US migrant crisis: Trump seeks to curb Central America asylum claims - BBC News

The Trump administration is seeking to curb migration from Central America by introducing new rules over who can claim asylum in the US.

Under the new rules, announced on Monday, migrants who travel via another country before reaching the US border will be ineligible for US asylum.

Migrants who have been trafficked will be exempt from the ban.

A legal challenge against the US restrictions is expected, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Announcing the rule change, Attorney General Bill Barr said it would deter "economic migrants" from exploiting the US asylum system.

"The United States is a generous country but is being completely overwhelmed by the burdens associated with apprehending and processing hundreds of thousands of aliens along the southern border," Mr Barr said in a statement.

The move comes after a court in Guatemala temporarily blocked a migration deal which could have seen the Central American nation defined as a "safe third country".

The Trump administration has suspended aid to Guatemala, as well as Honduras and El Salvador, arguing they are not doing enough to curb the migrant flow.

Guatemala's president, Jimmy Morales, has been under pressure from the US, but Guatemala's constitutional court granted an injunction late on Sunday which effectively blocks him from signing the deal.

"Safe third country" agreements require migrants to seek asylum in the first country designated as "safe" they reach rather than proceed to a country of their choice.

Such a deal would affect the thousands of Hondurans and Salvadoreans who cross Guatemala on their way north to the US, who - under such a deal - would face being sent back to Guatemala, the first "safe" country they entered.

In its injunction, the court said that any such agreement would have to be approved by Guatemala's Congress first, effectively tying President Morales's hands.

Designating Guatemala as a "safe third country" has met with stiff opposition in the Central American nation with both of the candidates for president in the upcoming election rejecting it.

While Guatemalans say they fear becoming a "dumping ground" for migrants, human rights groups have pointed to Guatemala's high levels of crime as a reason for it not qualifying as a suitable "safe third country".

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On Sunday, the government issued a statement denying it had any plans to sign such a deal.

Only last month, Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart said Guatemalan officials were discussing such a "safe third country" agreement with the US - with US sources confirming such a deal was under discussion.

It is not clear whether the planned meeting between Mr Morales and President Donald Trump will take place anytime soon now that the deal is off the table.

Guatemala, as well as its southern neighbours, El Salvador and Honduras, have all been struggling to curb the flow of people leaving for the US.

The case of a Salvadorean migrant who drowned alongside his daughter trying to cross the Rio Grande prompted Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele to say his country had to do more to fix the problems forcing people to leave.

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2019-07-15 14:03:45Z
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Alan Turing, World War II code-breaker castrated for being gay, is the face of Britain's £50 note - CNN

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney announced Monday that Turing, who killed himself in 1954 after he was subjected to chemical castration, will appear on the new polymer note by the end of 2021.

In a statement, Carney lauded the Englishman as an "outstanding mathematician" and "a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand."

"As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as war hero, Alan Turing's contributions were far ranging and path breaking," the central banker said.

Turing is best known for his work at Bletchley Park, where UK cryptologists sought to decipher messages sent by the Nazis. His efforts to crack Germany's Enigma code remained a secret for decades but are now credited with saving thousands of lives and hastening the end of World War II. Turing was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in "The Imitation Game," a 2014 film on the subject.

The pioneering scientist also played a pivotal role in developing computers, and early thinking about artificial intelligence.

In 1937, he published a paper introducing an idea that came to be known as the Turing machine, which is considered to have formed the basis of modern computing. This was a hypothetical device that could come up with a solution to any problem that is computable.

The note's design reflects Turing's work. It features a ticker tape of binary code that spells out his birthday (June 23, 1912), and depicts the "British Bombe" machine that helped break the Enigma code.

It also includes a quote Turing gave to The Times newspaper in 1949: "This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be."

Supporters have long campaigned for Turing to receive greater recognition for his work and official acknowledgment that his conviction for homosexual activity was wrong.

Two years after choosing castration to avoid a custodial sentence, he ended his life at the age of 41 by eating an apple laced with cyanide.

Sex between men over the age of 21 was decriminalized in England and Wales in 1967. However the law was not changed in Scotland until 1980 and in Northern Ireland until 1982.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized for Turing's treatment by the justice system in the 1950s after thousands of people signed a petition in 2009.

He received a royal pardon in 2014.

Turing was chosen to grace the £50 note from a list of candidates including theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and mathematician Ada Lovelace.

