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Govts scramble to evacuate citizens from Israel, Iran
Govts scramble to evacuate citizens from Israel, Iran

News.com.au

timea day ago

  • Politics
  • News.com.au

Govts scramble to evacuate citizens from Israel, Iran

Governments around the world are attempting to evacuate thousands of their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling Israel-Iran conflict, organising buses and planes and in some cases assisting people crossing borders on foot. Foreigners have rushed to leave both countries after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign last Friday targeting Iran's nuclear and military facilities, sparking retaliation from Tehran. But with Israel's air space closed and the two countries exchanging heavy missile fire, many people are being evacuated from third countries. - Europe - European countries have already repatriated hundreds of their citizens from Israel. The Czech Republic and Slovakia said Tuesday they had taken 181 people home on government planes. "It was not possible to send the army plane straight to Israel," the Czech defence ministry said in a statement, citing the air space closure. "The evacuees were taken to an airport in a neighbouring country by buses. They crossed the border on foot." The German government said flights were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday via Jordan, while Poland said the first of its citizens were due to arrive back on Wednesday. Greece said it had repatriated 105 of its citizens plus a number of foreign nationals via Egypt, while a private plane with 148 people landed in the Bulgarian capital Sophia on Tuesday. - United States - The US ambassador to Israel on Wednesday announced plans for evacuating Americans by air and sea. The embassy is "working on evacuation flights & cruise ship departures" for "American citizens wanting to leave Israel," Ambassador Mike Huckabee posted on social media. - Australia - Australia has started evacuating around 1,500 citizens from Iran and more than 1,200 from Israel -- but missile barrages have made it too risky for civilian aircraft to land in either country, its foreign minister said. "There's no capacity for people to get civilian aircraft in, it is too risky, and the airspace is closed," Foreign Minister Penny Wong told national broadcaster ABC. "We have taken the opportunity to get a small group of Australians out of Israel through a land border crossing. "We are seeking to try and do more of that over the next 24 hours." - Pakistan - Pakistan has shut its border crossings with neighbouring Iran, except to Pakistanis wanting to return home. Around 1,000 Pakistanis have fled so far, including at least 200 students. The foreign ministry said the families of diplomats and some non-essential staff from Iran had been evacuated. - India - Around 110 students who fled Iran over the land border with Armenia have landed in New Delhi, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday. There are around 10,000 Indian citizens in Iran. In Israel there are around 30,000 Indians, according to the country's embassy in New Delhi. - New Zealand - New Zealand closed its embassy in Iran, evacuating two staff members and their family to Azerbaijan by land. "If and when opportunities arise to assist the departure of other New Zealanders in Iran and Israel, we will pursue them with urgency," Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement Thursday. - Japan - Japan has ordered military planes to be on standby for around 1,000 Japanese nationals believed to live in Israel, and around 280 in Iran, according to government ministers. The Japanese embassies in Iran and Israel are preparing to use buses to evacuate citizens to neighbouring countries, a government spokesman said, as the war entered its seventh day. - Indonesia - Indonesia is preparing to evacuate around 380 of its citizens currently in Iran by land, Jakarta's foreign minister said Thursday. "Flights are no longer possible, so the only way is land route. It will start tonight," Foreign Minister Sugiono, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said in a video. - Philippines - The Philippines is preparing to repatriate 28 Israel-based Filipino workers out of 178 who asked for help, the Department of Migrant Workers secretary Hans Cacdac said Thursday. At least 21 Philippine government officials have also crossed into Jordan by land from Israel since the conflict began, the foreign ministry said. bur-ecl-jfx/dhw

Foreign nationals convicted of quarter of sex assaults on women
Foreign nationals convicted of quarter of sex assaults on women

