Madagascar is bracing for the full impact of the cyclone Batsirai, which has already claimed 58 lives has affected more than 132,000 people as it is expected to make landfall on Saturday, UN agencies said.

Having declared a state of emergency, Madagascar has been hit in 12 of its 22 regions as of Wednesday by heavy rains and flooding, with 15,000 people displaced in 68 sites across the central Analamanga region, World Food Program (WFP) official Pasqualina Di Sirio said on Friday.

Jens Laerke, the Geneva spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that almost all of those who have died were in the capital. "Traditional houses collapsed, and others were swept away by landslides," Laerke said at a UN press conference.

The International Federation of the Red Cross has warned that about 4.4 million people were at risk across 14 districts, with about 595,000 expected to be directly affected and more than 150,000 likely to be displaced.

Several countries in southern Africa are already affected by Tropical Storm Ana, which brought winds, heavy rains, destruction, and loss of life, said the OCHA.

"The United Nations and our humanitarian partners are ramping up preparedness efforts in anticipation of Tropical Cyclone Batsirai, which is expected to make landfall in Madagascar over the weekend after having passed through Mauritius," said Laerke.

Di Sirio, who serves as the WFP country director in Madagascar, said by telephone at the press conference that heavy rainfall caused by two tropical weather systems has caused flooding, displacement, destruction of crucial infrastructure, landslides, and loss of life.

"The capital Antananarivo and other areas of the Analamanga region have been particularly affected. Heavy and persistent rainfall has affected many other regions of the country as well," she said.

The WFP official said the floods and bad weather have not only devastated homes and damaged property but destroyed the livelihoods and sources of income for affected households, as well.

"Their short- and medium-term food security is in great peril. These families, currently in a situation of total destitution, will see their living conditions deteriorate in the absence of urgent assistance until their situation returns to normal," said Di Sirio./aa

The UN Refugee Agency said on Friday it was “shocked and deeply distressed” by reports that 19 migrants died on Wednesday on the Greek-Turkish border.

“We have seen reports in the media. And we are shocked and deeply distressed by these reports," UN High Commission for Refugees spokesman Boris Cheshirkov told a news conference.

He said they have reports that people have died near the border between Greece and Turkiye.

"We are working to verify these reports,” he said in reply to a question from Anadolu Agency.

According to Cheshirkov, the UN agency has received reports of an increase in the number of human rights violations at land and sea borders during the last two years.

“Such tragic deaths are avoidable, including through the establishment of regular and safe pathways that could prevent people from resorting to smugglers,” said the UN official.

“Increasing border restrictions and pushbacks in Europe contribute to refugees and migrants using riskier routes. And it means that people are putting themselves and their lives and their children in greater risk,” he added.

Turkiye's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu heavily criticized Greece on Wednesday for the inhuman and degrading treatment of irregular migrants and said those who were found dead were stripped of their clothes and shoes by the Greek border guards.

At least 19 irregular migrants were found frozen to death, the Turkish authorities said on Thursday, raising the death toll from 12 a day earlier./aa

Ahmet Demiray, a Turkish cancer patient who lives in the central German city of Kassel, was extended a lifeline by Turkey after he complained about the health care in the European country. Answering his call, Demiray was brought to Istanbul for treatment early Friday by an air ambulance sent by Turkey's Health Ministry.

The plane carrying Demiray landed at Atatürk Airport at 12:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m. GMT Thursday) and he was then taken to a private hospital where he will be treated.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Demiray's daughter, Reyhan, said they petitioned the Turkish Consulate General in Frankfurt to be transferred to Turkey since her 64-year-old father was not receiving adequate treatment in Germany.

"On the 23rd of January, my dad fell seriously ill at home, so I called the paramedics. After the examinations, they tried to get rid of us by saying 'We should not take him to the hospital if it is fine for you, but you can take him to your own family doctor,’” she said.

She added that upon their insistence he was hospitalized, however, in Germany you can't choose which hospital you will be treated at and the hospital where her father was placed failed to properly treat him.

Their family doctor informed Reyhan that her father has cancer and that the only cure is surgery. "You wanted to take your father to Turkiye. And where would you like your father to die?" he had said, using another name for Turkey. She thanked the Turkish authorities for transporting her father to Turkey.

