Turkish Coast Guard units in Aydin province rescued dozens of irregular migrants who were illegally pushed back into Türkiye’s territorial waters by Greek authorities.

The units received a tipoff on the struggle of irregular migrants in a rubber boat off the coast of Tekeagac and rushed to their assistance, eventually rescuing all 28 of them.

They were referred to the provincial migration office for due process.

One of the migrants reportedly gave birth on the boat. The mother and her baby were taken to a health facility for a health check.

Türkiye and international human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece's illegal practice of pushing back asylum seekers, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable people, including women and children.

Türkiye has been a key transit point for irregular migrants who want to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution in their countries.

It already hosts 4 million refugees, more than any other country in the world, and is taking new security measures on its borders to humanely prevent a fresh influx of migrants./aa

One person has been indicted by a court in Paris and nine others may soon be charged over the deaths of 27 migrants in the English Channel last November, local media reported on Thursday.

French police arrested 13 men and two women in operations over the weekend for their involvement in what the UN migration agency had described as the “worst disaster on record” in the Channel.

Aged between 18 and 41, most of the suspects are Afghan nationals, while three, including the two women, are French.

Of the 15, one has been indicted for homicide and involuntary injuries, endangering others, and assistance with the entry and stay of a foreigner in France in an organized gang, daily La Voix Du Nord reported.

Five were released without any charges and nine others will be taken before a judge who will decide whether to indict them or not.

A Paris court opened a judicial investigation into the tragic incident last December.

Just two people survived after a boat carrying 29 migrants sank off the French coast on Nov. 24. Most of them were Iraqi Kurds, Afghans and Ethiopians.

Initial investigations revealed that French and British authorities did not respond to calls for help, passing on the responsibility of rescue efforts to each other./aa

Poland completed the construction of a steel wall at its border with Belarus to curb the wave of migrants entering from Belarus.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki inspected the 5.5-meter (18-foot) high wall along 186 kilometers (115 miles) on its northern frontier.

Morawiecki argued that the first sign of war in Ukraine was an attack by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on the Polish border and the wall, which started to be built in January, is a part of the struggle against Russia.

He said Poland opened its doors to millions of Ukrainian immigrants.

But human rights defenders have criticized the Polish government they said accepted Christian immigrants and rejected Muslim arrivals./aa

The devastating monsoon floods in the northeastern Sylhet region of Bangladesh have displaced around 3 million people and claimed the lives of 92 people, with the situation still precarious, local authorities said on Thursday. 

The flood has destroyed over 40,000 houses, according to Assistant Commissioner Sylhet Ahsanul Alam, who also told Anadolu Agency that over 37,000 residents in the district have taken shelter in more than 439 government-built units.

Alam said 80% of the Sylhet region is inundated with floodwaters, and Over 4.5 million people have been stranded since the flood hit the northeastern region in mid-May.

According to him, the local administration has sent a list of affected households to the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry for additional relief assistance.

The situation appears to be far from over, as new torrential rains and an onrush of floodwaters from upstream India flood different rivers in the northern regions.

The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre issued a fresh alert on Thursday, saying that the flood situation in Sylhet and Sunamganj districts could worsen as water levels in major rivers in the northern region have started increasing.

The water in the northern rivers is also rising. The Teesta and Dharla rivers are flowing above the danger level in the north. This has worsened the flood situation in the northern districts of Lalmonirhat and Kurigram.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry estimates that 600,000 secondary and college students in 18 districts in the country have been affected by the floods that wrecked one-third of the country.

Approximately 1,100 educational institutions in different districts were hit by the floods.​​​​​​​/aa

Attacks by the M23 or March 23 Movement, a primarily Congolese Tutsi militia, are causing large-scale displacements in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and tensions with neighboring Rwanda.

On June 13 this year, M23 rebels captured the border town of Bunagana, forcing Congolese soldiers, police, and civilians to flee to Uganda.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Abel Nuwamanya, program manager for the Restoration of Family Links (RFL), a program of the Ugandan Red Cross, said that at least 30,000 people, mostly women, and children, have been forced to leave the region.

