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The president of the humanitarian organization Merhamet MDD Kenan Vrbanjac and the directors of Merhamets regional committees in BiH visited the migrants in the Lipa camp near Bihac and distributed food and clothing on the occasion of the 108th anniversary of Merhamet. Migrants were given breakfast, fruit, underwear, undershirts and socks. According to Vrbanjc, Merhamet, in coordination with the Red Cross of Una-Sana Canton, regularly helps migrants in the Lipa camp.

With todays action and visit to the Lipa camp, we wanted to mark the 108th anniversary of the founding of the Muslim charity Merhamet. All of Merhamets regional and basic committees throughout BiH are marking this important anniversary with appropriate actions during February, Vrbanjac said.

President of Merhamet emphasized that this humanitarian organization, after the latest escalation of the migrant crisis in BiH, ie in Bihac, has so far provided assistance for migrants in the Lipa camp in the value of more than 100,000 BAM. Merhamet distributed aid to the migrants, which consisted of meals, bottled water, juices, tea, dates, then blankets, underwear, undershirts, socks, raincoats and hygiene products. Vrbanjac pointed out that Merhamet has been involved in helping this population since the beginning of the migrant crisis in BiH.

By preparing meals, distributing clothes, shoes, blankets and hygiene items, Merhamet helped migrants in Una-Sana Canton, Tuzla, Sarajevo and Mostar. Before that, while the migrant wave had not yet hit our country, we were helping migrants in Serbia, even in Croatia. Also, for six years in a row, Merhamet has been helping migrants and Syrian refugees on the Turkish-Syrian border, for which he has so far delivered about 700,000 kilograms of meat. The value of that assistance amounted to more than 7 million KM , Vrbanjac pointed out.

He added that Merhamet, according to its capabilities, will continue to help migrants. He reminded that Merhamet feeds 8,000 socially endangered citizens in its 30 kitchens and their checkpoints every day, and that taking care of migrants is an additional expense for this humanitarian organization. However, as he concluded, Merhamet will not give up on helping the needy who have currently found refuge in Bosnia and Herzegovina, BHRT writes.

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Humanitarian Organization Merhamet distributed Clothes and Food to Migrants - Sarajevo Times

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and France are making a new effort to resolve an impasse over the development of a joint fighter jet, Europes biggest defence project that has led to tensions between Berlin and Paris, security and industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron and others attend the unveiling of the French-German-Spanish new generation fighter model during a visit to the 53rd International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, June 17, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool/File Photo

At an estimated cost of more than 100 billion euros, the venture brings together Germany, France and Spain to forge a future weapons system that is seen as the heart of a deepening European defence cooperation.

Dassault Aviation , Airbus and Indra are supposed to build the aircraft, which is expected to be operational from 2040 with a view to replacing Frances Rafale and Germanys Eurofighter warplanes over time.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron kicked off the ambitious venture in 2017, when the EU was rattled by Britains decision to leave the bloc and deeply divided over other issues such as the migrant crisis.

But the project has run into difficulties due to mistrust and differing visions between Berlin and Paris as well as corporate infighting over work shares, security and industry sources told Reuters.

At the beginning of February, Merkel and Macron failed to settle the issue, thus leaving open when the next tranche of payments of at least 5 billion euros can be released, according to insiders.

On Wednesday, envoys of the defence ministries of Germany, France, Spain as well as from Dassault, Airbus and Indra met in Paris to try to resolve the impasse, security and industry sources told Reuters.

Part of the controversy revolves around intellectual property rights, and who should possess them in the end.

Before moving ahead with the venture, Germany is trying to gain more concessions from France on the issue, insiders said, adding that Berlin would like to be able to use technologies co-developed with Paris for its own projects.

One French source said Germany also aimed for intellectual property developed at national level in France, something a German source denied.

Disagreements run so deep that there are even considerations to build two demonstrators instead of just one, one source told Reuters.

A senior French parliamentary figure also expressed doubts about the projects viability, citing diverging approaches and political constraints, such as Berlins refusal to participate in combat operations abroad.

To be honest, it would be a lot easier for us to work with Britain because we share the same military culture, the MP told Reuters. Britain is running its own fighter jet program, Tempest, with Italy and Sweden.

A planned update for the Franco-German Tiger combat helicopter, costing more than 5.5 billion euros, is another bone of contention.

France is keen on the modernisation, whereas Germany is digging in, with some parts of the military not wanting the upgrade at all given the low operational readiness of the Airbus helicopter, sources told Reuters.

On Thursday, the defence ministers of France and Germany, Florence Parly and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, will have another chance to solve the row, when they are scheduled to meet virtually.

