’I had pain all over my body’: Italy’s tainted tobacco industry
Three of the world’s largest tobacco manufacturers, #Philip_Morris, #British_American_Tobacco and #Imperial_Brands, are buying leaves that could have been picked by exploited African migrants working in Italy’s multi-million euro industry.
Workers including children, said they were forced to work up to 12 hours a day without contracts or sufficient health and safety equipment in Campania, a region that produces more than a third of Italy’s tobacco. Some workers said they were paid about three euros an hour.
The Guardian investigation into Italy’s tobacco industry, which spanned three years, is believed to be the first in Europe to examine the supply chain.
Italy’s tobacco market is dominated by the three multinational manufacturers, all of whom buy from local producers. According to an internal report by the farmers’ organisation ONT Italia, seen by the Guardian and confirmed by a document from the European Leaf Tobacco Interbranch, the companies bought three-fifths of Italian tobacco in 2017. Philip Morris alone purchased 21,000 tons of the 50,000 tons harvested that year.
The multinationals all said they buy from suppliers who operate under a strict code of conduct to ensure fair treatment of workers. Philip Morris said it had not come across any abuse. Imperial and British American said they would investigate any complaints brought to their attention.
Italy is the EU’s leading tobacco producer. In 2017, the industry was worth €149m (£131m).
Despite there being a complex system of guarantees and safeguards in place for tobacco workers, more than 20 asylum seekers who spoke to the Guardian, including 10 who had worked in the tobacco fields during the 2018 season, reported rights violations and a lack of safety equipment.
The interviewees said they had no employment contracts, were paid wages below legal standards, and had to work up to 12 work hours a day. They also said they had no access to clean water, and suffered verbal abuse and racial discrimination from bosses. Two interviewees were underage and employed in hazardous work.
Didier, born and raised in Ivory Coast, arrived in Italy via Libya. He recently turned 18, but was 17 when, last spring, a tobacco grower in Capua Vetere, near the city of Caserta, offered him work in his fields. “I woke up at 4am. We started at 6am,” he said. “The work was exhausting. It was really hot inside the greenhouse and we had no contracts.”
Alex, from Ghana, another minor who worked in the same area, said he was forced to work 10 to 12 hours a day. “If you are tired or not, you are supposed to work”, otherwise “you lose your job”.
Workers complained of having to work without a break until lunchtime.
Alex said he wasn’t given gloves or work clothes to protect him from the nicotine contained in the leaves, or from pesticides. He also said that when he worked without gloves he felt “some sickness like fever, like malaria, or headaches”.
Moisture on a tobacco leaf from dew or rain may contain as much nicotine as the content of six cigarettes, one study found. Direct contact can lead to nicotine poisoning.
Most of the migrants said they had worked without gloves. Low wages prevented them from buying their own.
At the end of the working day, said Sekou, 27, from Guinea, who has worked in the tobacco fields since 2016: “I could not get my hands in the water to take a shower because my hands were cut”.
Olivier added: “I had pain all over my body, especially on my hands. I had to take painkillers every day.”
The migrants said they were usually hired on roundabouts along the main roads through Caserta province.
Workers who spoke to the Guardian said they didn’t have contracts and were paid half the minimum wage. Most earned between €20 and €30 a day, rather than the minimum of €42.
Thomas, from Ghana, said: “I worked last year in the tobacco fields near Cancello, a village near Caserta. They paid me €3 per hour. The work was terrible and we had no contracts”.
The Guardian found African workers who were paid €3 an hour, while Albanians, Romanians or Italians, were paid almost double.
“I worked with Albanians. They paid the Albanians €50 a day,” (€5 an hour), says Didier. “They paid me €3 per hour. That’s why I asked them for a raise. But when I did, they never called back.”
Tammaro Della Corte, leader of the General Confederation of Italian Workers labour union in Caserta, said: “Unfortunately, the reality of the work conditions in the agricultural sector in the province of Caserta, including the tobacco industry, is marked by a deep labour exploitation, low wages, illegal contracts and an impressive presence of the caporalato [illegal hiring], including extortion and blackmailing of the workers.
“We speak to thousands of workers who work in extreme conditions, the majority of whom are immigrants from eastern Europe, north Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. A large part of the entire supply chain of the tobacco sector is marked by extreme and alarming working conditions.”
Between 405,000 and 500,000 migrants work in Italy’s agricultural sector, about half the total workforce. According to the Placido Rizzotto Observatory, which investigates worker conditions in the agricultural sector, 80% of those working without contracts are migrants.
Multinational tobacco companies have invested billions of euros in the industry in Italy. Philip Morris alone has invested €1bn over the past five years and has investment plans on the same scale for the next two years. In 2016, the company invested €500m to open a factory near Bologna to manufacture smokeless cigarettes. A year later, another €500m investment was announced to expand production capacity at the factory.
British American Tobacco declared investments in Italy of €1bn between 2015 and 2019.
Companies have signed agreements with the agriculture ministry and farmers’ associations.
Since 2011, Philip Morris, which buys the majority of tobacco in Campania, has signed agreements to purchase tobacco directly from ONT Italia.
Philip Morris buys roughly 70% of the Burley tobacco variety produced in Campania. Approximately 900 farmers work for companies who supply to Philip Morris.
In 2018, Burley and Virginia Bright varieties constituted 90% of Italian tobacco production. About 15,000 tons of the 16,000 tons of Italian Burley are harvested in Campania.
In 2015, Philip Morris signed a deal with Coldiretti, the main association of entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector, to buy 21,000 tons of tobacco a year from Italian farmers, by investing €500m, until 2020.
Gennarino Masiello, president of Coldiretti Campania and national vice-president, said the deal included a “strong commitment to respect the rights of employees, banning phenomena like caporalato and child labour”.
Steps have been taken to improve workers’ conditions in the tobacco industry.
A deal agreed last year between the Organizzazione Interprofessionale Tabacco Italia (OITI), a farmers’ organisation, and the ministry of agriculture resulted in the introduction of a code of practice in the tobacco industry, including protecting the health of workers, and a national strategy to reduce the environmental impact.
But last year, the OITI was forced to acknowledge that “workplace abuses often have systemic causes” and that “long-term solutions to address these issues require the serious and lasting commitment of all the players in the supply chain, together with that of the government and other parties involved”.
Despite the code, the migrants interviewed reported no change in their working conditions.
In 2017, Philip Morris signed an agreement with the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) to hire 20 migrants as trainees within the Campania tobacco producing companies, to “support their exit from situations of serious exploitation”. Migrants on the six-month trainee scheme receive a monthly salary of €600 from Philip Morris.
But the scheme appears to have little impact.
Kofi, Sekou and Hassan were among 20 migrants hired under the agreement. Two of them said their duties and treatment were no different from other workers. At the end of the six months, Sekou said he was not hired regularly, but continued to work with no contract and low wages, in the same company that signed the agreement with Philip Morris.
“If I didn’t go to work they wouldn’t pay me. I was sick, they wouldn’t pay me,” he said.
In a statement, Huub Savelkouls, chief sustainability officer at Philip Morris International, said the company is committed to ensuring safety and fair conditions in its supply chain and had not come across the issues raised.
“Working with the independent, not-for-profit organisation, Verité, we developed PMI’s Agricultural Labor Practices (ALP) code that currently reaches more than 350,000 farms worldwide. Farmers supplying PMI in Italy are contractually bound to respect the standards of the ALP code. They receive training and field teams conduct farm visits twice a month to monitor adherence to the ALP code,” he said.
