almost 4,000 migrants have crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year, according to analysis by PA.

      Bella Sankey, director of charity Detention Action, said the numbers showed the Home Office had “lost control and all credibility on this issue, fuelling chaos, criminality and untold trauma for those who feel forced to make these dangerous crossings.”

      Resorting to tougher enforcement was “naive grandstanding”, she said.

      “What is needed is recognition that people who reach France will have valid claims to protection in the UK and the urgent development of safe and legal routes for them to do so.

      “This would end the crossings overnight.”

      Yvette Cooper, chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said it was “particularly troubling to see children being put at risk”.

      Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, said: “No one wants to see people making these perilous attempts to cross the Channel. It’s heartbreaking to think how desperate people must be to cram themselves into tiny boats and try.

      “The Tories have been trying the same approach of getting tough on Channel crossings for years, but it’s failed.

      “The only way to prevent these dangerous crossings is to ensure there are safe, legal routes to the UK – especially for vulnerable refugees fleeing war and persecution.”

      ▻https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-migrants-channel-royal-navy-record-a9659346.html

      CDB_77
    • @cdb_77
      CDB_77

      The Guardian view on Channel migrants: shame on the scaremongers

      Ministers should respond with compassion and pragmatism to an upsurge in arrivals of small boats. Instead, we get histrionics

      What do the images of cramped dinghies in the Channel make you feel when you see them? Or pictures of their passengers on the decks of grey Border Force vessels, or disembarking on beaches? More than 4,100 migrants and refugees have reached the UK this year so far in small boats, most of them arriving in Kent. Almost 600 arrived in a surge of crossings between Thursday and Sunday last week.

      While they remain a tiny proportion of the total number of asylum seekers in the UK, which was 35,566 in 2019, the steep increase in arrivals has thrust immigration and asylum back to the top of the news. But the hate mill has been grinding away for months, with the Brexit party leader, Nigel Farage, using his social media channels and appearances to churn up public anxiety about what these migrants might do when they get here – while crushing out any grains of more generous impulses.

      There is no question that the crossings are a problem. The Channel is the world’s busiest shipping lane. Unlicensed journeys in small boats across the Mediterranean have ended in disaster. The new arrivals include children, around 400 of whom are being looked after by Kent county council.

      No one knows exactly why the traffic has increased so much. Boris Johnson and his ministers, as well as Mr Farage, appear determined to amplify the role of traffickers. But the more likely explanation could be that the pandemic has made entering the UK by other means (air, lorry, ferry) harder, while the weather has made crossing by boat safer than at other times. The conditions at Calais are awful. Far worse are the political and humanitarian situations in many of the countries where the migrants come from – Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan – and from which they view the UK as their longed-for safe haven.

      Whatever the reasons for the surge, the UK government’s reaction has been reprehensible. Migration is a difficult global issue that requires international cooperation. For European democracies, with long histories of entanglement with many of the nations that people are fleeing, it presents particular challenges. But having set their face against the EU with their campaign to “take back control” and lacking a plan to replace the Dublin Convention, which enables EU countries to remove some asylum seekers, ministers now appear to be panicking.

      How else to describe the threats by the home secretary, Priti Patel, to make the navy force boats back to France, or the creation of the new post of “clandestine Channel threat commander”? What does it mean for Boris Johnson to declare crossing the Channel in a small boat to be “dangerous and criminal”, when people have the right to travel to claim asylum under UN rules dating back to 1951?

      Not a single refugee has been legally resettled in the UK since March, when an existing scheme was suspended due to Covid-19. Restarting this system (or explaining when the pause will end), so that claims can be processed without people having to present themselves first, is the obvious route back to some form of order. Serious talks with the EU, above all France, will obviously require give as well as take. Last year Germany processed 165,615 asylum claims, and France 151,070. Neither they nor other governments are obliged to help the UK out.

