Morocco sent a letter of protest to the European Commission because of the latter's consideration of Ceuta and Melilla as Spanish territory, while they are occupied Moroccan territories.
This is the first time in two years that Morocco has moved on this file, while it continues its procedures to transform Ceuta and Melilla into two main customs crossings .
A few days ago, El Pais newspaper reported that the Rabat diplomacy had sent a letter of protest to the European Commission because of the statements made by the Greek Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas. Because he indicates in his statements and correspondence that Ceuta and Melilla are two Spanish cities, and Rabat emphasizes their Moroccan character and that they are part of the homeland.
The message was a source of surprise, given that Morocco has been silent on this issue for years, and had pledged to Spain, in a bilateral agreement, not to raise any issue that arouses the concern and anger of the Spaniards. Rather, the interim Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had stated from Rabat, and then in the Spanish parliament, that he had asked Moroccan officials not to talk about this file.
Morocco had remained silent when, in June 2021, the European Parliament approved a resolution denouncing Rabat's leniency with the entry of thousands of Moroccans into occupied Ceuta, in response to Madrid's position, at the time, rejecting former US President Donald Trump's decision to consider the Sahara as Moroccan territory.
The press close to the Moroccan state launched a campaign against the President of the Senate, Naama Mayara. Because he demanded dialogue for the sake of Ceuta and Melilla, and he was accused of trying to damage relations between Rabat and Madrid. At the same time, Morocco continues to turn Ceuta and Melilla into customs crossings, the two cities it has claimed for a long time, and fought wars throughout history to get them back. At the end of last week, the crossing of the two cities witnessed the export of goods from Moroccan territory towards them.
In the past, the European Union was very careful to avoid talking politically about Ceuta and Melilla, even though they benefited from European aid.
A number of European countries saw the need to return the two cities to Morocco, especially after the Thawra Island crisis, but Morocco's silence confirms that it attaches great importance to the Western Sahara file, which is a priority, and postpones the demands of Ceuta and Melilla for the future.
Last Sunday, Spain witnessed municipal elections throughout the country and the autonomous regions in 12 provinces, including Ceuta and Melilla. The victory returned to the hard-line Popular Party in its rhetoric about the two cities. Given the defeat of the ruling Socialist Party in these elections, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for premature elections on July 23.
Greece is under investigation, How did the scenes of the migrant boat remind you of the violations of the rights of refugees?
The American newspaper The New York Times published an investigation in which video evidence shows that the Greek coast guard arrested asylum seekers, including children, and took them to the sea and left them to their fate on a rubber boat.
In an incident that is not the first of its kind, the issue of the Greek authorities’ dealings with “illegal” immigrants sparked international public opinion after the American newspaper The New York Times published an investigation in which video evidence showed that the Greek coast guard arrested asylum seekers, including children, and took them to the sea and left them to their fate on a rubber boat.
The investigation included footage showing the country's coast guard abandoning migrants in the Aegean Sea last month, prompting the European Union to take the official step of asking Greek authorities to open an investigation into the incident, which violates a large number of Greek, European Union and international law .
Commenting on the incident, EU Migration Commissioner Ylva Johansson said on Twitter : "The European Commission is ready to take formal steps."
The report indicates that the Greek authorities have committed major violations against refugees, bypassing Greek law, international law treaties ratified by the Greek authorities, and the laws of the European Union that finances rescue operations at the borders.
For its part, Greece refused to comment on the incident, although the information contained in the report confirms verification of photos taken on the Greek island of Lesbos on April 11, and includes interviews with migrants who were victims of abuse of power and abuse of procedures.
"Strict but fair policy"
Greece is undergoing parliamentary elections, as the ruling party, the New Democracy Party, has tried to promote a “fair” policy towards immigrants, and this was expressed by the conservative Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, defending his immigration policies, describing them as “strict but fair,” in An interview he gave to the New York Times last week, ahead of the parliamentary elections.
The European Union, which has faced a large wave of refugees over the past decade, was not far from admiring Greece's policy towards migrants. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the Greek borders as "Europe's shield", but Mr. Mitsotakis defended his policy as "after The arrival of more than a million migrants and asylum seekers via Greece and the destabilization of politics on the continent in 2015 and 2016, Europe has taken a tougher Greek approach.