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2019-07-15 12:56:00Z
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The Trump administration and the border: Live updates - CNN

 

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

The Trump administration filed a regulation Monday that could dramatically limit the ability of Central American migrants to claim asylum if they enter the United States by land through Mexico, according to a document filed by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security in the Federal Register.

Here's part of what the document says:

“Pursuant to statutory authority, the Departments are amending their respective regulations to provide that, with limited exceptions, an alien who enters or attempts to enter the United States across the southern border after failing to apply for protection in a third country outside the alien’s country of citizenship, nationality, or last lawful habitual residence through which the alien transited en route to the United States is ineligible for asylum,”

The rule is scheduled to publish Tuesday and should go into effect then.

What this means: The regulation would prohibit migrants who have resided in a third country from seeking asylum in the US. It would, therefore, bar migrants transiting through Mexico from being able to claim asylum and as a result, drastically limit who's eligible for asylum. The regulation is an interim final rule, which allows the new restrictions to go into effect immediately.

It’s the latest attempt by the Trump administration to toughen the US asylum process and has the potential of affecting a large swath of migrants journeying to the US-Mexico border. CNN previously reported that President Donald Trump had been considering the regulation.

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2019-07-15 13:42:00Z
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Trump administration announces major crackdown on asylum seekers - Fox News

The Trump administration on Monday announced a sweeping new policy tightening restrictions for asylum seekers, in a move that could drastically reduce the number of Central American migrants eligible to enter the United States in this way.

The new rule, published in the Federal Register, would require most migrants entering through America’s southern border to first seek asylum in one of the countries they traversed – whether in Mexico, in Central America, or elsewhere on their journey. In most cases, only if that application is denied would they then be able to seek asylum in the United States.

LINDSEY GRAHAM CLAIMS BORDER FRAUD SO PREVALENT 'A TERRORIST COULD EASILY GET IN'

"Ultimately, today's action will reduce the overwhelming burdens on our domestic system caused by asylum-seekers failing to seek urgent protection in the first available country, economic migrants lacking a legitimate fear of persecution, and the transnational criminal organizations, traffickers, and smugglers exploiting our system for profits,” Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan said in a statement, describing the "targeted changes" as critical.

Sure to ignite a new firestorm over the administration's immigration approach, the new policy follows the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols, commonly referred to as the "remain in Mexico" policy. Under that policy, asylum seekers were often told to go back to Mexico to await hearings, rather than be allowed to remain in the U.S.

Democrats railed against that policy, with 2020 hopeful Beto O'Rourke calling it "inhumane."

The latest change is meant to crack down on asylum seekers coming to the U.S. more for economic reasons than to escape persecution in their home countries. The new policy does include a couple other exceptions, mainly for certain victims of human trafficking.

Attorney General Bill Barr said in a statement that the change would curb "forum shopping by economic migrants and those who seek to exploit our asylum system to obtain entry to the United States—while ensuring that no one is removed from the United States who is more likely than not to be tortured or persecuted on account of a protected ground.”

While Barr maintained the legality of the move, the new rule is likely to face a court challenge.

U.S. law allows refugees to request asylum when they arrive at the U.S. regardless of how they did so, but there is an exception for those who have come through a country considered to be "safe." But the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs asylum law, is vague on how a country is determined "safe"; it says "pursuant to a bilateral or multilateral agreement."

Right now, the U.S. has such an agreement, known as a "safe third country," only with Canada. Under a recent agreement with Mexico, Central American countries were considering a regional compact on the issue, but nothing has been decided. Guatemalan officials were expected in Washington on Monday, but apparently a meeting between Trump and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales was canceled amid a court challenge in Guatemala over whether the country could strike such an agreement.

Trump administration officials say the changes are meant to close the gap between the initial asylum screening that most people pass and the final decision on asylum that most people do not win. The goal in part is to allow quicker determinations in these cases.

But immigrant rights groups, religious leaders and humanitarian groups have said the Republican administration's policies amount to a cruel effort to keep immigrants out of the country. Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are poor countries suffering from violence.

Along with the administration's recent effort to send asylum seekers back over the border, Trump has tried to deny asylum to anyone crossing the border illegally and restrict who can claim asylum.

SEN. TED CRUZ: TO SECURE OUR BORDER, TAKE THESE IMPORTANT AND EFFECTIVE ACTIONS

Reducing the number of asylum seekers, however, would ease the burden on federal agencies currently overwhelmed by the number of people looking to enter the United States. Children and adults crossing illegally are often separated, with the children placed in detention facilities that are lacking in resources, resulting in outcries against the administration’s current practices.

On Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., cited the urgency for adopting new asylum laws.