“Recognising the complex situation with migrant workers in Italian agriculture, PMI has taken supplementary steps to gain more visibility and prevent potential issues through a mechanism that provides direct channels for workers to raise concerns, specifically funding an independent helpline and direct engagement programme with farm workers.”
On the IOM scheme, he said: “This work has been recognised by stakeholders and elements are being considered for continued action.”
Simon Cleverly, group head of corporate affairs at British American Tobacco, said: “We recognise that agricultural supply chains and global business operations, by their nature, can present significant rights risks and we have robust policies and process in place to ensure these risks are minimised. Our supplier code of conduct sets out the minimum contractual standards we expect of all our suppliers worldwide, and specifically requires suppliers to ensure that their operations are free from unlawful migrant labour. This code also requires suppliers to provide all workers, including legal migrant workers, with fair wages and benefits, which comply with applicable minimum wage legislation. To support compliance, we have due diligence in place for all our third-party suppliers, including the industry-wide sustainable tobacco programme (STP).”
He added: “Where we are made aware of alleged human rights abuses, via STP, our whistleblowing procedure or by any other channel, we investigate and where needed, take remedial action.”
Simon Evans, group media relations manager at Imperial Tobacco, said: “Through the industry-wide sustainable tobacco programme we work with all of our tobacco suppliers to address good agricultural practices, improve labour practices and protect the environment. We purchase a very small amount of tobacco from the Campania region via a local third party supplier, with whom we are working to understand and resolve any issues.”
ONT said technicians visited tobacco producers at least once a month to monitor compliance with contract and production regulations. It said it would not tolerate any kind of labour exploitation and would follow up the Guardian investigation.
“If they [the abuses] happen to be attributable to farms associated with ONT, we will take the necessary measures, not only for the violation of the law, but above all to protect all our members who operate with total honesty and transparency.”
▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/may/31/i-had-pain-all-over-my-body-italys-tainted-tobacco-industry?CMP=share_b
#tabac #industrie_du_tabac #exploitation #travail #migrations #Caserta #Italie #néo-esclavagisme #Pouilles #Campania
ping @albertocampiphoto @marty @reka @isskein
Report to the EU Parliament on #Frontex cooperation with third countries in 2017
A recent report by Frontex, the EU’s border agency, highlights the ongoing expansion of its activities with non-EU states.
The report covers the agency’s cooperation with non-EU states ("third countries") in 2017, although it was only published this month.
See: Report to the European Parliament on Frontex cooperation with third countries in 2017: ▻http://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/feb/frontex-report-ep-third-countries-coop-2017.pdf (pdf)
It notes the adoption by Frontex of an #International_Cooperation_Strategy 2018-2020, “an integral part of our multi-annual programme” which:
“guides the Agency’s interactions with third countries and international organisations… The Strategy identified the following priority regions with which Frontex strives for closer cooperation: the Western Balkans, Turkey, North and West Africa, Sub-Saharan countries and the Horn of Africa.”
The Strategy can be found in Annex XIII to the 2018-20 Programming Document: ►http://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/feb/frontex-programming-document-2018-20.pdf (pdf).
The 2017 report on cooperation with third countries further notes that Frontex is in dialogue with Senegal, #Niger and Guinea with the aim of signing Working Agreements at some point in the future.
The agency deployed three Frontex #Liaison_Officers in 2017 - to Niger, Serbia and Turkey - while there was also a #European_Return_Liaison_Officer deployed to #Ghana in 2018.
The report boasts of assisting the Commission in implementing informal agreements on return (as opposed to democratically-approved readmission agreements):
"For instance, we contributed to the development of the Standard Operating Procedures with #Bangladesh and the “Good Practices for the Implementation of Return-Related Activities with the Republic of Guinea”, all forming important elements of the EU return policy that was being developed and consolidated throughout 2017."
At the same time:
“The implementation of 341 Frontex coordinated and co-financed return operations by charter flights and returning 14 189 third-country nationals meant an increase in the number of return operations by 47% and increase of third-country nationals returned by 33% compared to 2016.”
Those return operations included Frontex’s:
“first joint return operation to #Afghanistan. The operation was organised by Hungary, with Belgium and Slovenia as participating Member States, and returned a total of 22 third country nationals to Afghanistan. In order to make this operation a success, the participating Member States and Frontex needed a coordinated support of the European Commission as well as the EU Delegation and the European Return Liaison Officers Network in Afghanistan.”
▻http://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/feb/frontex-report-third-countries.htm
#externalisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #frontières #contrôles_frontaliers
#Balkans #Turquie #Afrique_de_l'Ouest #Afrique_du_Nord #Afrique_sub-saharienne #Corne_de_l'Afrique #Guinée #Sénégal #Serbie #officiers_de_liaison #renvois #expulsions #accords_de_réadmission #machine_à_expulsion #Hongrie #Belgique #Slovénie #réfugiés_afghans
BIMCO Calls on EU, China and U.S. to Support Counter-Piracy Ops in Gulf of Guinea – gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/bimco-calls-on-eu-china-and-u-s-to-support-counter-piracy-ops-in-gulf-of-g
The EU, China, and the U.S. need to step up their support of counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Guinea amid a scourge of attacks and kidnappings in the region, international shipping association BIMCO said Wednesday.
Around 40 ships have been attacked in the Gulf of Guinea in the past 12 months. Most recently, six seafarers were kidnapped from the MSC Mandy, which was on the way to Lagos, Nigeria.
BIMCO called piracy in the Gulf of Guinea an unacceptable burden to seafarers and shipping companies, BIMCO said in a press release. For this reason, BIMCO is asking on behalf of its members that maritime powers increase their presence and expand their collaboration with local states to curb piracy.
“We look towards the EU, China and the United States to join forces and deploy naval capacity in the Gulf of Guinea to end this constant threat to seafarers,“ Jakob P. Larsen, BIMCO Head of Maritime Security, says.
In the 2013 Yaoundé Code of Conduct, states in the Gulf of Guinea recognized that piracy constituted an issue and initiated several initiatives to strengthen maritime security. The Yaoundé Code of Conduct was inspired by the United Nations’ Security Council Resolution 2018 (2011) and 2039 (2012) and contains several initiatives to strengthen maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.
]]>Guinea and the bully
▻https://africasacountry.com/2018/09/guinea-and-the-bully
Now that the 2018 World Cup fever has passed and France has stopped arguing about the role and place of Africa in
]]>IMB Report Shows Persistent Piracy and Kidnapping Risk in Gulf of Guinea – gCaptain
▻http://gcaptain.com/imb-report-shows-persistent-piracy-and-kidnapping-risk-in-gulf-of-guinea
All crew kidnappings reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre during the first six months of 2018 occurred in the Gulf of Guinea in six separate incidents, highlighting the persistent risk of maritime piracy and armed robbery against ships in the region, the IMB said in its 2018 first-half report.
►https://www.icc-ccs.org/piracy-reporting-centre/request-piracy-report
A total of 107 incidents were reported to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre from January through June of this year.
]]>Je commence ici un fil sur les statistiques #2018 des arrivées de migrants par la mer en Italie.
Ce fil complète la liste de liens concernant (surtout) les statistiques de #2017:
►https://seenthis.net/messages/667569
#Italie #Méditerranée #arrivées #statistiques #chiffres #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Méditerranée_centrale
]]>African migrants report torture, slavery in Algeria
Dozens of Africans say they were sold for labour and trapped in slavery in Algeria in what aid agencies fear may be a widening trend of abusing migrants headed for a new life in Europe.