Additional reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Giles Elgood

Excerpt from:
Berlin and Paris in crisis talks to bring fighter jet project back on track - Reuters

As the migrant crisis played out across the country during the lockdown, theatre director and playwright Aniruddha Khutwad found himself observing familiar scenes. He had met the protagonists, who came from villages to the cities and belonged to both and neither, in his plays such as Virasat. He had explored the role of the family in an individuals life in Raisins in the Sun and several other productions and studied the part played by women in society. So, when the Repertory Company of the National School of Drama (NSD) in Delhi decided to usher 2021 with a new play by Khutwad, the Pune-based director chose a stark sociopolitical work from the Marathi canon, Adhantar, to fit the times.

Written in 1993, Adhantar is about the impact of the closure of the cloth mills of Mumbai on the lives of the families who depended on it for their livelihood. I first watched it as a Marathi commercial theatre presented by the playwright Jayant Pawar in 1997. I directed the play in Marathi in 2009 and, again, in 2014 at NSD, both times as academic productions. Why have I turned to it again today as the world battles and medical and social crisis? This is because the play is, unfortunately, just as relevant now as it was 25 years ago, he says over the phone from Delhi. The play has been translated to Hindi by Kailash Sengar.

The script revolves around a lower-middle-class family of the 1980s and 90s from the chawls of Mumbais Girangaon and Lalbaug Parel. Aai is the mother to three sons and a daughter as well as the widow of a mill worker. The eldest son, Baba, has a college degree, dreams of being an author and considers getting a salaried job beneath his dignity. The second son, Mohan, did have a job once but is now applying to offices and meeting with failure every time. Naru, the youngest and uneducated, is a Bhai and a part of the Mumbai underworld. The daughter, Manju, feels suffocated by her job, her home and the society that forced her to abort after a premarital pregnancy. All of them are confined in a small room with an open toilet in a corner and a single light bulb suspended from the roof.

When the mills closed, 1.50 lakh families found themselves on the street with no food, money or employment. The aspect of COVID-19 that moved me the most was that labourers were let go overnight. While those with permanent jobs stood a chance of fighting back, the wage worker or employees on contract had nowhere to turn. Employment figures were not looking good even before the pandemic but, after the lockdown was announced, labourers had no option but to leave for their villages in large numbers. We need to take urgent measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 but the government should have looked after the lower strata as well, says Khutwad, an alumnus of NSD.

The performers in the play were unfamiliar with the politics or history of the Mumbai mills so Khutwad began the process of creating the play by using a small room, instead of a hall, for rehearsals. In this confined space, the actors internalised the pressures of being locked in with others without privacy through endless days. They evolved rituals and marked out spaces for themselves and the protagonists they play a corner with a bookshelf for one brother; a loft over the bathroom which is always dark and smelly for another; the tiny balcony for the daughter because she has no space inside the room.

We did not look at the characters as good or evil, but as people doing what they must to survive. Society is as responsible for a persons fate as that person themselves. As we worked on the play, discussing the mill culture and watching the sensitive documentary, titled Narayan Gangaram Surve, a veteran poet of Marathi literature who was a mill labourer himself, we began to see the play as events close to ourselves rather than something that happened long ago, says Khutwad.

The play unfolds in a room that set designer Rajesh Singh, with Khutwad, represents as a two-walled triangular structure to ensure audiences feel the walls closing in on the protagonists. The soundscape by Sourav Poddar represents the daily mix of traffic, mill sirens and local conversations while Motilal Khare moved around Old Delhi to find props that recalled a different decade in Marathi culture in the mills. Nalini Joshi, on costumes, worked with the cultural symbols surrounding the nine-yard sari that is worn by women in Maharashtra.

Ever since I read this play, it shook me from inside. I have no direct blood relation with the people of Girangaon, but there was a wave of empathy for them. I began to study the issue and its far-reaching effects. This is what the artistes in the play want to convey through Adhantar. We must understand the oppressed and stand with them, says Khutwad.

The play is being held at the National School of Drama in Delhi till today, 6.30 pm.

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How a Pune theatre director is commenting on the COVID-19 migrant crisis through a play on the Mumbai mills - The Indian Express

In February 2020, PK Valsala, a 45-year-old single woman from Kerala, south India, went to Oman to start a job as a domestic worker. She was sent to Kish Island in Iran by her Omani employer to change her tourist visa into a work visa. She landed on 22 February and was scheduled to return to Oman on 26 February.

I thought that I would be able to change my visa and re-enter Oman in a week or so, she says. But then the coronavirus hit. The very next day, Oman closed it air borders, then Iran too.

