“Of course we will demand more money, but there are no more funds for dealing with emergencies, while the population of migrants we are hosting has decreased significantly and, consequently, so have the needs,” the sources said as quoted by the newspaper.
The officials have also stressed that while the country is facing a “new reality,” it is still vital they maintain the infrastructure, which is needed to host migrants, and prepare for the future.
Nearly 59,000 people are living in migrant facilities in Greece, the newspaper reported, citing the ministry’s data. About 10,000 of them have been recognized as refugees, which means they will soon leave this special housing.
In total, the European Commission looked into 39 countries that systematically “obstruct” the repatriation of their own citizens, according to the German newspaper.
The worst “unsatisfactory” grade was given to 13 countries — namely Iraq, Iran, Libya, Senegal, Somalia, Mali, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Guinea-Bissau.
The countries will face visa restrictions unless they better cooperate on repatriation of their citizens.
The current goal is to launch a “dialogue” to improve this cooperation, but if this does not happen, starting summer, the EU may extend processing time for visa applications from these countries or reduce visa validity for them. Another option is a visa fee increase.
… halted sales to the European Union and 4% have done … had stopped sales to the European Union temporarily, while five reported … establishing, a presence within an EU country, the research, conducted … British goods exports to the EU, excluding non-monetary gold …
… worship to all while separating religion and the state.
… identities of culture, religion, ethnicity and religion from the state.… state shall not adopt official religion,” it said, … quot;accepted the separation of religion from the state,” …
A children’s graphic novel by the creator of the popular “Captain Underpants” series was pulled from circulation last week by its publisher, which said that it “perpetuates passive racism.”
Scholastic said last week that it had halted distribution of the book, “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future,” originally published in 2010. The decision was made with “the full support” of its author, Dav Pilkey, the company said, adding that it had removed the book from its website and had stopped fulfilling orders for it.
“Together, we recognize that this book perpetuates passive racism,” the publisher said in a statement. “We are deeply sorry for this serious mistake.”
The 2010 graphic novel “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk,” which Mr. Pilkey credited to characters from his “Captain Underpants” series.Credit…Scholastic
The graphic novel, which purports to have been written and illustrated by characters from the “Captain Underpants” series, follows Ook and Gluk, who live in the fictional town of Caveland, Ohio, in 500,001 B.C. The characters are pulled through a time portal to the year 2222, where they meet Master Wong, a martial arts instructor who teaches them kung fu.
Mr. Pilkey’s “Captain Underpants” books, featuring a superhero in briefs and a red cape, have been on The New York Times children’s series best-seller list for 240 weeks. In a letter posted on his YouTube channel on Thursday, Mr. Pilkey said he had “intended to showcase diversity, equality and nonviolent conflict resolution” with “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk,” about “a group of friends who save the world using kung fu and the principles found in Chinese philosophy.”
“But this week it was brought to my attention that this book also contains harmful racial stereotypes and passively racist imagery,” Mr. Pilkey wrote. “I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly apologize for this. It was and is wrong and harmful to my Asian readers, friends, and family, and to all Asian people.”
Mr. Pilkey declined to comment through Scholastic. He and his wife, he wrote on YouTube, planned to donate his advance and all of his royalties from the novel’s sales to a variety of organizations, including groups dedicated to stopping violence and hatred against Asians and to promoting diversity in children’s books and publishing.
“I hope that you, my readers, will forgive me, and learn from my mistake that even unintentional and passive stereotypes and racism are harmful to everyone,” he wrote. “I apologize, and I pledge to do better.”
The decision by Scholastic to pull the book came days after a man opened fire at three massage businesses in and near Atlanta, killing eight people, including six women of Asian descent. In the last year, nearly 3,800 hate incidents were reported against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders nationwide, according to Stop AAPI Hate.
Earlier this month, the estate of Dr. Seuss announced that six of his books would no longer be published because they contained depictions of groups that were “hurtful and wrong.” The decision prompted complaints about “cancel culture” from prominent conservatives.
Scholastic said it was pulling “The Adventures of Ook and Gluk” shortly after Billy Kim, a Korean-American father of two children, ages 5 and 7, started a petition on Change.org demanding an apology from the publisher after he borrowed the book from a library.