Algerian authorities could not be reached for comment and several experts cast doubt on claims that such abuses are widespread in the north African country.
The tightly governed state has become a popular gateway to the Mediterranean since it became tougher to pass through Libya, where slavery, rape and torture are rife. [nL8N1JX57L] [nL8N1R32QD]
Amid a surge in anti-migrant sentiment, Algeria since late last year has sent thousands of migrants back over its southern border into Niger, according to the United Nations Migration Agency (IOM), where many tell stories of exploitation.
The scale of abuse is not known, but an IOM survey of thousands of migrants suggested it could rival Libya.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation heard detailed accounts of forced labour and slavery from an international charity and a local association in Agadez, Niger’s main migrant transit hub, and interviewed two of the victims by telephone.
“The first time they sold me for 100,000 CFA francs ($170),” said Ousmane Bah, a 21-year-old from Guinea who said he was sold twice in Algeria by unknown captors and worked in construction.
“They took our passports. They hit us. We didn’t eat. We didn’t drink,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “I was a slave for six months.”
Accounts of abuse are similar, said Abdoulaye Maizoumbou, a project coordinator for global charity Catholic Relief Services. Of about 30 migrants he met who were deported from Algeria, about 20 said they had been enslaved, he said.
In most cases, migrants said they were sold in and around the southern city of Tamanrasset shortly after entering the country, often by smugglers of their own nationality, he said.
Some said they were tortured in order to blackmail their parents into paying the captors, but even when the money arrived they were forced to work for no pay, or sold, said Maizoumbou.
One man told the Thomson Reuters Foundation he slept in a sheep pen and suffered beatings if an animal got sick or dirty.
“They would bring out machetes and I would get on my knees and apologise and they would let it go,” said Ogounidje Tange Mazu, from Togo.
The IOM in Algeria has received three reports this year from friends and relatives of African migrants held hostage and forced to work in the country. “It’s probably just an indication that it is happening. How big it is we don’t know,” said its chief of mission Pascal Reyntjens.
TWO SIDES TO THE STORY
Several analysts considered it unlikely that slavery was widespread in Algeria, since the country has a functioning judiciary and strong police force - unlike Libya.
Algerian authorities could not be reached for comment, but a senior official said last week the country is facing a “surge of migration” and needs more help. [nL5N1ST568]
In a statement this month, the government rejected reports from a U.N. human rights team that its mass deportations of migrants were inhuman, saying that it is doing what is necessary to ensure the safety of its citizens.
“I would be very surprised that (slavery) would be allowed to happen in Algeria,” said Issandr El Amrani, North Africa project director for the International Crisis Group.
“The situation is just not comparable to Libya,” he added.
But in the ghettos of Agadez, Niger’s main transit hub, some people told a different story.
“What happens in Algeria surpasses what happens in Libya,” said Bachir Amma, a Nigerien ex-smuggler who runs a football club and a local association to inform migrants of the risks.
Migrants in Libya are often starved and beaten by armed groups, and there have been reports of “open slave markets” where migrants are put on sale, according to the U.N. human rights office. [nL8N1R32QD]
Amma said he had spoken with more than 75 migrants back from Algeria, the majority of whom described slave-like conditions.
“NGOs don’t know about this because they’re too interested in Libya,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In 2016, the IOM surveyed about 6,300 migrants in Niger, most of whom had returned from Algeria and Libya. Sixty-five percent of those who had lived in Algeria said they had experienced violence and abuse, compared to 61 percent in Libya. An estimated 75,000 migrants live in Algeria, the IOM said.
($1 = 582.8800 CFA francs)
No food, no water: African migrants recount terrifying Atlantic crossing
Men rescued off Brazil after 35 days at sea tell of harrowing 3,000km journey on which some drank urine to survive.
In the days after the food and water had run out, as the catamaran drifted helplessly in the Atlantic with a snapped mast and broken motor, there was nothing left to do but pray, said Muctarr Mansaray, 27.
“I pray every day. I pray a lot at that particular moment. I don’t sleep at night,” he said.
Mansaray and 24 other African migrants had set out from the African nation of Cape Verde in April, on what they were told by the two Brazilian crewmen would be a relatively quick and easy voyage to a new country where they hoped to find work.
This weekend, they were rescued by fishermen 80 miles off the coast of Brazil, after an incredible 3,000km (1,864-mile) journey across the Atlantic.
The men, from Senegal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau had been at sea for 35 days – the last few days without food and water.
Details have now begun to emerge of the men’s terrifying and chaotic voyage in a 12-metre catamaran barely big enough for them to squeeze on. When food and water ran out, some even drank sea water and urine.
“After 35 days of journey in these conditions it is really lucky that nobody died,” said Luis Almeida, head of the federal police’s immigration department in São Luís, the capital of Maranhão state.
“There was not a cabin for all of them, so they were exposed to a lot of sun and solar radiation during these 35 days,” he said. The rescued men were disorientated, dehydrated and some had problems seeing after so long exposed to the glare of sun reflected on the waves.
Almeida said the case was unprecedented: African stowaways have been found on cargo ships in Maranhão ports before, but this was the first time a boatload of migrants had arrived in the state. The two Brazilians also on the boat were arrested for promoting illegal immigrations.
The journey began in the island nation of Cape Verde, 400 miles west of Senegal.
Mansaray, a Muslim from Freetown in Sierra Leone, had moved there five years ago to study science and technology with hopes of becoming a teacher. He studied for two years but was struggling to pay his university fees and working as a cellphone repairman.
“They called me the cellphone doctor,” he told the Guardian by phone from São Luís.
A friend who is a student in São Paulo told him he could study for free in Brazil’s biggest city and would be able to send money home to his elderly parents and sister in Freetown. “I said, cool, that’s why I got that boat,” he said.
He said he had been introduced to a Brazilian on the street and then paid $700 (£521) for what he was told would be a 22-day passage.
He became scared when he saw the size of the vessel he was about to cross the Atlantic on.
“I am the last to arrive, when I enter on the boat, a lot of guys, oh my God, is this going to be safe all of us?” he said. “How can I do this journey? Because I am already in, I cannot discourage other people, so I find courage and go.”
‘The motor broke, and the sail broke’
Others had paid more on the promise that they would be given food, but within 10 days the food had run out, so the men survived on two biscuits or a few spoonfuls of food each day. One day, one man caught a fish with a rope.
“We boiled a fish, and everybody eat,” Mansaray said.
But the mast snapped when one of the boat’s crew was trying to tie it to the other side of the boat, he said, and the motor would not work because the crew had mixed kerosene and diesel. A storm came as a relief because at least there was rainwater to drink.
Elhadji Mountakha Beye, 36, was hit on the head when the mast broke and has been left with a scar. The mechanic from Dakar in Senegal had previously lived in Cape Verde, and paid €1,000 (£877) for his passage in the hope of finding work in Brazil where he hoped to meet up with a Senegalese friend in São Paulo. “There is better work there than in Senegal,” he said.
He described a hellish journey.
“It was tiring, there was no food, the food ran out, the water ran out,” he said. “Just on that sea. The motor broke, and the sail broke. Now just wait for someone to help us.”