Telegraph

time2 days ago

  • Politics
  • Telegraph

Foreign nationals convicted of quarter of sex assaults on women

Foreign nationals are responsible for more than a quarter of sex assaults on women successfully prosecuted in Britain, official figures have revealed. Data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), obtained under freedom of information laws, showed that 26 per cent of the 1,453 sex assault convictions women last year were accounted for by foreign nationals. A further 8 per cent were committed by offenders of 'unknown' nationalities, a category which will include some foreign nationals, meaning the overall proportion could be higher. The data was drawn from the Police National Computer by the MoJ. It comes a day after Baroness Casey's review accused governments, police and councils of covering up the fact that a disproportionate number of Asian men were responsible for child sex grooming gangs, for fear of being called racist. The review also revealed that asylum seekers and foreign nationals were involved in a 'significant proportion' of 12 active police investigations into grooming gangs. The new data will fuel demands for the Government to publish figures on the nationality, asylum status and visa routes of all convicted offenders, or risk fresh allegations of a cover-up. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has pledged to publish data on the crimes and nationalities of foreign offenders facing deportation, and accepted Baroness Casey's recommendation for mandatory collection of ethnicity and nationality data for all child sex abuse suspects. Foreign sex offenders will be banned from claiming asylum. It came as victims and campaigners shared a platform with Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday and accused Sir Keir Starmer's grooming gangs inquiry of not going far enough. They said an inquiry would be insufficient without survivor-led education in schools and that some prosecutions would be missed. Speaking from the G7 summit in Canada, Sir Keir accused Mrs Badenoch of staying silent on the issue of grooming gangs when she was in government. He said she did not once speak about grooming gangs in the Commons when she was minister for equalities. The data on sex crimes, obtained by Centre for Migration Control think tank, showed that Indian nationals accounted for the highest number of sex assaults on women in 2024 by foreign nationality, with 38. They were followed by Romanians (27), Poles (27), Pakistanis (20) and Afghans (19). The figures show that foreign nationals were more than twice as likely as the rest of the population to be responsible for sex assaults. While they accounted for 26 per cent of the assaults, foreign nationals represented 10.9 per cent of the population. The research also showed that foreign nationals accounted for more than a fifth of all rape convictions last year. Of the 720 convictions for 'rape of a female aged 16 or over', 155 were of foreign nationals and a further 42 were of an 'unknown' nationality. Some 523 were attributed to individuals whose nationality was listed as either 'United Kingdom', 'England', 'Scotland' or 'Wales' (72.6 per cent). If the 5.8 per cent of an 'unknown' nationality are excluded, then 21.5 per cent of rape convictions involved foreign nationals. Pakistanis, Nigerians and Romanians were the foreign nationalities responsible for the largest number of rape convictions, each numbering 10. They were followed by Sudanese (nine), Afghans (eight) and Indians (seven). Overall, there were 7,874 sexual offence convictions last year, of which 1,118, or one in seven (14.2 per cent) involved known foreign nationals. A further 614 (7.8 per cent) were an 'unknown' nationality. The majority were by people who declared themselves to be UK nationals. The data is based on people declaring their 'primary' nationality, which does not preclude the possibility that they could be dual nationals with British citizenship. It also covers convictions, which means that some of the offences could have been committed by the same individual. 'We are importing crime' Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: 'This data proves what the public have long suspected – we are importing crime. If the Government is serious about tackling violence against women and girls, it should apply much tougher immigration restrictions to migrants from high-risk countries. 'The Government has the migrant crime stats – they just refuse to publish them as they are institutionally pro-migration and don't trust the public with the truth. I will keep pushing to force the facts out and Starmer to act to protect the public.' Rob Bates, the research director of the Centre for Migration Control, said: 'The failure to properly tackle grooming gangs has shown that we should not hide from facts and that data such as this should be placed at the very heart of public policy. 'This information should be routinely published by the Government, giving the British public a transparent picture of what is happening in their country. Failure to introduce a proper migrant crime will only heighten concerns that the political class is concealing from us yet another scandal.' Asylum system addressed A government spokesman said: 'We have already taken action to ban foreign nationals who groom children or commit sexual offences from being granted asylum, and will do everything in our power to pursue deportation from the UK. 'More than 800 cases involving grooming and child sexual exploitation allegations have also been identified for formal review, so that these vile criminals are off our streets and paying the price for crimes.' Sir Keir claimed Mrs Badenoch did not raise grooming when in power, 'not once'. He said: 'I mean, the question of Kemi Badenoch is why on Earth didn't you – you were in power, you had all the tools at your disposal. I was calling even then for mandatory reporting. Why didn't you do it? Why didn't you say one word about it?' But Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said grooming had now become a border security issue as well as a criminal justice problem. He said it had been the worst year to date for illegal Channel crossings, adding: 'The lack of control at the border is fuelling the risk here.' Mrs Badenoch said: 'I think this does go into borders, beyond criminal justice.'

700 foreigners flee Iran to Azerbaijan, Armenia; evacuation from Israel begins
700 foreigners flee Iran to Azerbaijan, Armenia; evacuation from Israel begins

Arab News

time3 days ago

  • Politics
  • Arab News

700 foreigners flee Iran to Azerbaijan, Armenia; evacuation from Israel begins

BAKU: More than 700 foreign nationals have crossed from Iran into neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia since Israel began striking the country last week, government officials in Baku and Yerevan said on Tuesday. The Caucasus countries border Iran's northwest, with the closest crossing into Azerbaijan around 500 km from Tehran by road. 'Since the start of the military escalation between Israel and Iran, more than 600 citizens of 17 countries have been evacuated from Iran via Azerbaijan,' a government source said on Tuesday. The evacuees, who crossed the border via the Astara checkpoint on the Caspian Sea coast, are being transported to Baku airport and 'flown to their home countries on international flights,' the source said. Among those evacuated are citizens of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, as well as Germany, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Romania, Portugal, the US, the UAE, China and Vietnam. Azerbaijan shut its land borders in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has kept them closed ever since. 'In light of the evacuation need, Azerbaijan has temporarily opened its border for those leaving Iran,' the official said. India also evacuated 110 of its citizens from Iran through Armenia, Ani Badalyan, Yerevan's Foreign Ministry said. Poland's Foreign Ministry said it would evacuate part of its embassy staff in Tehran via Baku. 'We have decided to evacuate or support the departure of staff who do not need to remain in the country, so-called non-essential personnel,' Deputy Foreign Minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys said. 'Our colleagues will try to reach the border with Azerbaijan,' she said, without specifying how many people were involved. Turkmenistan — one of the world's most closed-off countries — said it had also allowed the transit of around 120 people evacuated from Iran through its territory, mainly citizens of Central Asian countries. The Czech Republic and Slovakia have taken 139 people home on government planes from Israel because of its conflict. A Czech plane carrying 66 people landed in Prague on Tuesday a day after a Slovak plane had taken 73 evacuees to Bratislava from Amman. 'I am glad they are all OK. The transport was really demanding in the difficult environment,' Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova said about the Czech flight on social media site X. The Defense Ministry said most of the 66 evacuees were Czech nationals. 'It was not possible to send the army plane straight to Israel,' the ministry said, citing the air-space closure. 'The evacuees were taken to the airport in the neighboring country by buses. They crossed the border on foot.' Czech media said a convoy with the evacuees had left Tel Aviv on Monday morning and boarded the plane in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. A Slovak government plane with 73 passengers, mostly Slovaks, landed in Bratislava on Monday.

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