“I realized the book relied upon multiple instances of racist imagery and stereotypical tropes,” he wrote in a message accompanying the petition.
He said these included a kung fu master wearing traditional clothing, Asian characters with dashes for eyes, the use of stereotypical Chinese proverbs, and a story line in which the kung fu master is rescued by non-Asian protagonists using skills he taught them.
“How is it in the last 10 years nobody said anything about it?” Mr. Kim, of Manhasset, N.Y., said in an interview.
Mr. Kim said he contacted Scholastic and spoke with a senior executive there, and he later spoke with Mr. Pilkey by videoconference for about 40 minutes. Mr. Pilkey, he said, apologized to him and his older son.
While Mr. Kim was glad the book was being pulled, he wrote that “the damage has been done.”
“Every child who has read this book has been conditioned to accept this racist imagery as ‘OK’ or even funny,” he wrote.
Cristina Rhodes, an English professor at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, said that Scholastic should have been aware of the racially insensitive imagery in the book a decade ago.
Stereotypical images and tropes can give young readers a distorted view of certain groups, Professor Rhodes said — as with Asians in this case. “Children see themselves reflected in books,” she said.
Lara Saguisag, an English professor specializing in children’s and young adult literature at the College of Staten Island, said she was surprised to see these images from Mr. Pilkey, who she said had energized children and appealed to “reluctant readers” by teaching them to love books and reading.
“I think it’s part of the alarm about these books because it’s been going under the radar,” she said.
Professor Saguisag said she hoped that Scholastic and other publishers would evaluate other books for racially insensitive imagery.
“As long as profit is at the center, I feel like these such acts of pulling books from bookshelves will be the exception rather than the rule,” she added. “I hope I’m proven wrong.”
Dawhenya (G/A), March 28, GNA – As the world marks Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Easter festivities, Christian’s have been urged not to forget about the tenets of the Religion.
The Reverend Emmanuel Franklin Agyeman, Senior Pastor of Banner of Grace Ministries at Dawhenya in the Ningo-Prampram District, said: “If we forget such essential parts of Christianity, very soon our children will forget about the Christian faith”.
Rev Agyeman said Palm Sunday, which was to commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the start of the Passion Week, must be preserved and cherished by all Christians.
Preaching on the theme: “Triumphant Entry, the lessons of Jesus”, he noted that the main reason for Jesus Christ’s death was to make it possible for mankind to get salvation.
He encouraged Christian’s to know their appointed time and surround themselves with godly people to help them to make the right decisions and fulfill God’s plan for their lives.
We would like to inform our Vatican Radio English Africa Service Short Wave listeners that with the beginning of Daylight-Saving Time in Italy on Sunday when clocks are turned forward one hour, there will be changes in our broadcast time and Short Wave frequencies as follows:
Our first broadcast from Sunday 28 March will be aired at 16.30 UTC or 18.30 local time in Rome on the 7360 kHz and 15565 kHz on the 40.76 and 19.27 metre bands, respectively.
The repeat broadcast at 20.00 UTC or 22.00 Rome time can be heard on the 7360 and 9705 frequencies on the 40.76 and 30.91 metre bands, respectively. That is for our listeners on Short wave radio.
Digital Radio broadcasts to Rome
Our broadcasts on Digital Radio previously on FM frequency in Rome will be aired one hour later from Sunday, at 18.30 for the first broadcast and at 22.00 hours for the repeat broadcast.
Listen through our website or podcast
If you have access to the internet, you can listen to our programmes as they go on air. Alternatively, you can download and listen to them as a podcast at any time of the day. Just go to www.vaticannews.va, scroll to the bottom of the website page, under “Our Channels,” click on the podcast section, chose English Africa. You can even catch-up with previous programmes already aired.
Thank you to Catholic Radio Stations in Africa
Our daily English Africa programme continues to be re-broadcast, everyday, thanks to cooperation with several partner Catholic radio stations on the African continent.
Most of these radio stations are owned by various African Catholic dioceses, parishes, religious congregations, and some by the Radio MariaWorld Family network.
We thank our partner Catholic radio stations in Africa and you our listeners for this essential collaboration.