Graham said that 30 percent of those who cross into the U.S. with children are "fake families," and that loopholes are used to let the same children come back over and over, bringing different adults with them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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2019-07-15 12:51:47Z
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Scores killed, millions displaced as monsoon batters South Asia - Aljazeera.com

More than 100 people have been killed and two million forced from their homes across Nepal, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as rain-triggered floods and landslides left a trail of destruction in parts of South Asia.

The death toll was the highest in Nepal, where torrential rains unleashed mudslides and caused rivers to overflow, killing at least 67 people, officials said on Monday. 

The annual deluge, which hit the country on Thursday, has so far displaced at least 10,000 people there.

The downpours have eased but authorities still fear the death toll could rise, according to police spokesman Bishwaraj Pokharel, who gave the latest number of dead and missing from floods and landslides.

"There are the challenges of resettlement of the displaced as many houses ... have been swept away. We are also cautious about the risk of epidemics due to polluted water," Pokharel told AFP news agency.

A woman searches for her belongings near the debris of her house following floodwaters in Kasuarbori village in Assam [Biju Boro/ AFP]

Building collapse in India

The June to September monsoon causes widespread death and destruction across South Asia each year. 

In the latest monsoon-related tragedy in India, a four-storey building on a hillside in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh collapsed due to heavy downpours, trapping those who had gathered for a party inside.

At least 14 people were killed, including 13 soldiers, according to a statement from the chief minister's office. 

Rescue workers used heavy machinery to remove heaps of mangled steel and wires from the muddied debris, pulling 28 survivors from the rubble.

Floods have also devastated much of the northeastern state of Assam, where at least 1.5 million people have been forced from their homes. Four people died on Sunday after being swept away by sudden torrents.

The state's Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO-recognised reserve and home to two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos, has also been seriously affected by the weather.

In the eastern state of Bihar, five rivers were flowing over the danger levels with more rain forecast for the next few days. Pratata Amrit, an Indian government official, said about 200,000 people have left their flooded village homes in Bihar, with 50,000 of them taking shelter in 152 state-run relief camps.

In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, officials said at least 18 people were killed after heavy rain triggered flash floods and damaged more than 50 houses.

A rickshaw puller makes his way through heavy rainfall at a water-logged street during the monsoon season in Dhaka [Munir Uz Zaman/ AFP] 

'Miserable'

Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 160 million people with more than 130 rivers, is prone to monsoon floods because of overflowing rivers and the heavy onrush of water from upstream India.

At least 29 people have died in the last week, including two Rohingya refugees, 18 people who were hit by lightning in different parts of the country and seven who drowned after their boat capsized in choppy waters in the Bay of Bengal.

Another 500,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Bangladesh's southern Chittagong district after the flooding of some 200 villages.

In the overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district - home to nearly one million Rohingya who have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar - nearly 5,000 tarpaulin and bamboo homes were destroyed after heavy rains triggered mudslides on the hill slopes, according to a spokeswoman for the International Organisation for Migration.

Nearly 6,000 Rohingya have been left without shelter because of heavy rains. 

Displaced refugees said they were suffering as rain disrupted logistics and daily activity in the camps.

"It's tough to go to food distribution centres by wading through a swamp of mud," Nurun Jan, a Rohingya refugee, told AFP news agency. "Rains and gusty wind have made our life miserable."

Refugees also described a shortage of drinking water and a looming health crisis due to flooded toilets, which foster disease outbreaks.

Nepalis walk through floodwaters carrying items like plastic bottles and gas bottles after the Balkhu River overflowed following monsoon rains at the Kalanki area of Kathmandu [Prakash Mathema/ AFP]

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2019-07-15 12:30:00Z
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Flooding Kills Dozens in Nepal as Waters Rise Across Asia - The New York Times

KATHMANDU, Nepal — The death toll mounted Monday from flooding and landslides caused by torrential weekend rains in India and Nepal, as rescuers carried out desperate searches for survivors and officials in nearby Bangladesh braced for the floodwaters to move downstream.

The hardest-hit country appeared to be Nepal, where the police said on Monday that 67 people had died as a result of the monsoonal rains that began last Thursday night and set off widespread flooding, particularly in the country’s southern plains along the Indian border.

Officials said that at least 68 others had been injured in landslides and flooding and that an additional 30 people were still missing. Photos published by Nepal’s news media showed flood victims wading through murky, thigh-high waters, and teams of rescuers plying streets in inflatable boats.