The Aegean Sea had witnessed various events since the beginning of the refugee crisis in 2015, which made Greece adopt a strict policy that was not different from other European gateways such as Italy or Bulgaria in that.
Although this is an embodiment of the policies of the far-right that has begun to activate in Europe, and although it has been criticized by Brussels in the past, the relationship between Europe and Greece appears to be undergoing a major shift, as Brussels has praised Mr. Mitsotakis, who follows a conservative policy . It is consistent with the policy of the European Union, especially in the files of the economy and refugees.
Evidence of torture and forced deportation
Amnesty International has uncovered evidence of torture and ill-treatment of refugees and migrants, and their unlawful return to Turkey.
The organization published a report entitled "Greece: Violence, Lies and Forced Return", in which it revealed that the Greek border forces violently and illegally detain groups of refugees and migrants, and then immediately return them to Turkey, which violates its human rights obligations under European Union laws and international law. international.
The organization quoted people it met in its report that they "experienced or witnessed acts of violence at the hands of what they described as Greek officials in uniform and others in civilian clothes."
Acts of violence included beatings with sticks or batons, kicking, punching, slapping and shoving, sometimes resulting in severe injuries.
Deterrent policies suspended and favored Ukrainian refugees
The European Commission has the right to open the so-called “infringement procedure” against Greece, a process in which the European Union punishes members who violate its rules in relation to such issues, and the issue may reach freezing funding, but this did not deter the Greek prime minister who is affiliated with the center-right, as In his interview with the New York Times, he said: "Right or center politics, I don't know what it is, but I have to protect my borders."
With regard to the concerns of the Greek authorities about their border security and the need to take the necessary measures for that, many observers believe that there does not appear to be any conflict between border management and the application of fair humanitarian policies towards migrants in accordance with the obligations of states under international human rights law and refugee law, including 1951 Convention as well as European law.
Greece's policy contradicts refugee issues, depending on the places from which they sought refuge, which was evident during the Russian war on Ukraine in February of last year.
According to what the Greek Minister of Immigration, Notis Mitarachi, told the Greek parliament after the start of the war, the Ukrainians are the "real refugees", and no one else deserves the protection and privileges offered by Europe .
Denial in the face of evidence
Greece continued to deny accusations of its human rights violations with regard to refugees without providing evidence of the sincerity of its denials or guarantees of non-recurrence of violations.
" For years, Greece has failed to take responsibility or adequately investigate allegations of pushbacks, choosing instead to deny their regular occurrence," said lawyer Essen Bouzouvali.
"The Greek authorities constantly say that the pushbacks are fake news. As a lawyer, I have heard cases involving more than 200 people, not every migrant and refugee can lie."
Greece continues to resolutely refute the allegations and regards its behavior towards migrants as merely defending the border against illegal immigrant behaviour, but the mounting evidence and reports of human rights organizations, as well as the staggering number of incidents reported by civil society organizations between 2020 and 2021, have made it a source of concern. Concern for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.
In reports published by Human Rights Watch in March 2020, it said that "Greek security forces and unidentified gunmen at the land border between Greece and Turkey arrested asylum seekers and migrants, violently assaulted them, sexually assaulted them, robbed them, stripped them of their clothes, and then forced them to return to Turkey."
Despite this, senior EU officials praised the Greek border control measures, and provided them with support through the European Agency for the Protection and Protection of External Borders (Frontex).
UNHCR has recorded nearly 540 unofficial returns by Greece since the beginning of 2020. Alarming incidents have also been reported in Central and South-East Europe at the borders with EU member states, warning of worsening violence at European borders, and expressing Expresses concern about repeated and identical reports from Greece's land and sea borders with Turkey.
Algerian : Tebboune receives an “important” message from Mahmoud Abbas
Algeria : The Algerian presidency said today, Wednesday, that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had received a letter it described as “important” from the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, without revealing the content of the message.
The Algerian presidency stated that the message was presented by the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Algeria, Fayez Muhammad Mahmoud Abu Aita, to President Tebboune, in the presence of the Director of the Office of the Presidency of the Republic, Muhammad al-Nazir al-Arabawi.