Contact us
For further information, suggestions, inquiries, Catholic news you want to share, African Catholic music you want to share and any other feedback – write to the Vatican News English Africa Service through email: [email protected].
The UK government’s plans to seek to deport asylum seekers to other countries are not workable and will end up costing the department more, former Home Office ministers and civil servants have warned.
Lord David Blunkett, who served as home secretary between 2001 and 2004 under Tony Blair, said there was not a “cat’s chance in hell” that the UK would manage to secure bilateral returns deals with EU nations.
The criticism comes after Priti Patel unveiled new measures that will see refugees who arrive in Britain via unauthorised routes denied an automatic right to asylum and instead regularly reassessed for removal to safe countries they passed through, which are usually in the EU.
Under the plans, ministers will seek to “rapidly return” what they term “inadmissible” asylum seekers to the safe country they most recently travelled through, “contingent on securing returns agreements” with said countries. No such arrangements are currently in place.
The former home secretary and a number of ex-civil servants who worked in senior positions in the department have told The Independent that bilateral returns deals with EU countries are “not feasible”, and that the plans will therefore only push more asylum seekers into the undocumented population and increase delays in the asylum system.
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Prior to Brexit, the UK was part of the Dublin Regulation, which provided a framework through which asylum seekers who had travelled through safe EU nations before reaching Britain could be returned to those countries. Britain returned 891 individuals under this law between 2017 and 2020.
Lord Blunkett said: “It was really difficult to send people back even when we were part of the EU. While [Ms Patel] is right in saying Dublin didn’t work as intended, at least it existed, and you could argue with other countries that they had an obligation to take people back to mainland Europe – we’ve got no argument for that now,” he said.
The Labour peer, who held the post at a time when asylum applications in the UK were the highest they have ever been – at more than 80,000, compared with around 30,000 now – accused the current government of “inventing a crisis that doesn’t exist”.
“There isn’t a crisis, and to pretend there is does everybody a disservice. You may have a successful party political hit in pressing buttons for those who remain concerned about immigration, but it won’t in practice be implementable,” he added.
Lord Blunkett’s remarks were echoed by Dave Wood, who was head of immigration enforcement under Theresa May’s Conservative government, and said that the idea of striking deals with EU countries to send people back was “not realistic”.
“I don’t see the agreements being feasible. I don’t think they will be able to [work]. They haven’t in the past,” he said.
Under the new immigration plans, people who cannot immediately be removed will be stripped of benefits – placing them in the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) category – and have their family reunion rights limited.
Ms Patel also plans to change sections of the law to make it possible to move asylum seekers from the UK while their claims are processed, in order to “keep the option open” to develop the capacity for offshore asylum processing if required in the future.
Asked about Ms Patel’s plans to develop capacity for offshore asylum processing, Mr Wood said that this was “mad” and “cannot work”, adding: “We do get a bit caught up in this country with the idea we’re being invaded. There is a balance to that – we’re not; not compared to some others in northern Europe who take quite a heavy burden.”
A former senior staff member at the Home Office, who did not want to be named, said he believed Ms Patel was trying to “sound tough”, but that her policies would have very little effect.
“There is little incentive for most member states to do a bilateral deal, since the UK tends to be the end of the journey for asylum seekers, and there aren’t really any sanctions the UK can credibly threaten if member states don’t want to agree to a deal,” he said.
“And the longer asylum cases are held up in the UK, the more complex and costly they become to resolve – and actually, the more likely it is that you will have to allow less meritorious claimants to stay, if only by default, which is of course the opposite of what Patel says she wants.
“I think Patel is playing to the gallery when it would be more fruitful to focus on improving the system, and dealing with the culture issues identified by the Windrush Lessons Learned review.”
Raising alarm over the Home Office plan to “divide people into acceptable and unacceptable methods of arrival”, Lord Blunkett added: “It will end up with many people who you can’t send back and are thus treated as second-class citizens, and they will disappear into the sub-economy. All you’re doing is pushing people into illegality.”
The Home Office said Britain and the EU had agreed a joint political declaration which “made clear” the UK’s intention to engage in bilateral discussions with member states to discuss “suitable practical arrangements” on asylum.
But Catherine Woollard, director of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a network of non-governmental organisations across the continent, said the prospect of the UK securing bilateral agreements with EU states was “wishful thinking”.