      Two years ago Donald Trump showed the world how low an elected western leader could go on migration with his policy of separating families at the Mexican border. This week, the UK’s home secretary was singled out for praise by our most xenophobic national political figure, Mr Farage. Ms Patel, and more importantly her boss, Mr Johnson, a man who purports to venerate Winston Churchill and the postwar international order that was his legacy, should both be ashamed.

      ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/10/the-guardian-view-on-channel-migrants-shame-on-the-scaremongers

      CDB_77
    • @cdb_77
      CDB_77

      Refugees crossing Channel tell of beatings by French police

      Asylum seekers give accounts of injuries, as Priti Patel says many refugees feel France is racist.

      Asylum seekers in the UK and France have described injuries they have received at the hands of French police, as Priti Patel said many were making the perilous journey across the Channel because they believe France is racist.

      The home secretary made her comments in a conference call with Conservative MPs concerned about the recent surge in numbers attempting the voyage in small boats.

      One man in Dunkirk told the Guardian he had recently received injuries to his hands after French police beat him.

      Another man who has reached the UK said he was struck in the face, causing injuries to his eyes. “I was beaten very badly by the French police. I have some injuries to my eyes and I’m still suffering from these injuries,” he said. “The French police are very bad for asylum seekers.”
      Guardian Today: the headlines, the analysis, the debate - sent direct to you
      Read more

      According to reports, Patel told Conservative MPs that refugees and migrants were worried they may be “tortured” in France. Government sources told PA Media that she had made clear she did not share those views and was simply explaining the “pull factors” that led so many people to risk their lives by making the Channel crossing.

      Clare Moseley, of Care4Calais, a charity that works with many asylum seekers in northern France, expressed concern about some of the French police’s treatment of asylum seekers that she had witnessed. “The police seem to be a law unto themselves, “ she said. “It’s the culture I find so shocking.”

      A number of asylum seekers have said one of their reasons for crossing the Channel was to escape police violence, which is especially traumatic for those who have survived torture in their home countries. Another reason cited was the long delay after making an asylum claim before they receive accommodation or support.

      Orsi Hardi, of the Taise Community, which supports and cares for many asylum seekers who congregate in northern France, said many believed reaching the UK was their last chance to find safety after a difficult journey through mainland Europe.

      “The only way to stay in France at the moment is to claim asylum, and the system is overloaded, which makes it very inhuman during the time when people are waiting to get accommodation and support,” she said.

      The Guardian has learned that more people who crossed the Channel in small boats were rounded up by the Home Office on Thursday and Friday and placed in Brook House immigration detention centre near Gatwick airport.

      More than a dozen of them say they have gone on hunger strike. The men, who have come from a variety of conflict zones including Yemen and Sudan, say they would rather die in the UK than be sent back to France or other European countries.

      Speaking from Brook House, one man who is refusing food told the Guardian: “I am a dead person in detention.”

      Nobody who has been arrested and detained in the last few days has been given a ticket for a new removal flight, but the large number of arrests suggest more removals are likely soon. The Home Office is not supposed to detain people unless there is an imminent prospect of removing them.

      One man from Yemen said he had tried to claim asylum in Spain and had been told he would have to wait more than a year sleeping in the streets before his claim could be processed, so he decided to try to reach the UK.

      “My journey was terrible. I crossed many countries – Mauritania, Mali, where traffickers wanted to sell me as a slave, Algeria, Morocco. I crossed the desert. I spent 12 hours in the sea when I crossed the Channel in a small boat in March. I thought I would freeze to death but I was rescued by the Border Force. I’m sending my voice to the public. This is the last opportunity to tell people what has happened to us on our journey and what is happening to us now in detention.”

      Another man from Yemen who said he was on hunger strike in Brook House said he had been abused by smugglers who agreed to help him cross the Channel to the UK. “The smugglers have guns and sometimes they shoot people. The smuggler who was taking us across the Channel pointed a gun at us and said if we made any noise he would shoot us,” he said.

      The Home Office and the French embassy have been approached for comment.