"I am going to my homeland. May Allah not put anyone in the care of those (health care staff in Germany). I am grateful to the President, Health Minister and everyone involved and pray for them. My state saved me from them," Demiray told AA prior to his flight to Istanbul, adding that he suffered a lot at the hospital.

"They always delayed my care. Nurses would attend to me sometimes 15 minutes after I called them. I felt great pain. Once, they tried to draw blood but failed in four attempts. The staff was inexperienced and only managed to draw blood after a doctor showed up," he said.

Demiray said he would sue the hospital if the surgical procedure he underwent was recorded on camera. His daughter said doctors first thought her father had an ulcer but later told them he most likely had cancer after finding a tumor in his liver. She said doctors placed drains to remove bile build-up but it was very painful as they implanted one without anesthesia or sedatives.

Turkey offers air ambulances free of charge to its citizens all across the world. Ambulances transfer patients to Turkish hospitals upon requests by patients themselves or their families, mostly for emergency cases. Earlier this week, a young woman on life support was airlifted to Istanbul from the Netherlands, days before Dutch doctors' planned to pull the plug./aa

Although the international community did not remain indifferent to the death of 19 irregular migrants, who were pushed back into Turkish territory by Greek border units, Greece was not directly referred to as the responsible party.

Liz Throssell, the spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCR), said the reports on the death of migrants were truly saddening and the case should immediately be investigated.

Throssell also said that the UN Human Rights office has repeatedly stressed that states had the right to exercise jurisdiction at their international borders but this should be in line with human rights obligations.

UN Refugee Agency spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo described the freezing to death of irregular migrants as "heart-breaking" in a statement to Anadolu Agency.

"We are shocked and deeply saddened by the news," said Mantoo.

"We call for an urgent investigation. We reiterate our call to ensure that the lives, rights, safety, and well-being of refugees and migrants are protected and put first,” she said.

International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokeswoman Safa Msehli said she was "horrified" by the news of the reported deaths of irregular migrants.

Germany calls for probe

The German Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the government was concerned over the reports of deaths on the Greek-Turkish border, adding: "It’s important to find out the actual circumstances of this incident."

It also said: "Any type of border protection measure must meet the humanitarian standards under all circumstances, and should comply with the provisions of European and international law."

EU Commission

Anitta Hipper, a spokesperson for the European Commission, said they "deeply regretted" the loss of lives.

“Any such treatment, if confirmed to be true, would be intolerable," she said, adding the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson was “in close contact with the Greek minister” on the issue.

Asked what the "close contact" meant, she said Johansson spoke to Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarakis at an informal gathering of the EU justice and home affairs ministers in France and discussed the matter although the latter had limited information on the matter and said the irregular migrants were not moving toward the Greek border.

According to Hipper, Johansson said the EU should protect the borders and prevent irregular arrivals, however, this should be done in line with the European values and the right to asylum should be protected.

Greek denial

Mitarakis, for his part, said Turkish authorities' statements on the tragic event that occurred while they were trying to cross the European borders were unacceptable and it was Turkiye's responsibility to prevent illegal crossings.

The Greek minister said Turkish authorities’ statements were unfounded claims and alleged that the irregular migrants “never made it as far as the (Greek) border."

The lifeless bodies of a total of 11 irregular migrants were found in northwestern Turkiye’s Edirne province, which borders Greece, on Wednesday. Another perished later at a hospital.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the irregular migrants were stripped of their clothes and shoes by Greek border units who then pushed them back to the Turkish territory.

The next day, seven other irregular migrants were found dead in the same region, raising the death toll to 19./aa

Extreme weather events across Europe caused the deaths of up to 145,000 people in the last four decades, according to a report by the EU’s environment agency.

The European Environment Agency said in a report released on Thursday that extreme weather events like storms, heatwaves and flooding led to between 85,000 and 145,000 human fatalities from 1980 to 2020.

Also, climate-related disasters cost Europe around half a trillion euros, according to the report.

Heatwaves were the main cause of weather-related fatalities, accounting for more than 85% of the total.

Most fatalities were caused by the 2003 heatwave, representing between 50% and 75% of all fatalities from such events over the past 40 years, said the report.

Similar heatwaves after 2003 caused less fatalities as countries took measures to reduce devastating effects caused by extreme weather events, it added.

