Israeli troops raid Gaza as Arab nations condemn bombardment
Gaza, JerusalemReuters Israeli forces carried out their biggest Gaza ground attack overnight in their 20-day-old war with Hamas as anger grew in the Arab world over Israel’s relentless bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Israeli troops were still preparing for a full ground invasion, while the US and other […]
Kuwait’s stateless bedoun in limbo as hundreds lose bank accounts
KuwaitReuters Frontline worker Ahmad al-Enezi, a member of Kuwait’s stateless community, has spent the last 14 months lost in a bureaucratic maze after his bank account was suspended, freezing access to his salary and savings in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enezi’s predicament has its origins in a push by the Gulf country to […]
UNICEF calls for schools to reopen in pandemic-hit nations
Manila, The PhilippinesReuters The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF has urged education authorities to reopen schools as soon as possible in countries where millions of students are still not allowed to return to classrooms 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools in around 17 countries remain fully closed, while those in 39 countries remain partially […]
Kuwait starts to recycle massive tyre graveyard
KuwaitReuters More than 42 million old vehicle tyres dumped in Kuwait’s sands have started to be recycled, as the Gulf state tackles a waste problem that created one of the world’s largest tyre graveyards. The massive dump site was a mere seven kilometres from a residential suburb. Residents were bothered by periodic large fires releasing noxious […]
“Milking their misery”: Indian state makes returning migrants pay for quarantine
Mumbai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Coronavirus quarantine charges levied by an Indian state on migrant workers who are being flown home from Gulf nations will drive many returnees further into debt and put them at risk of destitution, campaigners and labourers said on Wednesday. India in May began a drive to repatriate nearly a million citizens […]
Bulgaria urged to stop locking up stateless people by detained heart doctor
LondonThomson Reuters Foundation A cardiac specialist, who was locked up in Bulgaria for six weeks because he has no nationality, has called on the government to stop treating stateless people like criminals. Sager Al-Anezi, who is from a large stateless population in Kuwait called the Bidoon, qualified as a doctor after moving to Bulgaria in […]