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/16/priti-patel-migrants-crossing-channel-uk-they-believe-france-racist
      #police #violences_policières

      CDB_77
    • @cdb_77
      CDB_77

      UK tested Channel ‘blockade’ to deter migrants, leak reveals

      Exclusive: official document shows tactic based on Australian ‘turn back the boats’ policy has been trialled.

      Trials have taken place to test a blockade in the Channel similar to Australia’s controversial “turn back the boats” tactic, according to official documents seen by the Guardian.

      The documents, produced in mid-September and marked “official” and “sensitive”, summarise advice from officials who were asked by Downing Street to consider “possible options for negotiating an offshore asylum processing facility similar to the Australian model in Papua New Guinea and Nauru”.

      In August it was reported that the home secretary, Priti Patel, was planning to approach French officials for cooperation in using Royal Navy and Border Force boats to block the path of refugees and migrants attempting to reach the UK in small boats.

      The document reveals this approach has been trialled. It reads: “Trials are currently under way to test a ‘blockade’ tactic in the Channel on the median line between French and UK waters, akin to the Australian ‘turn back’ tactic, whereby migrant boats would be physically prevented (most likely by one or more UK RHIBs [rigid hull inflatable boats] from entering UK waters.”

      The Australian policy was developed by the country’s former prime minister Tony Abbott, who was recently appointed as a UK government trade adviser. Operation Sovereign Borders involves turning back boats to the country of embarkation before they reach Australian waters.

      The Australian government considers the policy to be successful but it has been met with severe criticism from human rights groups. The Home Office has been approached for comment.

      The documents have been revealed by the Guardian at a time of increased tension over the UK’s asylum policy. Seven thousand migrants have arrived in the UK in small boats across the Channel so far this year, according to PA Media analysis – more than three times the number of arrivals by this route in the whole of 2019.

      The UK government has also launched a consultation with the maritime industry to explore constructing floating walls in the Channel to block asylum seekers from crossing the narrow strait from France, the Financial Times reported.

      An email from the trade body Maritime UK, obtained by the newspaper, reveals that the idea of floating barriers is being seriously pursued by Home Office officials. Maritime UK told the Guardian it had informed the Home Office that it did not think the proposal was “legally possible”.

      A Maritime UK spokesperson said: “As the umbrella organisation for UK maritime, we are a conduit between industry and government and are often asked by government for advice or input on policy matters. The Home Office engaged us to pass on a question around options to inhibit passage to UK territorial waters, which we gave to our members. The clear view, which we shared with the Home Office, was that as a matter of international convention, that this is not legally possible.”

      Downing Street said it would not comment on each of the leaked measures but said the government would soon bring forward “a package of measures” to address illegal migration once the UK has left the EU.

      The prime minister’s spokesman said: “We are developing plans around illegal migration and asylum to ensure that we’re able to provide protection to those who need it, while preventing abuse of the system and the criminality associated with it.

      “That includes looking at what a whole host of other countries do. But the work is ongoing. There’s an awful lot of speculation around today and I don’t plan on adding anything beyond that.”

      Downing Street said it did not recognise some of the more outlandish reporting – including the possibility of a wave machine in the Channel to push back migrants in small boats. “These things won’t be happening,” the spokesman said.

      A Home Office spokesperson said: “As the public will fully understand, we do not comment on operational matters because to do so could provide an advantage to the exploitative and ruthless criminals who facilitate these dangerous crossing, as they look for new ways to beat the system.

      “We are driving innovative tactics to deploy in every aspect of this operation, underlining the Government’s commitment to ending the viability of using small boats to illegally enter the UK.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/oct/01/uk-tested-channel-blockade-to-deter-migrants-leak-reveals

      CDB_77
    • @cdb_77
      CDB_77

      UK and France sign deal to make Channel migrant crossings ’unviable’

      Both countries agree to double police patrols on route already used by more than 8,000 people this year

      Britain and France have signed a new agreement aimed at curbing the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

      The home secretary, Priti Patel, and her French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, said they wanted to make the route used by more than 8,000 people this year unviable.