Just as the situation was becoming dire, the men aboard the drifting vessel spotted a fishing boat and signalled that they were in distress. The fishermen, from nearby Ceará state, towed the catamaran to the nearby port of São José de Ribamar.
“The next day someone would have died,” Moisés dos Santos, one of the fishermen, told reporters when the men landed. “They said they ate two biscuits a day. They even drank urine, that’s what they say, they told us. We felt very honoured to save the lives of a lot of people.”
The men were met by a medical team from the Maranhão state government’s secretariat of human rights, taken to a health post for checks and then housed in a local gymnasium.
“All of them said life was precarious in their origin countries and they all have relatives or people they know living in Brazil. They were looking for a better life and to work in Brazil,” said Jonata Galvão, the state’s adjunct secretary for human rights.
Federal police said they were now evaluating a “migratory solution” for the men to stay in Brazil.
“We are not criminals. We are hard-working guys. So I believe that the government will help us to do that,” Mantsaray said. “It is my dream, and I believe my dream will come true with the help of God, and I can support my family back home.”
This story was amended on 23 May 2018 to correct the length of the journey across the Atlantic. It is 3,000km, not 3,000 miles.
#parcours_migratoires #océan_atlantique #atlantique #Afrique #Afrique_de_l'Ouest #Brésil
via @isskein
J’essaie de réunir ici quelques liens déjà sur seenthis sur la #persécution de citoyens de #Turquie à l’#étranger, suite à la #purge après le #coup :
▻http://seen.li/d36u
#Allemagne
▻http://seen.li/e8dx
#Belgique #Suisse
Turquie : Erdoğan traque les collaborateurs de Gülen dans tous les Balkans
▻https://www.courrierdesbalkans.fr/Turquie-Erdogan-traque-les-collaborateurs-de-Gulen-dans-tous-les-
#Balkans #Albanie #Bosnie-Herzégovine #purge
cc @isskein
Vers la création d’une Académie pour le #judéo-espagnol, #ladino, #sefardi, …
Située en Israel et affiliée à la Real Academia Española. Débats…
Una RAE para la lengua sefardí | Cultura | EL PAÍS
▻https://elpais.com/cultura/2018/02/18/actualidad/1518954881_674484.html (article du 19/02/2018)
Van a ser dos jornadas de debates y ponencias de académicos del idioma español y expertos en lengua sefardí, la nacida de la dispersión geográfica de los judíos de la península Ibérica tras su expulsión a finales del siglo XV. Más de cinco siglos después de aquel éxodo, la Real Academia Española (RAE) acoge hoy, lunes, y mañana una convención sobre la constitución en Israel de una sede hermana de la RAE, que sería la número 24 y se sumaría, si estas lo aprueban, a las existentes en España, América, Filipinas y Guinea Ecuatorial. Esa nueva academia, un deseo desde hace años del director de la RAE, Darío Villanueva, preservaría «el ladino tal y como es, sin homologarlo al español actual».
[…]
Otras voces son menos entusiastas. «Los lingüistas no necesitamos precisamente una academia, aunque también estamos a favor, por supuesto. Lo que queremos es financiación para investigar porque nosotros ya hacemos a diario en las universidades esa labor de trabajar con los textos ladinos. Hace 50 años hubiera sido muy útil. Pero hoy es difícil imaginar cuál puede ser su utilidad. Una cuestión lingüística no es, desde luego», explica uno de los 11 académicos correspondientes, la española Aldina Quintana, doctora en Filología Hispanica. Otra de ellas, Laura Minervini, catedrática de Filología Románica en la Universidad Federico II de Nápoles, se muestra «escéptica sobre la posibilidad de revitalizar» esta lengua.
Otro debate es cómo debe denominarse. ¿Ladino, judeoespañol, sefardí, judezmo? “Eso lo tendrán que decidir los miembros de la nueva academia. Nosotros no queremos caer en paternalismos”, explica el director de la RAE. Judeoespañol es el término académico preferido en España, mientras que en Israel se opta por ladino. «No se debe usar ladino porque los propios sefardíes de las generaciones pasadas nunca han llamado así a su lengua», opina la española Elena Romero, doctora en Filología Semítica y académica correspondiente.
]]>Venezuela vuelve a perder temporalmente derecho a voto en la ONU por impago
▻http://www.el-nacional.com/noticias/mundo/venezuela-vuelve-perder-temporalmente-derecho-voto-onu-por-impago_22289
Venezuela perdió este lunes temporalmente su derecho a voto en la Asamblea General de la ONU a causa del impago de sus aportaciones, según dijo la organización.
El país estuvo en la misma situación el año pasado, cuando posteriormente recuperó el derecho a votar en ese órgano tras abonar parte de su deuda.
Las normas de la ONU establecen la pérdida del derecho de voto en la Asamblea General para los Estados miembros que tienen pendientes pagos al presupuesto de la organización por una cantidad igual o superior a las contribuciones que les correspondían durante los dos años anteriores.
Stéphane Dujarric, portavoz de Naciones Unidas, dijo hoy que, a fecha 29 de enero, ocho países estaban en esa situación.
Además de Venezuela, se trata de la República Centroafricana, Dominica, Guinea Ecuatorial, Granada, Libia, Surinam y Yemen.
Las reglas de la ONU permiten excepciones para Estados miembros que se enfrentan a situaciones extraordinarias.
En este caso, la Asamblea General determinó el pasado octubre que Comoras, Guinea Bissau, Santo Tomé y Príncipe y Somalia puedan votar durante el actual periodo de sesiones a pesar de no haber abonado las cantidades correspondientes al presupuesto de la organización.
]]>Asylum statistics 2017: Shifting patterns, persisting disparities*
Despite reports of asylum applications “dropping off drastically” in the European Union throughout 2017, statistics published by national authorities seem to reveal a more complex picture across the continent.
Germany witnessed a dramatic decrease in applications registered last year (222,683) compared to the year before (745,545). It should be recalled that the majority of people lodging applications in 2016 had in fact arrived in 2015. Nevertheless, Germany still spearheads Europe’s reception of people seeking protection, far ahead of countries such as Italy and France.
Significant reduction has been witnessed in 2017 compared to 2016 in Hungary (29,423 to 3,397) and Bulgaria (19,418 to 3,700). On the other hand, more claims were received in Italy (123.482 to 130,180), France (85,244 to 100,412), Belgium (18,710 to 19,688), Norway (3,460 to 3,546) and Slovenia (1,308 to 1,476).
Substantial drops in overall recognition rates were marked in Germany (71.4 to 53%) and Sweden (77.4% to 46.9%) in the course of 2017, even though the main nationalities of persons seeking asylum in those countries have remained the same. Conversely, countries including Belgium (59.5 to 64.6%), Italy (39.4 to 40%), Hungary (8.5 to 29.7%) and Poland (16.6 to 19.5%) had higher recognition rates in 2017 compared to 2016.
Asylum seekers from Afghanistan continue to face an ‘asylum lottery’ as their chances of obtaining a form of protection (Recognition Rates) ranged from 83.1% in France to 58% in Belgium, 47% in Germany and 30% in Hungary. Decision-making in countries such as Bulgaria, where Afghan claims are treated as “manifestly unfounded” and face “strikingly low” recognition rates, has attracted concern from the European Commission, as per a letter to the Bulgarian authorities.