“We don’t see any appetite for this in any European country, EU or not – why on earth would there be? What interest would they have in a bilateral agreement with the UK where the main purpose is for the UK to return people that have crossed one of those EU countries?” she said.
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty UK’s programme director for refugee and migrant rights, said the prospect of striking bilateral deals was “pie in the sky”, but that even if the UK did reach such deals with EU nations, they were likely to be “inefficient” and expensive.
He added: “It will lead to more backlogs and delays in the asylum system. The UK will have to pile people away while they’re in limbo, and will still have to pay for that.”
Minister for immigration compliance and justice, Chris Philp, said: “Our new plan for immigration will overhaul our asylum system and speed up the removal of failed asylum seekers and dangerous foreign criminals.
“While people are dying making life-threatening journeys, no one – at home or abroad – can ignore the moral responsibility to tackle this issue.
“We expect our international partners to work with us on facilitating the return of their own nationals back to their country where they have no lawful right to remain in the UK. This is an established principle of any functioning migration relationship.”
Passover, which commemorates the Hebrews’ liberation from enslavement in ancient Egypt, begins this weekend. But many European Jews don’t feel like celebrating. Many feel that their religious freedoms are being eroded.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister, recently said pandemic safety measures had curtailed religiou freedoms. In his video, published to coincide with the 46th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Gallagher said state public health policies are infringing peoples’ ability to exercise their human rights.
Gallagher’s statement struck a chord: Religious communities across the world have changed the way they worship during the pandemic. Alas, restrictions of the fundamental right to religious freedom are not a new phenomenon.
In some case, the coronavirus pandemic has served as a pretext to restrict worship. Jews in the European Union are deeply troubled by this development.
Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis
For over a decade, the European Union has been preoccupied with itself and in permanent crisis mode, seemingly forgetting its much touted motto “united in diversity.” The United States, in contrast, is much more outward looking. Speaking at an OSCE expert summit last month, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Kara McDonald gave an outlook regarding President Joe Biden’s agenda on tackling Anti-Semitism.
The good news is that Biden plans to intensify the US’s fight against anti-Semitism in accordance with the definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Much more surprising, however, were McDonald’s observations concerning Jewish life in Europe today. Europeans should take her concerns seriously.
McDonald said Jewish communities in numerous countries were confronted with planned and actual bans on religious practices such as ritual animal slaughter and circumcision of male babies.
EU restricts religion
McDonald’s remarks were primarily directed at EU leaders. Keeping the memory of the past alive is essential, she said, but ensuring that people can freely practice their religious beliefs here and now is even more important.
In December, the European Court of Justice upheld a ban on ritual slaughters — a religious and humane method for killing animals for consumption — in Belgium.
The ruling jeopardizes the ability of Jews in Belgium to freely practice their religion. Banning access to and the producing of kosher meat makes Jewish life impossible. Similarly, proposed bans on male circumcision in Denmark, Finland and Iceland run counter to religious freedom.
These policies are de facto bans on Jewish life. Is a Europe “united in diversity” really willing to accept this? While professing to uphold individual liberty, Europe is undermining freedom.
Goldschmidt: Speeches and symbolic gestures seem empty when EU countries impose restrictions on Jewish religious life
The EU’s empty words
EU lawmakers repeat over and over that Jewish life must be appreciated and respected. But assertions like these ring hollow and hypocritical in light of recent laws outlawing religious practices. Indeed, commemorative speeches made at last January’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day appear disingenuous given that Europe is the only continent pursuing such dangerous initiatives curtailing religious freedom.
McDonald’s statements do not only highlight the need to keep the memory of the past alive to fight anti-Semitism. They also stress the significance of making Jewish life possible in the future. The US model for protecting religious freedoms is exemplary. Europe must follow the US lead and adopt its norms so that Europe’s Jews can freely practice their beliefs.
We want to see determined and positive steps by EU politicians to protect and foster Jewish life — and to prevent a looming exodus. This is not an exaggerated fear: It is already happening. Over the past decade, many Jews have left EU countries, feeling no longer welcome. That stems not only from the growing number of anti-Semitic incidents, but also from the gradual curtailment of religious freedoms.