      They agreed to double the number of French police patrolling a 150km stretch of coastline targeted by people-smuggling networks.

      However, the Home Office did not say how many more officers would be deployed.

      The announcement was criticised by a charity as an “extraordinary mark of failure” akin to “rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic”.

      Meanwhile, Amnesty International UK said it was “profoundly disappointing”.

      Patel and Darmanin also agreed an enhanced package of surveillance technology, with drones, radar equipment, cameras and optronic binoculars.

      It is hoped the equipment will help the French deploy officers to the right places to detect migrants and stop them before they start their journey.

      The agreement also includes steps to support migrants into accommodation in France and measures to increase border security at ports in the north and west of the country.

      It builds on measures previously agreed which the Home Office said had seen the proportion of crossings intercepted and stopped since rising from 41% last year to 60% in recent weeks.

      Patel said the new agreement with France will “make a difference” to the numbers.

      Speaking inside the Foreign Office following talks with her French counterpart, she said: “We know that the French authorities have stopped over 5,000 migrants from crossing into the United Kingdom, we’ve had hundreds of arrests and that’s because of the joint intelligence and communications that we share between both our authorities.

      “This new package today that I have just signed with my French counterpart, the French interior minister, effectively doubles the number of police on the French beaches, it invests in more technologies and surveillance – more radar technology that support the law enforcement effort – and on top of that we are now sharing in terms of toughening up our border security.”

      She said the number of migrants making the crossing had grown exponentially, in part due to good weather this year, and blamed trafficking gangs for “facilitating” dangerous journeys.

      “We should not lose sight of the fact that illegal migration exists for one fundamental reason: that is because there are criminal gangs – people traffickers – facilitating this trade,” Patel said.

      She added that the cost charged by traffickers has gone down so “people are putting their lives at risk”.

      Despite deteriorating weather conditions, the UK’s Border Force has continued to deal with migrants making the dangerous trip from northern France.

      The number crossing aboard small boats has rocketed this year, with more than 8,000 reaching the UK – compared with 1,835 in 2019, according to data analysed by the PA news agency.

      This is despite the home secretary’s vow last year to make such journeys an “infrequent phenomenon”.

      A recent report chronicled nearly 300 border-related deaths in and around the English Channel since 1999.

      Written by Mael Galisson, from Gisti, a legal service for asylum seekers in France, it described the evolution of border security in and around the Dover Strait as a “history of death”.

      It claimed responses to the migrant crisis have become increasingly militarised, forcing people to resort to more dangerous routes.

      Bella Sankey, director of humanitarian charity Detention Action, said: “It is an extraordinary mark of failure that the home secretary is announcing with such fanfare that she is rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

      “No amount of massaging the numbers masks her refusal to take the sensible step of creating a safe and legal route to the UK from northern France, thereby preventing crossings and child deaths.

      “Instead she throws taxpayers’ money away on more of the same measures that stand no chance of having a significant impact on this dangerous state of affairs.”

      The shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, argued that the Conservatives had “regularly announced progress and not delivered”.

      He said: “A deal with the French authorities alone is not enough. The Conservatives continue to fail on establishing safe routes and have abolished DfID [the Department for International Development], the department that has addressed the reasons people flee their homes in the first place.”

      The deal was also criticised by human rights group Amnesty International UK. Steve Valdez-Symonds, its refugee and migrant rights programme director, said: “It is profoundly disappointing that yet again these two governments have ignored the needs and rights of people who ought to be at the heart of their response.

      “Women, men and children make dangerous journeys across the Channel because there are no safe options provided for them – to either reunite with family in this country, or access an effective asylum system, to which they are entitled.

      “The UK government must share responsibility for providing sanctuary with its nearest neighbour.

      “This continued focus on simply shutting down routes to the UK is blinkered and reckless – it does nothing but increase the risks that people, who have already endured incredible hardship, are compelled to take.”

      Clare Moseley, founder of Care4Calais, said: “This package of surveillance, drones and radar sounds like the government is preparing for a military enemy.