▻https://www.ecre.org/asylum-statistics-2017-shifting-patterns-persisting-disparities
#2017 #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Europe #statistiques #chiffres
Saudi preacher shot dead in Guinea village | News24
▻https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/saudi-preacher-shot-dead-in-guinea-village-20180117
A Saudi Arabian preacher was shot dead in Guinea’s east after organising a prayer service that angered some villagers in the majority-Muslim West African country, local sources said on Wednesday.
The man, who was a member of a mission building mosques in Upper Guinea, was killed on Tuesday night in the village of Kantebalandougou, between the towns Kankan and Kerouane.
[…]
Saudi Arabia has long faced accusations of exporting Wahhabism, its ultra-conservative form of Islam, which has been gaining popularity across West Africa.
]]>Je pensais avoir archivé sur seenthis un article (au moins) qui montrait qu’une partie des personnes rapatriées (#retours_volontaires), par l’#OIM (#IOM) notamment, du #Niger et de #Libye vers leurs pays d’origine reprenaient la route du Nord aussitôt...
Mais je ne retrouve plus cet article... est-ce que quelque seenthisien se rappelle de cela ? ça serait super !
#renvois #expulsions #migrations #réfugiés #retour_volontaire
J’étais presque sûre d’avoir utilisé le tag #migrerrance, mais apparemment pas...
]]>MIGRATORY FLOWS IN NOVEMBER : ARRIVALS DOWN IN ITALY AND GREECE, RISE IN SPAIN
▻http://frontex.europa.eu/pressroom/news/migratory-flows-in-november-arrivals-down-in-italy-and-greece-rise-in
▻http://frontex.europa.eu/thumb/Images_News/2017/B33I4720.prop_300x.fe14a18856.JPG
In November, 13 500 irregular border crossings were detected on the four main migratory routes into the EU, 27% fewer than a year ago.
The total number of migrants detected on these routes in the first eleven months of this year fell by 62% to around 186 500 from the same period in 2016.
Central Mediterranean
The number of migrants arriving in Italy via the Central Mediterranean route in November fell by a tenth from the previous month to 5 300 due to worse weather conditions, following a usual seasonal pattern.
The total number of arrivals for the first 11 months of 2017 dropped by a third to around 116 400 compared to the same period of last year. Nigerians made up the largest number of irregular migrants coming to Italy so far this year, accounting for one of every seven arrivals. They were followed by nationals of Guinea, Ivory Coast and Bangladesh.
Western Mediterranean
Spain continued to see a high number of irregular migrants, with 3 900 arriving in November, more than three times the figure from a year ago. This was also the highest monthly number of migrants detected on this route since Frontex began collecting data in 2009.
More than half of the migrants were nationals of Algeria and Morocco, whose numbers have been on the rise since the middle of this year. Most of the remaining migrants on this route come from Western Africa.
Between January and November, there were more than 21 100 detections of irregular border crossing in the Western Mediterranean region, up 140% from the same period of last year.
]]>L’#Union_Africaine s’active pour un plan de rapatriement des migrants en #Libye
L’ONU, l’Union Européenne et l’Union Africaine se sont données rendez-vous ce 04 novembre à Addis Abeba au siège de l’organisation panafricaine pour la mise en œuvre d’un plan de #rapatriement de migrants bloqués en Libye en partenariat avec l’Organisation Internationale pour les Migrations (l’#OIM).
Il s’agira d’abord pour les organisations régionales et internationales de mettre en place « une #cellule_opérationnelle » qui coordonnera le rapatriement de 15.000. Ensuite, mobiliser le fonds pour la réussite de cette opération.
A cet effet, le #Maroc a fait une promesse, celle de contribuer au transport des migrants et le #Rwanda d’accueillir 3000 qui ne veulent pas retourner dans leur pays d’origine.
▻http://rjdh.org/ethiopie-lunion-africaine-sactive-pour-un-plan-de-rapatriement-des-migrants-en
#UE #EU #ONU #OIM #IOM (tous complices !) #sommet #rencontre #plan #expulsions #Libye #asile #migrations #renvois #réfugiés #Sommet_UA-UE
Et l’article parle de l’étonnement face à la vidéo de la CNN qui a montré les tortures perpétrées aux migrants en Libye :
Le reportage de CNN sur la traite des migrants subsahariens et leur soumission à l’esclavage avaient indigné l’opinion africaine internationale. Après une mission de l’UA dans « l’enfer libyen » et le Sommet UA-UE, les responsables de l’organisation onusienne, européenne et africaine se réunissent pour mobiliser les moyens et réfléchir sur un plan de rapatriement des migrants en Libye.
#hypocrisie, on le sait depuis des années !
Maritime #Piracy Down in 2017 (and Other Key Takeaways From IMB’s Latest Piracy Report) – gCaptain
▻http://gcaptain.com/maritime-piracy-down-in-2017-and-other-key-takeaways-from-imbs-latest-pira
Global maritime piracy has so far declined in 2017 compared to 2016 with a total of 121 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships reported in the first nine months of this year, according to the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) International Maritime Bureau’s (#IMB) latest quarterly report on maritime piracy.
The flagship global report notes that, while piracy rates were down compared to the same period in 2016, there is continuing concern over attacks in the Gulf of Guinea and in South East Asia. The increase in attacks off the coast of Venezuela and other security incidents against vessels off Libya – including an attempted boarding in the last quarter – highlights the need for vigilance in other areas. In total, 92 vessels were boarded, 13 were fired upon, there were 11 attempted attacks and five vessels were hijacked in the first nine months of 2017.
Résumé en 4 points (3 premiers trimestres 2017)
►https://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php/1237-4-takeaways-from-the-imb-s-latest-global-piracy-report
1. Malaysia’s success story
2. Nigeria remains risky
3. An uptick in violence off Venezuela
4. Tackling piracy is a team effort
rapport de l’IMB sur la #piraterie (sur demande)
►https://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php/1237-4-takeaways-from-the-imb-s-latest-global-piracy-report
Piracy Situation Still Serious In The Gulf Of Guinea
▻http://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/piracy-situation-still-serious-gulf-guinea
European shipowners are concerned about the continued piracy, armed robbery attacks and kidnapping for ransom events in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG), and particularly off Nigeria.
According to the latest International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy report in total 33 vessels were boarded and four fired upon in the first three months of 2017 worldwide. During the same period, of the 27 seafarers kidnapped for ransom, 63% were in the Gulf of Guinea.
]]>The U.S. wants to deport more Eritreans. Here’s what would happen if they were forced to return.
“Our goal is to get countries to agree to accept the return of their nationals,” David Lapan, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman, told reporters Wednesday.
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/08/24/the-us-wants-to-deport-more-eritreans-heres-what-would-happen-to-the
#renvois #expulsions #asile #migrations #réfugiés #réfugiés_érythréens #Etats-Unis
On y apprend ici (▻http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/23/4-countries-sanctioned-because-of-refusal-to-accep) qu’il y a 12 pays considérés comme #récalcitrants par les USA:
Twelve countries are currently on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s list of “recalcitrant” nations that seriously hinder deportations: China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Iran, Guinea, Cambodia, Eritrea, Myanmar, Morocco, Hong Kong and South Sudan.
#Chine #Cuba #Vietnam #Laos #Iran #Guinée #Cambodge #Erythrée #Myanmar #Birmanie #Maroc #Hong_Kong #Soudan_du_Sud #Sud_Soudan
Les possibles #sanctions?
He wouldn’t name the four countries that will be hit with visa sanctions, saying it is up to the State Department to decide how severely to punish the countries, but under the law at least some of their citizens — if not all — could be denied the ability to obtain immigrant or visitor visas to travel to the U.S.