At first, she wasnt too alarmed. My employer called me and told me not to worry. He sent some money to the hotel where I was staying, which was enough to cover my expenses for for two weeks. He told me that everything would be fine after that time. But that wasnt the case.

Valsala found herself stranded on Kish Island, a popular tourist resort in the Persian Gulf, for 142 days. She struggled for food and even faced eviction from the hotel where she was staying because she could no longer afford to pay her bills, and neither could her employer.

However, a few social organisations in Oman supported her and she was finally repatriated to India in July, along with 700 Indian fisherman who were also stranded on the Iranian coast in an Indian Navy Ship.

Upon returning to India, Valsala who had previously worked in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait thought that she would be able to return to Oman for work, but her employer was unable to hire her again.

Before the coronavirus there were an estimated 23 million migrant workers in the Gulf region. The twin shock of the coronavirus pandemic and falling oil prices led the IMF to predict that the economies of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC) would contract by a massive 7.1 per cent in 2020.

Valsalas was one of the eight million jobs (or 13.2 per cent of working hours) that the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates was lost across the entire Arab region in the second quarter of 2020.

For the migrant workers who have managed to stay in the countries where they live and work, the Institute for Human Rights and Business says: Many [migrant workers] have been confined to poor living conditions in cramped dormitories, experienced job loss or non-payment of wages, been forced by employers to take unpaid leave or reduced wages, or repatriated back home with few to no alternative work options.

But for those who were forced to return home or who have been unable to leave their home country to start a new job abroad, the situation has been mixed. There is not yet any conclusive data on just how badly the coronavirus has impacted labour migration in South Asia (which is one of the biggest hubs of migrant labour globally) but the few statistics that are available paint a stark picture.

Both India and Bangladesh, two of the biggest sending countries in the region, witnessed a colossal dip in migration outflow in 2020. According to eMigrate, a channel set up by the Indian government to ensure fair migration, 368,043 people migrated abroad through the eMigrate channel in 2019; in 2020, that number was just 88,694, representing a 75 per cent decrease.

Meanwhile, official data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training also reveals a 74 percent decrease in migration outflow in 2020 (181, 218 people) compared to 2019 (700,159 people).

The economic situation in Oman forced Valsala to look for a job in her home state of Kerala. In September, she got a job working 10 hours a day for US$245 a month which is about US$100 less than what she would have earned in Oman. On top of that, the recruitment agency was charging her US$40 a month in commission. The agency is exploitative and doesnt even allow sick leave. Also, due to the Covid-19 restrictions, it is quite risky to go to unknown houses, stay there and do the job. So, I quit in November, Valsala tells Equal Times.

She is desperately trying to get back to the Gulf. But at the moment, there are not many jobs there. Even if there are jobs, the salary is too low. I was offered US$320 in the Gulf in February. Now, agents are telling me that I will get only US$200, she laments.

Moazzem Hossain is a 33-year-old Bangladeshi worker who lost his job as a mason in Saudi Arabia last year. Although he was sent back to Bangladesh due to the economic crisis, he is also trying to return to the Gulf.

I am now working as a construction worker in Dhaka. I get paid just US$170 a month and with that, I have to take care of my six-member family. It is hard to survive. In Saudi Arabia, I was able to earn around US$350 a month, Hossain tells Equal Times.

I have approached an agent in Dhaka. He is telling me that job opportunities are too low in the Arab Gulf now. He is also asking for an increased recruitment fee. When I went in 2017, I paid US$1,700 in fees. Now, I would have to pay US$2,000. But Hussain says that he is willing to pay the extra money if it lands him a job abroad.

When asked whether the fall in migration outflow is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, Shabari Nair, an ILO labour migration specialist for South Asia, said it was too early to tell. Although he notes the gradual resumption of foreign recruitment in some destination countries, Nair says: It would be better to assess this situation along the lines of the demands from the countries of destination, the specific sectors that demand these workers and the skills that the workers possess.

He says he hopes governments and employers will use the disruption caused by the pandemic as an opportunity to build a better recruitment process for migrant workers, one that ensures that workers are protected right from the very start. Nair also predicts that there may be some changes in the sectors that have the most vacancies. Healthcare workers, for example, may be in high demand, Nair says, adding that sending governments may also start looking at new migration corridors in Africa and Europe.

Like many low- to middle-income countries, remittances from migrant workers play a significant role in the countries of South Asia: in India remittances are said to make up 3 per cent of GDP while in Nepal they account for 27 per cent.