The assessment covered 32 member countries of the European Environment Agency, including all 27 EU member states, as well as Norway, Switzerland, Turkiye, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.

All regions of Europe are facing economic losses and fatalities from extreme weather and climate events every year./aa

Police in Hong Kong on Friday morning arrested an activist who was planning a demonstration outside China's Liaison Office in the region.

Local media reports said pro-democracy activist Koo Sze-yiu, 70, was detained from his home early in the morning after he had sent invitations to media for the planned protest demonstration.

His arrest takes place on the very day the Beijing Winter Olympics officially opens in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

Koo was "reportedly arrested under the national security law for allegedly inciting subversion of state power," Hong Kong Free Press reported.

On Monday, he told the media about his Friday plans, urging Beijing not to "overlook imprisoned citizens and political figures in Hong Kong who did not have the opportunity to spend Lunar New Year with their families."

Koo was picked up by Hong Kong police from his home in Cheung Sha Wan's Winsum Industrial Building and taken to the Cheung Sha Wan Division Police Station.

The activist has previously participated in political rallies organized by the pro-democracy League of Social Democrats party, but is not an official member, the report added.

So far, he has been in and out of jail at least 11 times.

Police have brought in four more people as part of the investigation. It has not been confirmed whether they were also arrested in connection with Koo's planned protest.

In the media invitation, Koo stated that the national security law, which was imposed in Hong Kong in 2020 after a year of anti-government protests, had been abused and that many had been wrongfully detained.

The 2022 Winter Olympic began on Wednesday, with an opening ceremony scheduled for Friday that will be attended by roughly 31 world leaders, including heads of state, governments and multi-national organizations.

The Olympic Games in Beijing will continue until Feb. 20, when the medal games and closing ceremony will take place.

Several Western countries, including the US, UK and Canada, have called for a boycott of China due to concerns over the country's human rights record.

Beijing denies any wrongdoing and has termed the allegations as a "political virus" used by the West to malign China.​​​​​​​/aa

As the 2022 Winter Olympics opened in Beijing on Friday, hundreds of protesters from China's Muslim Uyghur community rallied in Istanbul to call for a boycott of the Games over the country's treatment of the ethnic minority.

The protesters also urged Olympics participants to speak out against China's human rights violations.

The Games opened earlier in the day in the shadow of a diplomatic boycott over China's human rights record and devoid of most spectators due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"China stop the genocide," "Muslims don't sleep, stand up for your brothers," chanted the protesters, who briefly blocked a road and scuffled with lines of Turkish riot police as they tried to march up a hill toward the Chinese consulate.

"These Olympics are being held not on snow, but on blood," said one protester, 26-year-old student Abdullah Mudinoğlu.

Many protesters, gathered on Istanbul's waterfront, waved the blue-and-white flags of the independence movement of East Turkestan, a group Beijing says threatens the stability of its far western region of Xinjiang.

Some 50,000 Uyghurs are estimated to live in Turkey, the largest Uyghur diaspora outside Central Asia. Turks have close ethnic, religious and linguistic ties to the Uyghurs.

'Bloody games'

"We call on all humanity to boycott and not watch the Winter Olympics, and for sportspeople and participants not to take part in these bloody games," Hidayet Oğuzhan, head of the East Turkestan Education and Solidarity Association, told the crowd.

U.N. experts and rights groups estimate more than a million people, mainly from the Uyghur and other Muslim minorities, have been detained in forced labor camps in Xinjiang since 2016.

China initially denied such camps existed, but has since said they are vocational centers and are designed to combat extremism. It denies all accusations of abuse.

"We are completely against the Olympics being held there with such genocide being perpetrated against the Uyghurs," said 28-year-old Sufinur Omercan at Friday's protest.

"My father ... was a historian and was thrown in prison because of the columns and books which he wrote. I can't get any news on him since 2017."

Last month, 19 Uyghurs filed a criminal complaint with a Turkish prosecutor against Chinese officials, accusing them of committing genocide, torture, rape and crimes against humanity.