]]>Punish the smuggler or reward the smuggler? Recent refugee arrivals in Greece
Media coverage of the refugee situation in Greece focuses heavily on the Syrians and secondarily on Afghans and Iraqis. While these are indeed the three most highly represented nationalities among asylum seekers in Greece, the past six to twelve months have seen a gradual shift.
Fast forward to 2017, taking the period from 10 May to 27 June 2017, a total of 982 asylum seekers reached the island of Lesvos. The top nationalities were: DRC (202), Syria (160), Iraq (116), Afghanistan (61). The rest were from Iran, Kuwait (Bidoon), Palestine, Guinea, Eritrea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Yemen, Togo, Gambia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Sri Lanka, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Sudan and Nigeria. One person each came from Bolivia, Cuba, South Africa, Haiti and Uganda. Similar trends are noted on the other islands which act as the entry point to Greece.
Those of us acquainted with Moria reception and identification centre in Lesvos have noticed the nationality change among the new arrivals over the last two years: many more Africans and less Arabs. Groups of Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans are still coming grouped together, while Africans from different nationalities arrive in different groups with other nationalities. The smuggling fees vary according to nationality.
One may wonder why people from Africa, whether northern or sub-Sahara, take the route to Europe through Greece, rather than the intuitively more direct route to Italy or Spain. A look at flight routes and visa regimes provides the answer. One may reach the Greek islands from as far away as central Africa, using Turkish Airlines, a Turkish visa and a smuggler picked at Istanbul airport or the Aegean coast, for less than 1,500 dollars total.
Turkish Airlines has 200 destinations worldwide and at reasonable prices. For example, one way flight from Kinshasa to Istanbul costs 833 dollars, Abidjan to Istanbul, 709 dollars and Casablanca to Istanbul 458 dollars.
Secondly, visas for Turkey are generally easily obtained. From the nationalities arriving in Lesvos in June, all except Cubans and Palestinians, depending on where they were registered, are exempt from any visa requirement or need only an electronic visa, easily obtained online for the cost of 20 dollars.
Eritreans are often rejected asylum seekers from Israel, deported to Rwanda with cash, which they use to escape again through the Aegean route. Women from the Dominican Republic are usually trafficked to Turkey and once they manage to escape to Greece, seek assistance to return to their country. Citizens of sub-Saharan Africa come from a number of conflicts in the region, both internal and cross-border, including purges in the DRC and the Boko Haram. North Africans face chronic instability in their countries.
▻https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/fotini-rantsiou/punish-smuggler-or-reward-smuggler-recent-refugee-arrivals-in-greece
#Grèce #mer_Egée #asile #migrations #réfugiés #parcours_migratoires #Turquie #routes_migratoires #Afrique #réfugiés_syriens #Turkish_airlines #visas #réfugiés_érythtréens
]]>EXCLUSIVE: Documents expose how Hollywood promotes war on behalf of the Pentagon, CIA and NSA
US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows
▻https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/exclusive-documents-expose-direct-us-military-intelligence-influence-on-1-80
We have recently acquired 4,000 new pages of documents from the #Pentagon and CIA through the Freedom of Information Act. For us, these documents were the final nail in the coffin.
These documents for the first time demonstrate that the US government has worked behind the scenes on over 800 major #movies and more than 1,000 TV titles.
The previous best estimate, in a dull-as-dishwater academic book way back in 2005, was that the Pentagon had worked on less than 600 #films and an unspecified handful of television shows.
The CIA’s role was assumed to be just a dozen or so productions, until very good books by Tricia Jenkins and Simon Willmetts were published in 2016. But even then, they missed or underplayed important cases, including Charlie Wilson’s War and Meet the Parents.
[...]
#Vietnam is evidently another sore topic for the US military, which also removed a reference to the war from the screenplay for Hulk (2003). While the military are not credited at the end of the film, on IMDB or in the DOD’s own database of supported movies, we acquired a dossier from the US Marine Corps detailing their ‘radical’ changes to the script.
This included making the laboratory where the #Hulk is accidentally created into a non-military facility, making the director of the lab an ex-military character, and changing the code name of the military operation to capture the Hulk from ‘ #Ranch_Hand ’ to ‘Angry Man’.
▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opération_Ranch_Hand
‘Ranch Hand’ is the name of a real military operation that saw the #US_Air_Force dump millions of gallons of pesticides and other poisons onto the Vietnamese countryside, rendering millions of acres of farmland poisoned and infertile.
They also removed dialogue referring to ‘all those boys, guinea pigs, dying from radiation, and germ warfare’, an apparent reference to covert military experiments on human subjects.
[...]
The #CIA has also managed to #censor scripts, removing or changing sequences that they didn’t want the public to see. On #Zero_Dark_Thirty screenwriter Mark Boal ‘verbally shared’ his script with CIA officers, and they removed a scene where a drunk CIA officer fires an AK-47 into the air from a rooftop in #Islamabad, and removed the use of dogs from the #torture scenes.
[...]
While very little is known about the NSA’s activities in the entertainment industry we did find indications that they are adopting similar tactics to the CIA and DOD.
Internal #NSA emails show that the producers of #Enemy_of_the_State were invited on multiple tours of NSA headquarters. When they used a helicopter to film aerial footage of Fort Meade, the NSA did not prevent them from using it in the movie.
According to a 1998 interview with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, they changed the script at the NSA’s request so that the wrongdoings were the actions of one bad apple NSA official, and not the agency in general.
Bruckheimer said:
‘I think the NSA people will be pleased. They certainly won’t come out as bad as they could have. NSA’s not the villain.’
This idea of using cinema to pin the blame for problems on isolated rogue agents or bad apples, thus avoiding any notion of systemic, institutional or criminal responsibility, is right out of the CIA/DOD’s playbook.
]]>What Both the Left and Right Get Wrong About Race - Issue 48: Chaos
▻http://nautil.us/issue/48/chaos/what-both-the-left-and-right-get-wrong-about-race
Race does not stand up scientifically, period. To begin with, if race categories were meant primarily to capture differences in genetics, they are doing an abysmal job. The genetic distance between some groups within Africa is as great as the genetic distance between many “racially divergent” groups in the rest of the world. The genetic distance between East Asians and Europeans is shorter than the divergence between Hazda in north-central Tanzania to the Fulani shepherds of West Africa (who live in present-day Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Guinea). So much for Black, White, Asian, and Other. Armed with this knowledge, many investigators in the biological sciences have replaced the term “race” with the term “continental ancestry.” This in part reflects a rejection of “race” as a biological (...)
]]>Stream 8,000 Vintage Afropop Recordings Digitized & Made Available by The British Library
▻http://www.openculture.com/2017/03/stream-8000-vintage-afropop-recordings-digitized-made-available-by-the-
Africans Face Dead End After Death-Defying Odyssey to U.S.
The number of Africans crossing the Americas to seek refuge in the U.S. grew tenfold last year. Now survivors of that long, expensive and dangerous journey face shrinking prospects of reaching the U.S. and more hardships in Mexico amid Trump’s immigration crackdown.
In the Mexican border town of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, a 27-year-old Somali man made inquiries at a grotty inn called the Imperial Hotel. He had arrived in Mexico a day earlier.
Nadir C. fled Somalia several years ago after falling in love with a woman from a rival tribe. Pursued by her family, he escaped to Kenya, before traveling on to Uganda and South Sudan.