      “These are ordinary people – from engineers to farmers and their families – they are not criminals and they do not want to make this terrifying journey.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/28/uk-and-france-sign-deal-to-make-channel-migrant-crossings-unviable

      #accord

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      #Déclaration_conjointe de la France et du Royaume-Uni sur les prochaines étapes de la #coopération_bilatérale en matière de lutte contre l’#immigration_clandestine

      29 novembre 2020

      Le ministre français de l’intérieur, M. Gérald Darmanin, et la ministre britannique de l’intérieur, Mme Priti Patel, se sont entretenus hier pour évoquer la coopération entre le Royaume-Uni et la France dans la lutte contre l’immigration clandestine à notre frontière commune.

      Ils ont notamment abordé la nécessité d’empêcher les traversées maritimes illégales et de prévenir les troubles à l’ordre public qu’elles génèrent des deux côtés de la Manche.
      Les ministres ont souligné que le nombre élevé de passages illégaux observé cette année n’était pas acceptable et qu’il fallait y remédier avec détermination. Ces traversées à bord d’embarcations de fortune ont donné lieu à des accidents au cours des derniers mois. Elles représentent pour les femmes, hommes et enfants à bord de ces bateaux un danger mortel, qui reste un sujet de préoccupation pour les deux gouvernements. L’implication de réseaux criminels sans scrupules, qui exploitent la vulnérabilité des migrants, est l’une des causes de ce phénomène. Les autorités des deux pays continueront à s’y attaquer avec une détermination sans faille.

      Pour toutes ces raisons, les deux ministres partagent un engagement résolu à coopérer pour mettre fin au phénomène dit des « small boats », et annoncent à cette fin la mise en œuvre de nouvelles mesures conjointes qui doivent permettre de prévenir les départs et d’empêcher la formation de camps illégaux dans le Calaisis.

      Les ministres sont convenus que le travail des forces de l’ordre pour prévenir et arrêter ces passages n’a jamais été aussi efficace, le taux de réussite des interventions passant de 41 % en 2019 à plus de 60 % ces dernières semaines. Malgré ces efforts importants, le nombre de tentatives de traversées reste toutefois encore trop élevé.

      Les ministres ont reconnu et salué les récents efforts déployés pour lutter contre ce phénomène : une présence policière accrue sur la côte entre Boulogne et Dunkerque ; une augmentation du nombre de patrouilles terrestres ; une meilleure utilisation des équipements de détection ; un renforcement de la lutte contre les réseaux criminels de contrebande, permis notamment par la mise en place d’une unité de renseignement opérationnel (URO) dédiée à la lutte contre le trafic de migrants. Cette structure a commencé à donner des résultats concrets : depuis son ouverture en juillet, l’URO a permis de procéder à environ 140 arrestations et d’empêcher quelque 1 100 passages.

      Les deux ministres sont convenus de l’importance de continuer à travailler en étroite collaboration à tous les niveaux, sur la base d’objectifs communs et d’indicateurs clairs, permettant de mesurer les progrès accomplis et d’évaluer les résultats obtenus. A cet effet, le Royaume-Uni et la France se sont accordés sur la mise en place d’un nouveau plan opérationnel conjoint visant à optimiser le déploiement des ressources humaines et des équipements dédiés à la prévention de ces traversées maritimes illégales.

      Ce plan sera effectif dans les prochains jours et comprend :

      une augmentation significative des déploiements de forces de l’ordre pour enquêter, dissuader et prévenir les traversées irrégulières ;
      le déploiement d’équipements de technologies de surveillance de haute définition pour détecter et empêcher les tentatives de franchissement avant qu’elles ne se produisent ;
      des mesures visant à aider les migrants à trouver un hébergement approprié afin de les soustraire à l’emprise des trafiquants ;
      des mesures visant à renforcer la sécurité aux frontières afin de réduire les possibilités de passage irrégulier, y compris par le biais du trafic de marchandises.