It is noteworthy that the Algerian president is striving to consolidate the reunification of the Palestinian factions, and he sponsored a meeting of the Palestinian factions before the 31st Arab Summit that was held in Algiers on the first of last November, and the “Algeria Declaration” emerged from it .
Khartoum : The Sudanese army suspended the cease-fire talks
KHARTOUM: Sudan's army on Wednesday suspended talks with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) about a ceasefire and facilitating humanitarian access, raising fears that more than six weeks of conflict could exacerbate a humanitarian crisis in Africa's third-largest country.
The General Command of the Armed Forces said in a statement that it had suspended the talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah, accusing the other side of not committing to implementing any of the terms of the agreement and continuing to violate the armistice.
Talks between the two parties to the conflict began in early May and resulted in a declaration of principles, which stipulates a commitment to protect civilians. It also led to the two parties agreeing to a cease-fire for two short periods, but it was reported that they repeatedly violated it.
Residents said that violent clashes took place in the south of the capital, Khartoum, and in the opposite city of Omdurman on the other bank of the Nile, until late on Tuesday evening.
The army relies on the air force and artillery, while the Rapid Support Forces, with their light weapons, excel in the battles taking place in the streets of Khartoum. The two sides agreed to extend the ceasefire, which lasted for a week, for another five days, ahead of its expiration date, which was scheduled for Monday evening.
The army relies on the air force and artillery, while the Rapid Support Forces, with their light weapons, excel in the battles taking place in the streets of Khartoum
The struggle for power erupted between Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and his opponent, Lieutenant General Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hamidti), Commander of the Rapid Support Forces, on April 15. Neither side seemed to be able to outperform the other.
A video clip released by the army yesterday, Tuesday, showed Al-Burhan carrying a rifle on his back and saying to soldiers surrounding him and cheering at a military base, "We do not want to use lethal force, the maximum force we have not used."
He added, "We do not want to destroy the country, but if the enemy does not obey and does not respond, we will have to use the maximum force we have."
The Rapid Support Forces said in a statement late on Tuesday that it was committed to the ceasefire despite monitoring "multiple violations" by the army.
Sudan has a long history of political turmoil, coups and conflicts, but violence usually ravaged areas far from Khartoum. The fighting focused this time in the capital area, a vast area that lies at the confluence of the Blue Nile and Greater Nile rivers, and is inhabited by millions of people.
Commenting on the army's withdrawal from the Jeddah talks, Mohamed El-Hassan Ould Labat, a spokesman for the African Union, said regarding the Sudanese crisis, "It is not surprising. It happens often. We hope that the mediator will succeed in bringing the two parties back to work on the expected ceasefire.”
Areas in the capital have been subjected to massive looting and suffer from frequent power and water cuts. Most hospitals have stopped working.
Armistice violations
Before extending the ceasefire agreement, a military source said that the army stipulated the withdrawal of the Rapid Support Forces from residential buildings and hospitals in order to extend the agreement. Talks continued on the terms of the truce after the ceasefire was extended for five days.
Saudi Arabia and the United States mediated the ceasefire agreement and are monitoring its implementation from afar. Both countries said both sides in the conflict had breached the agreement but allowed aid to reach an estimated two million people.
The United Nations says the conflict has killed hundreds, displaced more than 1.2 million people inside Sudan, and prompted 400,000 others to cross borders into neighboring countries.
Clashes also erupted outside the capital, including in the westernmost region of Darfur, where conflict broke out in 2003 and has raged and subsided for years.
The United Nations, some aid agencies, embassies and some Sudanese central government agencies have moved their operations to Port Sudan in Red Sea State, a major shipping hub and have seen little disturbances.
Al-Burhan and Hamidti assumed the positions of President and Vice-President of the ruling Sovereignty Council, respectively. The council was formed to run the country in the wake of the ouster of former leader Omar al-Bashir following a popular uprising in 2019.
Together, the two leaders carried out a military coup in 2021, as the date for handing over the leadership of the Sovereignty Council to a civilian figure approached, but they later disagreed over the chain of command and the restructuring of the Rapid Support Forces as part of a planned transitional process.
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