It was predicted that the economic downturn triggered by the pandemic could have a massive impact on the money sent home by workers abroad, with an October 2020 report from the World Bank estimating that remittances in South Asia will fall from US$135 billion in 2020 to US$120 billion in 2021.

However, Nair says the impact of Covid-19 on global remittances is still unclear, with some South Asian countries reporting an even higher inflow of remittances than usual.

Shakirul Islam, the founding chair of Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program, a grassroots migrants organisation based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is also assessing the situation carefully. He tells Equal Times that research conducted by his organisaton with potential and returnee migrant workers (those who were forced to return during the pandemic) shows that more than 72 percent of them (among 398 people) are still waiting for the situation to improve before they return overseas.

But this is a ticking time economic time bomb, he warns. Currently these workers are not getting any good jobsif situation doesnt get better in a year, then all migrant sending Asian countries will be facing a very tough time. We shouldnt forget that there are no jobs at home at the moment. If these people cant work in host countries either, then everything is going to be a problem.

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South Asia's migrant workers are facing a jobs crisis both at home and (...) - Equal Times

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Jeh Johnson, who headed the Department of Homeland Security under President Obama, has said that 1,000 apprehensions in a single day along the southwest border would be considered a bad day. Not only is he correct, but I recall his frustration vividly while serving as chief of the Border Patrol in 2016 as the illegal migration flow was reaching alarming numbers. By those standards, Mr. Johnson wouldnt be having many good days at the moment.

In what can only be described as a massive self-inflicted wound, the Biden administration has swiftly, and without hesitation, taken a wrecking ball to Americas border security and enforcement capabilities ending construction of the border wall; stopping lawful deportations; terminating agreements with our neighbors to the south that helped stanch asylum fraud into the U.S.; ending the Migrant Protection Protocols program, which was responsible for the end of catch and release; dismantling interior enforcement authorities, which will result in thousands of gang members and criminals being released into cities across the country; and promising free health care, expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and an amnesty to millions of illegal aliens currently in the U.S.

Hes only been in office for a few weeks.

Currently, Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal aliens along the southern border have skyrocketed to roughly 3,500 per day, although the real number of illegal crossers, when taking into account those who turn back into Mexico to avoid apprehension and those who elude detection, is likely closer to 4,500 per day.

In January, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended almost 80,000 migrants trying to illegally enter the U.S., far surpassing what we encountered in January of 2020. At this rate well exceed the 100,000 apprehensions mark per month by March, essentially turning back the clock to the humanitarian crisis of 2019.

With a stroke of a pen, President Biden has thrust the country into another illegal migration crisis.

Instead of helping the nation that is not only desperately trying to recover from a deadly pandemic, but is also seeing an economic maelstrom strike its businesses and workers his priorities have withdrawn and removed almost every tool and policy which provided the U.S. with the ability to effectively address illegal migration.

And what is the Biden administrations strategy to deal with the new crisis they created? To replace the tools and policies he swiftly removed? He has created task forces to review the migration issue.

After signaling the borders would open, President Biden is sending a really strong message to the migrants that now is not the time to come.

The Biden administrations actions are not only absurd but devoid of any meaningful understanding of what drives illegal migration and how the cartels and human smuggling organizations exploit the loopholes, our policies, and the migrants themselves. If your strategy consists of releasing those who illegally cross our border, protecting them from lawful deportation, and rewarding their continuing illegal behavior with free health care and amnesty - why wouldnt they continue to come? Its not really complicated; if you encourage, incentivize and facilitate unlawful behavior, thats exactly what youll get.

The Biden administration has rejected the repeated pleas from countless law enforcement experts, as well as the data and science behind border security, to address this crisis in a thoughtful and meaningful way. And now, our borders are less secure, our country less safe, and the mission of the men and women on the front lines of our nations borders is made more dangerous.

The only remaining authority holding back the current crisis level numbers from becoming catastrophic, is the Center for Disease Control and Preventions order, known as Title 42 (T42), which gives CBP the authority to remove illegal aliens from the border expeditiously. Rather than being brought into CBP facilities, they are released back into Mexico.

But were already seeing cracks forming in this authority. For now, its holding, but when T42 falls and its only a matter of when it does the 4,500 a day will overwhelm our immigration system. Local border communities, as well as communities in the interior of the U.S., will be flooded with illegal aliens as catch and release will be the only alternative.

The Biden administration is playing a dangerous game by removing every effective tool and policy and putting their hope that T42 will remain in place long enough for them to figure out how to undo the crisis theyve facilitated. Theyre simply kicking the catastrophic crisis can down the road, but its already too late.

Mark Morgan is the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and a senior fellow at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

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Don't blink, the border crisis has already begun - Washington Times