      Le Royaume-Uni s’est engagé à faire un investissement financier supplémentaire de 31,4 millions d’euros pour soutenir les efforts importants de la France contre les traversées irrégulières dans ces domaines.

      Au cours des six prochains mois, les résultats seront examinés afin d’évaluer l’efficacité et l’impact de ces mesures supplémentaires. Ces engagements reflètent la conviction des ministres de la nécessité pour le Royaume-Uni et la France de travailler en partenariat étroit à tous les niveaux pour faire face à cette menace commune, briser le modèle économique des passeurs, sauver des vies et maintenir l’ordre public. Les ministres se félicitent de la poursuite du dialogue sur un large éventail de sujets afin de parvenir à une réduction de la pression migratoire à la frontière commune, à court et à long terme.

      https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Declaration-conjointe-de-la-France-et-du-Royaume-Uni-sur-les-prochain

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  • @antonin1
    Antonin CC BY-NC-SA

    High Court finds Najib guilty of all seven charges in misappropriation of RM42m SRC International funds | Malaysia | Malay Mail
    ▻https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/07/28/high-court-finds-najib-guilty-of-misappropriation-of-rm42m-src-internationa/1888749

    https://media.malaymail.com/resize_cache/uploads/articles/2020/2020-07/najib_verdict_280720i-seo.jpg

    Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been found guilty by the High Court today for abuse of power and misappropriating over RM42 million from 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.

    In delivering his judgement to a packed courtroom, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali said Najib was complicit in the deposits of RM42 million from SRC International in his private account.

    “In conclusion after considering all evidence in this trial, I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused, I therefore find the accused guilty and convict the accused on all seven charges,” he said.

    Najib Razak, Malaysia’s Former Prime Minister, Found Guilty in Graft Trial - The New York Times
    ▻https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/world/asia/malaysia-1mdb-najib.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

    https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/07/28/world/28malaysia-trial-1/28malaysia-trial-1-facebookJumbo.jpg

    Douze ans de prison pour le « kleptocrate » Najib Razak, un haut fait démocratique en Malaisie
    ▻https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2020/07/29/douze-ans-de-prison-pour-le-kleptocrate-malaisien-najib-razak_6047585_3210.h

    https://img.lemde.fr/2020/07/28/464/0/5568/2784/1440/720/60/0/d2cd2bc_5047301-01-06.jpg

    Pour chacun des six principaux chefs d’accusation, le prévenu encourait une peine d’une dizaine d’années : au lieu d’être additionnés, ils ont été fondus en une seule sentence de douze ans. Najib Razak a plaidé non coupable, affirmant avoir été abusé par d’anciens affidés.

    The Guardian view on Najib’s rise and fall : a victory for the rule of law | Editorial | Opinion | The Guardian
    ▻https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/28/the-guardian-view-on-najibs-rise-and-fall-a-victory-for-the-rule-of-law
    ▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c05b54729d35900aeb8f404f40e408e47d23cf02/192_274_5290_3175/master/5290.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-ali

    Najib faces four more trials related to the theft of billions of dollars from 1MDB. The US department of justice said that the fund’s cash was used to purchase luxury apartments in Manhattan, paintings by Monet and even financed a major Hollywood movie. The DoJ says $680m (£525m) ended up in the prime minister’s bank accounts. This in a country where 40% live on less than £2 a day.

    But Najib has stayed active in politics, working behind the scenes. His party, the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), played a decisive role in instigating Machiavellian levels of betrayal to bring down the government that had come to power by defeating him. Umno currently props up the shaky Perikatan Nasional government, made up of Malay-centric parties and rural fundamentalists. Regaining high office, his opponents say, is the only way Najib can save himself from jail.

    This would be an awful turn of events. Najib’s Umno was autocratic as well as corrupt, and it let the economy splutter. The party lost office in 2018 after six decades in power. There was a genuine hope that the new multiracial Pakatan Harapan government would be a force for change. But apart from press freedoms and an anti-corruption drive, the hopes of the new government were largely unfulfilled.

    #Malaisie #corruption #Najib #1MDB

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