Latest news with #persecution
BBC News
a day ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Refugee welcomes safety of Carlisle after fleeing Kenya
A Kenyan woman who fled her home country because she says she was being persecuted over her sexuality is calling for a greater understanding of the difficulties faced by Waggah came to the UK in 2022 as she feared being arrested and having her child taken from her, having been outed in a country where homosexuality is Waggah, a former government official, is now happily settled in Carlisle but said initial doubts from some people about how genuine her need was made her feel "unwanted".She said seeking refuge was "not a bed of roses", but the UK has allowed her to create "a safe life" with her son. Speaking to BBC Radio Cumbria as part of Refugee Week, which is running until Sunday, she explained the consequences of being outed by someone close to her were for homosexuality can range from fines to imprisonment, while in some cases people have been to the UK on a visitor's visa, she immediately sought asylum through the Home Office and spent several months living in hostel-style accommodation in Warrington before being given 24-hours' notice that she was being moved to her old life, she said: "My life was beautiful. I had everything figured out career-wise, education-wise, family-wise. I was working at the Ministry of the Interior and I had my child."I had to take off because of persecution. Life became unbearable. "The only way out was to seek refuge where human rights are upheld - a safe environment."It took a series of events for me to decide I had to leave." 'Swimming with sharks' Her young son remained with family members in Kenya while Ms Waggah went through the application early 2024 she was notified she had been granted leave to remain in the UK for a period of five years and they are now the difficulty of being split up from her family was not the only obstacle she says she faced, as other asylum seekers viewed her sexuality negatively due to their cultural beliefs while some people in the UK were opposed to immigration. "When I got here, I realised there's actually so much negativity around seeking refuge," she said."People think it's not genuine. That created stress. You feel really unwanted."It felt like being thrown in the ocean, swimming with sharks."We are coming here because you are part of the few enjoying human rights - something we see as a luxury where we come from."It's not a bed of roses. We are not coming to grab anything. "I've been trying to integrate into the community and create a good life for me and the people around me."Help came from various support organisations she contacted, including those helping members of the LGBTQ well as the shop she runs in Carlisle's Botchergate area, she chairs Cumberland Sanctuary Network, a group helping people seeking asylum and hoping to one day be able to return to Kenya, should their laws around homosexuality change, she is now settled in Cumbria."I pray for a day when human rights will be upheld [in Kenya], but I've created a safe life here and Carlisle is my home." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
India illegally deporting Muslim citizens at gunpoint to Bangladesh, say rights groups
The Indian government has been accused of illegally deporting Indian Muslims to Bangladesh, prompting fears of an escalating campaign of persecution. Thousands of people, largely Muslims suspected of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, have been rounded up by police across India in recent weeks, according to human rights groups, with many of them deprived of due legal process and sent over the border to neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Indian citizens are among those alleged to have been deported illegally, according to lawyers and accounts by deportees. Those who tried to resist being 'pushed back' were threatened at gunpoint by India's border security force, according to several accounts. About 200 people have since been returned to India by Bangladeshi border guards after being found to be Indian citizens, with some forced to walk miles across treacherous terrain to get home. 'Instead of following due legal procedure, India is pushing mainly Muslims and low-income communities from their own country to Bangladesh without any consent,' said Taskin Fahmina, senior researcher at Bangladesh human rights organisation Odhikar. 'This push by India is against national and international law.' Bangladesh's foreign ministry said it had written letters to the Indian authorities urging them to stop sending people over the border without consultation and vetting, as was previous official procedure, but they said those letters had gone unanswered. Among those deported and returned was Hazera Khatun, 62, a physically disabled grandmother. Khatun's daughter Jorina Begum said they had documents to prove two generations of her mother's family had been born in India. 'How can she be a Bangladeshi?' said Begum. Khatun was picked up by police on 25 May and the next day was pushed into a van with 14 other Muslims who were then driven to the border with Bangladesh in the middle of the night. There, Khatun said officers from India's Border Security Force (BSF) forced them to cross the border. 'They treated us like animals,' said Khatun. 'We protested that we are Indians, why should we enter Bangladesh? But they threatened us with guns and said, 'We will shoot you if you don't go to the other side.' After we heard four gunshots from the Indian side, we got very scared and quickly walked across the border.' The group were taken into custody by Bangladesh's border guards, and held in a makeshift camp in a field. However, Khatun said the authorities in Bangladesh would not allow the group to stay as their documents showed they were Indian citizens. They were driven a truck to the border and told to walk to India. 'When we returned, it was terrible,' said Khatun. 'We had to walk through forests and rivers … We were so scared, we thought if the BSF officers found us coming back, they would kill us. I was sure we were going to die.' Eventually she made it back to her village on 31 May. According to her family, she was covered in bruises and deeply traumatised. The escalating crackdown against so-called 'illegal Bangladeshis' by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government comes in the wake of an attack by Islamist militants in the Indian-administered region of Kashmir in April which killed 25 Hindu tourists and a guide, after which the BJP government vowed to expel 'outsiders'. The mass detentions increased with the launch of Operation Sindhoor in May, when India launched strikes at neighbouring Muslim-majority Pakistan, which it blamed for the Kashmir militant attack and vowed to wipe out terror groups targeting India. Over its 11 years in power, the BJP government has been accused by rights groups and citizens of persecuting, harassing and disenfranchising the country's 200 million Muslims as part of its Hindu nationalist agenda, charges the government denies. The most widespread targeting and deporting of Muslims in recent weeks has been in the north-eastern state of Assam, as the BJP-run state government has escalated its long-running campaign against those it calls 'infiltrators'. About 100 people who have been recently detained in the state are missing, according to activists. The expulsions were described by activists as a worrying escalation of a long-running exercise in Assam to expel 'illegal infiltrators', in which Muslims are routinely called before 'foreigners tribunals', quasi-judicial courts, to prove they were born in India, or arrived before 1971. A controversial citizenship survey also took place in the state in 2019, resulting in thousands being put into detention centres. Only Muslims have to prove their citizenship after Hindus, Sikhs and other religions were made exempt from the exercise by the state government. This week, the hardline BJP chief minister of Assam, Himanta Sarma said it was now a policy of the state to automatically expel 'illegal foreigners'. 