Human Rights

04 June 2021; MEMO: Turkey today rescued 32 asylum seekers in the Aegean Sea after they were pushed back by Greek coastal authorities into Turkish territorial waters, an official said, Anadolu Agency reports.

They were rescued from rubber boats by the Turkish Coast Guard off the coast of Cesme district in western Izmir province, said a coast guard statement.

After routine checks, they were referred to the provincial migration authority.

HONG KONG (AP) — Police arrested an organizer of Hong Kong’s annual candlelight vigil remembering the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown and warned people not to attend the banned event Friday as authorities mute China’s last pro-democracy voices.

In past years, tens of thousands of people gathered in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to honor the victims who died when China’s military put down student-led pro-democracy protests on June 4, 1989, killing hundreds if not thousands.

03 June 2021; MEMO: Some 4,650 Palestinian prisoners were being held in the Israeli occupation's jails as of the end of May, Anadolu reported the Palestinian Prisoners' Club (PPC) saying yesterday.

In a statement, the PPC said that 39 women and 180 minors are among the prisoners, who are enduring harsh conditions in Israeli prisons.

03 June 2021; MEMO: Belfast City Council passed a motion on Tuesday supporting the expulsion of the Israeli ambassadors from both Ireland and the United Kingdom. The local authority will write to the governments in Dublin and London urging them to expel the ambassadors "with immediate effect".

03 June 2021; MEMO: Europe is testing a "sound cannon" – which gives off a high-pitched noise as loud as a jet engine – to deter people arriving and seeking refuge, according to a video made by DW News which captures the truck and the sound.

Between 2021 and 2027 the EU plans to invest almost €35 million ($42.7 million) in border control, according to the report.

Besides the sound cannon they will buy cameras and drones and an Interrogation AI.

03 June 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture in Gaza said on Wednesday that the total losses suffered by the sector as a result of the recent Israeli military offensive are estimated at $204 million, Anadolu has reported. Farmers, said the ministry, were forcibly displaced by Israel's indiscriminate bombing which prevented them from reaching and working on their land.

03 June 2021; MEMO: Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah "live in constant fear of being forcibly displaced… and are traumatised by settler violence", Commissioner-General of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said yesterday.

He made the remarks during a visit to eight Palestine refugee families at the centre of the dispossession campaign by Israeli settler organisations in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

03 June 2021; MEMO: A 12-year-old Palestinian child was run over by Israeli police in East Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood for placing the Palestinian flag on his bicycle while riding to a nearby grocery to buy bread, Anadolu reports.

"I was on my bike to buy bread when three Israeli policemen chased me because I put the [Palestinian] flag on the bike," Jawad al-Abbasi said in a report he provided to the Hadassah Hospital where he has been receiving treatment.

New Delhi, Jun 2 (PTI) Over 8,700 people were mowed down on railway tracks in 2020 even though passenger train services were severely curtailed due to the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, with officials saying many of the victims were migrant workers.

The Railway Board shared the data on such deaths for the period between January and December 2020 in its reply to a question by Madhya Pradesh-based activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur under the Right to Information Act.

New Delhi, Jun 3 (PTI) Kerala has retained the top rank in Niti Aayog's SDG India Index 2020-21, while Bihar has been adjudged as the worst performer, according to a report released on Thursday

The Index for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) evaluates progress of states and union territories on social, economic and environmental parameters.

Kerala retained its rank as the top state with a score of 75. Both Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu took the second spot with a score of 74.