The death toll from flooding and landslides triggered by torrential rain has risen to 67, Nepal Police says|https://t.co/7Zy7z44TnF

— myRepública (@RepublicaNepal) July 15, 2019

Nine major highways in Nepal had been blocked by floods and mudslides, 3,366 people had been rescued and 16,520 households had been temporarily displaced as of Monday, the National Emergency Operation Center said. No estimates on property or infrastructure damage were available.

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A waterlogged street in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Friday.CreditMunir Uz Zaman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“We are trying to provide dry foods — rice, noodles and biscuits — to flood victims, but it’s not easy to access affected people as whole villages are inundated and roads connecting to those villages are damaged,” Ajay Gupta, the mayor of Gaur, a town along Nepal’s southern border with India, said by telephone on Monday afternoon.

Beda Nidhi Khanal, the head of the National Emergency Operation Center, said on Monday that bad weather had grounded four helicopters based in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, whose crews had planned to carry out rescue operations and supply food to disaster-hit areas. He said only two helicopters, both based near the Indian border, were operating in the disaster zone as a result.

Mr. Gupta, the mayor of Gaur, said his town had not yet received any relief materials from the federal government as of Monday afternoon, and that many electricity and telephone lines in the area were still down. Soldiers and police officers had rescued several people using rubber boats, he added, but two people from the town had drowned.

In India, at least 25 people have died so far from the rains and floods, Mohamad Farukh, the chief executive of Rapid Response, a nongovernmental charity focusing on disaster relief, said in a text message on Sunday. Indian officials said a day earlier that about 750 people from the worst-affected states, Assam and Bihar, had been rescued over the preceding three or four days.

In the northern Indian town of Solan, which lies in a hilly border region hit by heavy rains, seven soldiers and one civilian died after a three-story building suddenly collapsed, officials told The Associated Press on Monday. They said 31 people had been rescued, and that the soldiers had been having a party in the building’s ground-floor restaurant when the collapse occurred.

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Villages and farmland along the Mishui River in Hengyang, China, were submerged in floodwaters Thursday after heavy rainfall.CreditReuters

In Bangladesh, 14 deaths have been recorded as a result of flooding in low-lying areas of the country since July 9, and 60,000 families in those areas were still “marooned in their home or community shelters” as of Sunday, the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society said in a report.

The rains have also flooded parts of the world’s largest refugee camp, in southeastern Bangladesh, which is home to more than half a million Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled violence in neighboring Myanmar, according to the United Nations.

Raqibul Alam, a program manager at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Bangladesh, said on Monday afternoon that while torrential rains had temporarily stopped in that part of the country, he was still concerned.

“At this point, the main challenge is the water coming down from upstream” rivers in Nepal and India, coupled with the threat of further rainfall that is expected in the area over the next two days, Mr. Alam said.

Every year, from June to September, monsoon season brings heavy rains that pummel South Asia, regularly provoking deadly flooding. In 2017, more than 1,000 people died in floods across the region, including in Nepal, where thousands of homes were destroyed, dozens of people were swept away, and elephants were pressed into service to rescue people from swirling waters.

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A girl seeking shelter from the waters at a relief camp in the Morigaon district of Assam, India, on Sunday.CreditEPA, via Shutterstock

The flooding this year has been particularly heavy.

In India, for example, 32 people died in early July after the heaviest monsoon rains in a decade struck Mumbai and nearby areas.

And in southern Bangladesh, a group of aid agencies said on Friday that more than 45,000 people in refugee camps had been affected since the end of April by “weather-related incidents,” compared with 55,000 during the entire monsoon season last year.

Heavy flooding has also affected China, where an official at the Ministry of Water Resources said on Sunday that flooding had been reported in a record 377 rivers this year, according to Xinhua, the state-run news agency.

In Nepal on Monday, there was speculation in the news media about whether some of the flood risks had been exacerbated by factors like climate change, road and infrastructure construction by India across the border, and the mining of natural resources like sand and timber from the nearby Chure mountain range.

Mr. Gupta, the mayor of Gaur, said his more immediate concern was preventing a local hydropower dam from overflowing the banks of its reservoir.

Preparations are underway to release water from the reservoir to avert a crisis, he added. “But we are terrified that the water could overflow our settlement again when it is added into local rivers.”

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2019-07-15 11:43:41Z
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European powers urge unity to save Iran nuclear deal - Aljazeera.com

The Iran nuclear deal is not yet dead, but the United Kingdom has warned there remains just a small window to save it, as European foreign ministers gather in Brussels to find ways to convince Washington and Tehran to engage in dialogue.

Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from a landmark pact last year and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Iran has subsequently decided to no longer respect some of its obligations. Tehran says it will come back into full compliance if European powers ensure it can sell oil on global markets - a revenue stream blocked by the US sanctions regime.

"Iran is still a good year away from developing a nuclear bomb. There is still some closing, but small window to keep the deal alive," UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters ahead of the Brussels meeting.

There is still time to save the deal signed in 2015 between Iran and world powers, said Hunt, adding that, despite the US being Britain's closest ally, it disagreed on how to handle the Iran crisis.

Similarly, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Europe had to remain united in trying to preserve the deal and convince Tehran to reverse its decision not to comply with parts of the accord.

"The Europeans have to stay united on this issue," Le Drian told reporters on Monday.

Iran's decision to reduce compliance with the deal that the United States abandoned last year was "a bad response to a bad decision", he said.

Al Jazeera's Dominic Kane, reporting from Brussels, said: "The Europeans say they have a united front. They say the deal with Iran, negotiated between themselves, Russia, China and the Obama administration, is the only one which can regulate this thorny issue."

US/Europe division

An international row has erupted in recent weeks following the publication of leaked secret diplomatic memos from the UK ambassador to Washington which called Trump's administration "inept" and "dysfunctional". Sir Kim Darroch stepped down from his position last week after Trump tweeted personal insults towards the veteran diplomat.

In the latest twist in the saga, the right-wing Mail on Sunday newspaper published more details on Sunday, quoting Darroch accusing Trump of abandoning the nuclear deal in an effort to undermine President Barack Obama's legacy.

"On the substance, the [US] administration is set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons - it was Obama's deal," Darroch wrote in a diplomatic cable to then-foreign secretary, Boris Johnson.

We believe that the time has come to act responsibly and to look for ways to stop the escalation of tension and resume dialogue

Joint statement from Germany, France and the UK

'Deal may collapse'

The meeting in Brussels comes a day after France, Britain and Germany - the European signatories to the accord - warned the deal could collapse and urged nations to resume talks.

The countries' joint statement released on Sunday by the French president's office called on "all stakeholders to pause, and consider the possible consequences of their actions".

It added: "We believe that the time has come to act responsibly and to look for ways to stop the escalation of tension and resume dialogue."

The accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed in Vienna by Iran, the US, France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia, and promised sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear programme.

Trump withdrew the US from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran, including on its key banking and oil sectors.

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In response, Tehran announced in May it would scale back its commitments, and has since increased its stockpile of low-enriched uranium above the agreed limit and has begun to enrich uranium above the 3.67 percent permitted under the agreement.

"We've heard from the spokesman of Iran's atomic energy organisation, who said Iran will go back to its pre-2015 nuclear activities if Europeans don't show they are truly committed to the deal," said Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran.

"There is a sense of urgency among Iranian officials - they don't really believe the Europeans are serious about this deal any more. They are looking for concrete action from the remaining signatories to the deal. The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, has praised Foreign Minister [Mohammad] Javad Zarif's team, saying with this one single agreement, the Iranians were able to abolish six UN Security Council resolutions against them - so this is a really serious deal for them. They are hoping that today's meeting in Brussels comes out with some tangible actions and provides some hope that there is a future for this deal."

INSTEX trade 

In recent weeks, the three European parties to the deal confirmed a new financial mechanism designed to enable European and Iranian companies to trade without any direct financial flows - thus bypassing the US financial system - was operational.

However, the scope of the workaround vehicle called INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) is initially confined to humanitarian products such as medicine, medical devices and food, which are not directly targeted by US sanctions.

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Diplomats have said that, in any case, they fear US blowback, while Iranian officials have repeatedly said INSTEX must include oil sales or provide substantial credit facilities for it to be beneficial.

French President Emmanuel Macron dispatched a top aide to Tehran last week to offer suggestions on how to freeze the current status quo to gain some time. 

"We told President [Hassan] Rouhani what the parameters of a pause could be and we're waiting for a response from the Iranians, but their point of departure is relatively far because they are demanding the immediate lifting of sanctions," said a French presidential official.

Meanwhile, Rouhani said in a televised speech on Sunday that Tehran was ready to hold talks with Washington if the US lifted the sanctions and returned to the nuclear deal.

But Trump has shown no sign of backing down and said last week he would push on with yet more sanctions.

Iran has made any talks conditional on first being able to export as much oil as it did before the US withdrawal from the deal.

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2019-07-15 11:26:00Z
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