'This process will be intensified and expedited,' he said. Not all those deported who claim to be Indian citizens have been able to return. Among those still stuck in Bangladesh is 67-year-old Maleka Begam, 67, from Assam, who was detained by police on 25 May. Speaking over the phone from a Bangladeshi border village in a state of distress, Begam – who is physically infirm and cannot walk unassisted – said she had been the only woman in a group of about 20 Muslims sent over to Bangladesh in the middle of the night on 27 May. She said they were ordered at gunpoint by the BSF to cross the border. Begam's son Imran Ali said his mother had documentation to prove she was born in India, and that all seven of her siblings also had proof. 'Her deportation to Bangladesh is completely illegal. However, I cannot understand now how we can bring her back from Bangladesh. She is old and sick. We are very anxious about her,' said Ali. Assam police and the BSF did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Hundreds of people, mostly Muslims, have also been deported from the capital, Delhi, as well as the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. In Gujarat, the police claimed to have detained more than 6,500 suspected 'Bangladeshi citizens', and thousands were paraded through the streets, but it was later declared that only 450 of them were found to be illegal. Last week, Bangladesh's border guards turned back four Muslim men picked up by police in Mumbai and deported, after it was found they were Indian migrant workers from the state of West Bengal. Maj Gen Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, director general of Border Guard Bangladesh, condemned India's pushback policy as 'a deviation from humane governance'. 'It contradicts international law and the dignity of the affected individuals,' said Siddiqui. 'Acts such as abandoning people in forests, forcing women and children into rivers, or dumping stateless refugees at sea are not consistent with human rights principles.'
ABC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Refugee tribunal grants woman residency in New Zealand over Tongan persecution
A Tongan woman has been granted the right to remain in New Zealand after the Refugee Tribunal found she would face persecution in Tonga because of her sexual orientation as a lesbian. She is currently recognised as a refugee due to the danger she may face in her home country. Tonga is among several Pacific countries, where same sex relationships are outlawed and can carry jail time. Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Tonga Leitis Association, the only LGBTQI organisation in Tonga, Joey Joleen Mataele said many families are not open about the sexuality of their children, especially when it comes to lesbians. "Gay and trans communities are so open but when it comes to lesbians it is a delicate issue," Joey said.
South China Morning Post
08-06-2025
- General
- South China Morning Post
‘It will likely end with our generation,' Japan's last ‘hidden Christians' face extinction
On the island of Ikitsuki, in western Japan, the last members of a local Christian church gather to intone a unique prayer that blends Latin, Portuguese, and Japanese languages. The Kakure Kirishitan, or 'hidden Christians' in Japanese, are descendants of the first Christian converts from the 16th century who had to hide their religion to avoid persecution by warlords. Today, the Kakure church faces extinction as the number of followers has dwindled over the years, and the younger generation is leaving their ancestral homes to work in urban centres.
Arab News
05-06-2025
- General
- Arab News
Afghans who helped America during the war plead for an exemption from Trump travel ban
ISLAMABAD: Afghans who worked for the US during its war against the Taliban urged President Donald Trump Thursday to exempt them from a travel ban that could lead to them being deported to Afghanistan, where they say they will face persecution. Their appeal came hours after Trump announced a US entry ban on citizens from 12 countries, including Afghanistan. It affects thousands of Afghans who fled Taliban rule and had been approved for resettlement through a US program assisting people at risk due to their work with the American government, media organizations, and humanitarian groups. But Trump suspended that program in January, leaving Afghans stranded in several locations, including Pakistan and Qatar. Pakistan, meanwhile, has been deporting foreigners it says are living in the country illegally, mostly Afghan, adding to the refugees' sense of peril. 'This is heartbreaking and sad news,' said one Afghan, who worked closely with US agencies before the Taliban returned to power in 2021. He spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue, fearing Taliban reprisals and potential arrest by Pakistani authorities. He said the travel ban on an estimated 20,000 Afghans in Pakistan could encourage the government to begin deporting Afghans awaiting resettlement in the US 'President Trump has shattered hopes,' he told The Associated Press. He said his life would be at risk if he returned to Afghanistan with his family because he previously worked for the US Embassy in Kabul on public awareness campaigns promoting education. 'You know the Taliban are against the education of girls. America has the right to shape its immigration policy, but it should not abandon those who stood with it, risked their life, and who were promised a good future.' Another Afghan, Khalid Khan, said the new restrictions could expose him and thousands of others to arrest in Pakistan. He said police had previously left him and his family alone at the request of the US Embassy. 'I worked for the US military for eight years, and I feel abandoned. Every month, Trump is making a new rule,' said Khan. He fled to Pakistan three years ago. 'I don't know what to say. Returning to Afghanistan will jeopardize my daughter's education. You know the Taliban have banned girls from attending school beyond sixth grade. My daughter will remain uneducated if we return.' He said it no longer mattered whether people spoke out against Trump's policies. 'So long as Trump is there, we are nowhere. I have left all of my matters to Allah.' There was no immediate comment on the travel ban from the Taliban-run government. Pakistan previously said it was working with host countries to resettle Afghans. Nobody was available to comment on Trump's latest executive order.