Samuel Ayabere, a former member of the M23, who had to abandon the group after he sustained a bullet injury said the group has been fighting for Tutsi people’s rights in Congo.

“The M23 decided to fight the DR Congo government because it mistreats Tutsi people as if they are not Congolese,” he said.

David Musenze, an analyst, said since the rebel group is comprised mostly of members of the Tutsi tribe, the original inhabitants of Rwanda, authorities in DR Congo have been blaming the neighboring country for supporting them.

According to a recent UN report, the fighting between M23 and DR Congo forces has displaced around 140,000 people from their homes, with some moving to other places within the country and others fleeing to neighboring countries.

“M23 rebels have made our lives awful. They made us flee from our homes and now we are living in terrible conditions as refugees in Uganda,” said Nelson Khihosi, 60, a resident of eastern DR Congo and now living in a refugee camp in Uganda.

During the fighting nine-year-old Pecos Hakiza, lost contact with his family. A family has given him shelter in Uganda near the borders of DR Congo.

He said that rebels had attacked his home and killed his father on June 13.

“I followed groups of people who were escaping the village due to the attack by the rebels,” he said.

Analysts say the M23 came into existence in 2012 after a rebellion by the Tutsi tribe against the DR Congo government. They pushed the government forces and took control of the capital of North Kivu Province, Goma, with a population of one million.

Failure of peace talks

But after the mediation from the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, an intergovernmental organization of African countries, they withdrew from the city and announced a cease-fire.

The rebel leaders held several rounds of talks with the DR Congo government and both agreed on some issues.

But rebels later complained that the government had failed to fulfill the commitments as agreed during the talks.

In a recent offensive, M23 captured the Congolese border town of Bunagana.

On June 15, the rebels held a press conference in Bunagana in which they said they were fighting for their rights.

“We are not interested in fighting. We want peace. We are not warmongers,” said M23 spokesman Willy Ngoma.

He said their main demand was to end discrimination against the people of the Tutsi tribe.

Six presidents of member countries of the East African Community, an intergovernmental organization, met in Kenya on June 20 and agreed to soon send a regional standby force to DR Congo to fight the M23 rebels.

The force will include troops from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, South Sudan, DR Congo, and Tanzania./aa

Last year’s coup and the military’s ongoing attacks to assert control have taken an enormous toll on children in Myanmar, the UN said on Wednesday.

At least 382 children have been killed or maimed by armed groups since the February 2021 coup, while more than 1,400 children have reportedly been arbitrarily arrested, according to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“Children who took part or were suspected of having participated in protests are among those detained by the military. At least 274 child political prisoners remained in the military’s custody as of 27 May this year,” read a UN statement.

“Time is running out to save Myanmar’s stricken generation,” the committee warned, urging the international community to take swift action as “children continue to bear the brunt” of the junta’s violent actions.

The call for intervention comes as Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, as special envoy of the current chair of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN), leads a delegation to Myanmar on a five-day trip.

Cambodia is the current chair of the regional group of 10 nations this year, and this is Sokhonn’s second visit to the country to seek the implementation of a five-point plan drawn up by ASEAN after Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was deposed by the military junta.

While Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s history is replete with junta regimes, the latest coup has been met with mass civil unrest. The military has used brutal force in its attempts to quell dissent and killed more than 2,000 people, according to a local monitor.

The UN estimates that more than 700,000 people were internally displaced in the country as of June 1, including more than 250,000 children.

The committee said 7.8 million kids are still out of school, with many “reportedly … abducted and recruited for armed conflicts.”

It accused Myanmar army of “taking children of human rights defenders hostage to pressure their parents to surrender.”

At least 61 children are currently being held hostage by the junta, the statement added.

“Rohingya children have been arrested and detained for alleged migration-related offences. Torture and ill-treatment, including sexual abuse, have allegedly been inflicted on these children,” the committee said.

It also expressed deep concern over the Myanmar military’s moves to intentionally impede “access to food, funds, medical aid, and communication to weaken the support base for armed resistance and provoke fear.”/aa