By the #Light of the arrivals gate
▻http://africasacountry.com/2017/02/by-the-light-of-the-arrivals-gate
For more than a decade, night-time arrivals at Gbessia International Airport in #Conakry, #Guinea, were greeted by dozens and sometimes hundreds of secondary school students studying in the parking lot. A foreign visitor’s bemusement would quickly evaporate, however, as they noticed that beyond the bright lights of the partially French-owned and operated airport, block after…
#CULTURE #documentary #education #Film #Future #infrastructure #Power #Review #Youth
]]>Gambians Return to Their Homeland With Hopes of Reform
Thousands of Gambian refugees are returning from Senegal as the country’s new president pledges stability and reform. Exiled Gambian journalist Sanna Camara reports from the border region on the hopes of returning refugees.
#retour_au_pays #asile #migrations #réfugiés #réfugiés_gambiens #Gambie #Sénégal
]]>Spark of Science : Pardis Sabeti - Issue 44 : Luck
▻http://nautil.us/issue/44/luck/spark-of-science-pardis-sabeti
During the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa in 2014, Pardis Sabeti led a team that sequenced virus genomes from infected patients, determining that the disease had most likely diverged from a strain in central Africa a decade earlier, and was transmitted through human contact, this time from a funeral in Guinea to Sierra Leone. Since then, Sabeti, a computational geneticist at Harvard University and the Broad Institute, has continued studying the genomes and evolution of a range of other microbes, looking for factors that play a role in epidemics in order to develop methods of intervention. “What an amazing and fulfilling life the life of a scientist can be,” she says. Sabeti was born in Tehran, Iran. Her family fled the coming 1979 Iranian Revolution when she was 2 years old (...)
]]>Guinea inks $770 mln contract with Chinese firm to develop main port | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/guinea-economy-idUSL8N1CU6UA
China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) signed a $770 million contract with Guinea’s government on Monday to upgrade the port in the capital, Conakry, expanding Chinese economic influence in the West African iron and bauxite producer.
Under the contact, CHEC, a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Co Ltd, will construct three docks, roads and other infrastructure in the eastern zone of the port, providing parking for up to 600 trucks.
The port in Conakry handles nearly all goods shipped into Guinea, and to some landlocked neighbours like Mali. French logistics giant Bollore Group runs the port’s adjacent containers terminal.
]]>Pirates attack and loot container ship off Guinea coast | News by Country | Reuters
▻http://af.reuters.com/article/guineaNews/idAFL8N1BX3TG
Pirates stormed a container ship off the coast of Guinea on Wednesday, making off with money and some of its cargo but leaving the crew unharmed, the government said.
They fired guns and briefly held the crew hostage while they were looting the ship named Wendok, Guinea government spokesman Albert Camara said by telephone.
He did not have details of the flag Wendok was flying under, the company running it, what its cargo was nor the nationalities of the crew.
]]>Great Barrier Reef and the Amazon Rainforest Among Outstanding Natural Sites Under Threat from French Multinationals
▻http://multinationales.org/Great-Barrier-Reef-and-the-Amazon-Rainforest-Among-Outstanding-Natu
Half of World Heritage sites are currently threatened by industrial development, and the oil and mining sectors pose a particular threat. So many invaluable sites and #biodiversity sanctuaries face being wiped off the map just because we are unable to do anything about our voracious model of development. Several French transnational corporations are among those involved in projects that could herald the end of these exceptional sites. Some of the sites facing destruction include national (...)
/ A la une, #Extractive_Industries, #Australia, #Brazil, #Canada, #Guatemala, #Guinea, #Indonesia, #Malaysia, #Netherlands, #Peru, #DR_Congo, São Tomé, #ArcelorMittal, #Areva, Bolloré, #EDF, Engie (ex GDF Suez), #Eramet, #Lafarge, #Maurel_et_Prom, #Perenco, #Total, #Socfin, (...)
#São_Tomé #Bolloré #Engie_ex_GDF_Suez_ #Energy #Extractive_Industries #environmental_impact #resource_overexploitation #extractive_industries
“►https://www.bastamag.net/De-la-Grande-barriere-de-corail-a-l-Amazonie-ces-sites-naturels-d-exceptio”
“►http://www.wwf.fr/vous_informer/actualites/?7841/La-moitie-des-sites-du-Patrimoine-mondial-sont-menaces-par-des-activites-industr”
“►http://whc.unesco.org/fr/peril”
“►http://www.socfin.com/Files/media/News/2016-03-04---Menaces-sur-forets-africaines.pdf”
“►http://www.perenco.com”
“►http://e360.yale.edu/feature/how_nations_are_chipping_away_their_protected_lands/2989”
“►http://www.padddtracker.org”
“►http://marketforces.org.au/banks/map”
“►http://www.societegenerale.com/sites/default/files/documents/Document%20RSE/Finance%20responsable/Principes%20Generaux%20Environnementaux%20et%20Sociaux%20de%20nos%2”
“►https://www.societegenerale.com/sites/default/files/documents/Document%20RSE/Finance%20responsable/Politique%20Transversale%20Biodiversit%C3%A9.pdf”
“►http://blog.greenpeace.fr/bollore-zero-deforestation”
“►http://forets.greenpeace.fr/la-socfin-menace-toujours-les-forets-africaines”
Migration Maps
In 2013, Group 484 invited several artists to work with asylum seekers in an asylum centre near the village of
#Bogovadja, near Valjevo. At that time, the number of migrants in Serbia was not nearly as large as it is today.
The issue of migration, except in the narrow circles of activists and individual organisations, was neither
visible nor topical. In Bogovadja we met people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Guinea, Senegal,
Syria while they were spending days in the centre, reporting to the police station upon entering Serbia
illegally and expressing their intention to seek asylum.
We did not want to frame people as victims, avoiding the prism of humanitarian paternalism which is often the
basis of art projects, but as courageous people who, by the very fact that they had decided to set out on such
a journey, made a radical change in their life – fleeing war, conflicts and poverty. We were interested when,
how and where they had been travelling before we met them. We asked why they had embarked on such a
journey, what troubles they had survived, how they had crossed borders, what their experiences were
with police and people in the countries they had passed through.
Together we sketched maps, piecing together their routes, which in some cases had taken up to 7 years.
Sometimes the maps lack detail or are unclear, and sometimes they would skip parts of the journey.
We wanted to show their routes factually, and thus draw attention to Europe’s inhumane
asylum policy
#cartographie #visualisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #dessins #esquisses #parcours_migratoires #itinéraires_migratoires
cc @reka
Silencing West Papuan independence supporters overseas
Occupied by Indonesia since 1963, the Western half of the island of #New_Guinea – known to advocates of independence as West Papua – has been the subject of extensive military and intelligence operations for decades.
Abandoned Tanker Mysteriously Washes Ashore in Liberia - gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/abandoned-tanker-mysteriously-washes-ashore-in-liberia
An abandoned oil tanker has mysteriously washed ashore in Liberia leaving officials scratching their heads as to how it got there and what exactly happened to its crew.
According to local reports the vessel emblazoned with the name Tamaya 1 was discovered washed up on a beach in Robertsport, Liberia on Wednesday with no sign of any crew.
AIS data from MarineTraffic.com shows the Tamaya 1 is a 63-meter oil products tanker flagged in Panama. It’s last known position was recorded back on April 22 as the ship was steaming southward at just .7 knots after leaving the port of Dakar in Senegal.