The United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan and Denmark have said they will not send official diplomatic delegations to the Games to protest China's rights record./ REUTERS

Indonesian authorities are attempting to send the group back after providing supplies, clothes and fuel, as well as a technician to fix their damaged boat

Dozens of Rohingya refugees intercepted after their boat ran into trouble off the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province were being sent into Malaysian waters, authorities said on Tuesday.

At least 100 mostly women and children aboard a wooden vessel said to be taking on water were denied refuge in Indonesia and instead pushed into the neighbouring Southeast Asian country.

Despite calls from non-governmental organisations and the United Nations agency for refugees, Indonesian authorities are attempting to send the group back after providing supplies, clothes and fuel, as well as a technician to fix their damaged boat.

“We hope (the supplies) can help the Rohingyas to continue their journey to Malaysia as they planned and intended,” Winardy, an Aceh police spokesman who, like many Indonesians, goes by only one name, told AFP.

“We will monitor them until they reach their destination,” he said.

The wooden boat was first sighted two days ago, stranded about 70 nautical miles off the Indonesian coast, according to a local navy commander.

Indonesian authorities have not pushed back Rohingya refugees as strongly as Malaysia or Thailand, instead reluctantly accepting them upon arrival by sea.

But Amnesty International and the UNHCR have called on the government to let the stranded group of Rohingya refugees land.

“This is about life and death. There are women and children, we must pay attention to their health,” executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia Usman Hamid said in a statement.

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The UNHCR also called on Jakarta to let the boat’s passengers disembark, pointing to the unseaworthiness of the boat.

Badruddin Yunus, a leader of the local fishing community, told AFP that fishermen who had visited the boat reported there were 120 people on board, including 51 children and 60 women.

He said the engine was broken and the refugees could not communicate with the local fishermen due to the language barrier.

Last year, hundreds of Rohingya who fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar arrived in Indonesia.

Many have since escaped to Malaysia, drawn by its substantial population of more than 100,000 Rohingya./ prothomalo

Another hijab row broke out in the southern Indian state of Karnataka after Muslim students were not allowed to enter a government college for wearing a headscarf.

This is the second college in the state banning the hijab.

After the latest incident, people have taken to social media platforms to support the students. “Hijab is our Right” is trending on Twitter, showing support for young girls.

On Thursday, some two dozen Muslim girls in kundapura area of the Udupi district were stopped from attending classes after some students belonging to right-wing groups wore saffron scarves – the color favored by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party – and opposed Muslim girls wearing hijabs.

“Let us all stand for the rights of our sisters. What is the reason for this discrimination? Why are they not allowed to enter colleges.. just because they wear hijab,” said Tousif Nandehalli, a Twitter user.

A video has also gone viral where Muslim students were seen pleading for entry into classrooms after they were stopped by the college principal. They also said that denying entry just before exams will jeopardize their future.

MP takes flak for supporting girls

Meanwhile, opposition Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor has also come under attack for questioning whether Sikh turban, Christian crucifix, Hindu forehead mark are also not allowed in educational institutes.

“It's been a strength of India that everyone is free to wear what they want. If the hijab is disallowed, what about the Sikh turban? The Hindu's forehead mark? The Christian's crucifix? This college is going down a slippery slope. Let the girls in. Let them study. Let them decide,” tweeted Tharoor.

Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah also supported these girls.

“Individuals are free to choose what to wear. You may or may not like their choice but that's a right we all have. If these public representatives can wear saffron robes, then these girls can use hijab. Muslims are not second-class citizens,” Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

Muslims have been demanding that barring students from wearing hijab is an attack on the "symbols of faith.”

What does constitution say?

According to the Indian constitution, every citizen has the right to practice, profess and propagate religion. This right can be curtailed only on grounds of public order, morality, and health.

Last month, tensions erupted in another government college in Karnataka's Balagadi village after a group of students turned up wearing saffron scarves and asked their female classmates from the Muslim community not to wear a hijab during classes.

Subsequently, the authorities banned hijabs and saffron scarves on the campus.

A student of the Women’s Government Pre-University College in Udupi, who was denied entry into the classroom for wearing a hijab, has approached the Karnataka High Court seeking interim relief to attend classes wearing the hijab before the entire matter was settled.

In Karnataka, the state government has said it will constitute a committee to formulate guidelines on uniforms at colleges.

Indian Muslims have witnessed a deterioration of the right to practice faith under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing BJP./aa