Speculation over the ship has ranged from abandonment to piracy, although the vessel’s last known position was well north of active Gulf of Guinea pirate groups who typically stick to the waters off Nigeria.
Adding to the confusion, the Liberian government is being slammed in the media for being unaware of the ship until two days after it washed ashore, sparking criticism over safety and security in Liberian waters. Other reports have said that a fire was discovered in captain’s quarters.
]]>Violent Pirate Attacks Increase in Gulf of Guinea Despite Global Downturn, IMB Says - gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/violent-pirate-attacks-increase-in-gulf-of-guinea-despite-global-downturn-
While piracy on the high seas continues to fall across most of the globe, International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Center is highlight growing threat of violent attacks in the Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa, where 44 seafarers have been captured so far this year.
Worldwide, just 37 piracy and armed robbery incidents were recorder in the three months of 2016, down from 54 in the same period last year, the IMB said in it’s first quarter report. Three vessels were hijacked and 29 boarded, with 26 crew kidnapped for ransom and a further 28 held hostage.
The Gulf of Guinea dominates world piracy in terms of numbers and severity, with the waters off Nigeria and Ivory Coast accounting for two of the three hijackings recorded globally, and all 28 hostages. From January to March, the region saw 16 crew kidnapped from chemical and product tankers in four separate incidents. While ten attacks were reported off Nigeria alone, all involving guns.
“Reports in the last quarter indicate unacceptable violence against ships and crews in the Gulf of Guinea, particularly around Nigeria. The current increase in kidnappings is a cause for great concern,” said Pottengal Mukundan, Director of IMB, who has monitored world piracy since 1991.
]]>United Nations News Centre - Security Council urges stronger regional approach on eradicating piracy in Gulf of Guinea
▻http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53779
United Nations officials today reiterated a call for a comprehensive regional framework to eradicate piracy and armed robbery at sea in the Gulf of Guinea, with the Security Council stressing the importance of addressing underlying causes and strengthening justice systems and judicial cooperation in the region.
“The Security Council remains deeply concerned about the threat that piracy and armed robbery at sea in the Gulf of Guinea pose to international navigation, the security and economic development of States in the region, to the safety and welfare of seafarers and other persons, as well as the safety of commercial maritime routes,” the 15-member body said in a presidential statement adopted today.
Le presidential statement
▻http://www.franceonu.org/Presidential-Statement-Piracy-and-armed-robbery-at-sea
Mundemba declaration and statement of solidarity: women, communities say NO to oil palm expansion
▻https://www.grain.org/article/entries/5426-mundemba-declaration-and-statement-of-solidarity-women-communities-say-n
We share the concerns of local communities regarding the growing interest in community land for corporate oil palm plantations. The experiences shared during the workshop by the different participants—who came from several countries affected by oil palm plantations and from the home countries of companies involved in this expansion—attest to the dangers communities are facing. In Indonesia, communities have had millions of hectares of land fraudulently taken and destroyed by oil palm companies, and many of these companies are now grabbing lands for plantations in Africa. In many African countries, we see companies systematically failing to keep promises they have made to communities whose lands they have taken through corruption, bribery, lies, intimidation and other devious tactics.
From our field visits to Ndian Town, Fabe, Meangwe II and Ikondo-Kondo resettlement, we witnessed and heard about the tactics and strategies used by oil palm companies. The devastating impacts that plantations have had in other countries are more or less reflected in this part of Cameroon. We witnessed how companies in the area have failed to respect court rulings in favour of the communities or to abide by laws pertaining to the protection of the environment and the acquisition of lands. We are deeply troubled by the intimidation and criminalisation of community leaders and organisers opposed to projects, including the local organiser of this workshop, the Mundemba-based organisation SEFE. We have seen how companies are not providing the basic services and support they promised to communities, such as scholarships, employment, community farms, bridges and roads, royalties, housing, health care, water or utilities. And we have also seen how companies have used divide and conquer tactics to try to break the unity of communities. The companies are not bringing development, but are merely generating poverty, food insecurity, social conflict and environmental destruction.
#industrie_palmiste #insécurité_alimentaire #colonialisme #terres contre #paysannerie #souveraineté_alimentaire
]]>Piracy in Gulf of Guinea Surges in First Three Months of 2016, Dryad Says - gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/piracy-in-gulf-of-guinea-surges-in-first-three-months-of-2016-dryad-says
Despite a global reduction of piracy across international waters during the first three months of 2016, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, including kidnappings for ransom and sabotage, has surged, according to Dryad Maritime’s Q1 2016 analysis of reported incidents of piracy and crime against mariners.
In South East Asia there has been a 50% drop in reported maritime crime compared to the same period in 2015; the lowest figures recorded by Dryad in 10 years. Similarly, the end of Q1 2016 represents the longest period without attacks on MVs underway or at anchor within the Singapore Strait since Q1 2013. Somali piracy continues to be broadly contained with no confirmed attacks on large merchant vessels since January 2014, despite some views that the pirates continue to ‘probe.’
]]>Presidency Of The Republic Of Turkey : “I Neither Obey Nor Respect Constitutional Court’s Ruling”
▻http://www.tccb.gov.tr/en/news/542/39958/anayasa-mahkemesinin-kararina-uymuyorum-saygi-da-duymuyorum.html
Holding a news conference at Atatürk Airport ahead of a travel to West Africa covering Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Guinea, President Recep Tayyip #Erdoğan said regarding the release of Can Dündar and Erdem Gül pursuant to the ruling of Constitutional Court that: “I just keep silent in the face of Constitutional Court’s ruling; however, I am not in a position to approve the ruling. I neither obey nor respect the ruling because we have an obvious truth. This is not a ruling for acquittal, but a ruling for release.”
]]>BOURBON’s Two Crew Members Kidnapped off Nigeria | World Maritime News
▻https://worldmaritimenews.com/archives/183926/bourbons-two-crew-members-kidnapped-off-nigeria
“BOURBON confirms that one of its vessels, the Bourbon Liberty 251, was the object of an attack. Two crew members of Nigerian and Russian nationalities are considered as abducted,” the company said in a statement.
The ten other crew members are back on board the vessel in Onne port, safe and sound, the statement reads.
The French offshore vessel supplier said that an emergency cell has immediately been set up. There was no further information disclosed on the attack or potential request for ransom.
The attack comes in less then a year when three BOURBON’s crew members of Nigerian nationality were kidnapped when the company’s crew boat, the Surfer 1440, was boarded off the Nigerian coast in April 2015. The crew was released on May 8th, however BOURBON did not reveal the terms of their release.
The recent period has seen a considerable rise in attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, with Nigerian pirates resorting to kidnappings more frequently as they abandon oil cargo theft as less lucrative trade.
]]>Mapped: The sensitivity of the world’s ecosystems to climate - Carbon Brief
▻http://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-the-sensitivity-of-the-worlds-ecosystems-to-climate
Research out today, published in Nature, maps how sensitive these different types of vegetation are to the ups and downs of the climate from one year to the next.
The map below illustrates the study’s new “vegetation sensitivity index”, which indicates to what extent plant growth is affected by fluctuations in the climate. Ecosystems that are most sensitive to climate variability are shaded red, while those with low sensitivity are shaded green.
You can see there are highly sensitive regions around the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, along the mid-to-high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, in the tropical forests of South America, and along the eastern side of Australia.
▻http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature16986.html
#climat #écosystèmes #végétation #cartographie