Drugs, violence and harassment are part of daily life for the growing population of homeless children in Venezuela
All photographs: Miguel Gutiérrez/EPA
Continue reading...Category Archives: Global development
India’s sick left out in the cold as New Delhi’s top hospital struggles to cope
Patients awaiting treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Science are living in tents and on pavements for months at a time as the centre reels under the weight of demand
The night-time cold in New Delhi is biting. As the temperature plunges, Alam Ansari’s twin daughters, born prematurely, have only their parents’ body heat to keep them warm while they huddle in a crowded tent on the road outside the capital’s top hospital.
They are not alone. Each day, about 8,000 people from across the country queue outside the outpatients department for treatment. Mainly from poorer backgrounds, they sleep in tents or on the ground.
Continue reading...On trial: El Salvador’s abortion ban
The shocking case of Imelda Cortez has put El Salvador’s strict abortion laws in the spotlight. Human rights lawyer Paula Avila-Guillen and reporter Nina Lakhani describe how a surprise verdict has given fresh hope to women in El Salvador. Plus, in opinion, Randeep Ramesh on the Guardian’s call for a citizens’ assembly to break the Brexit deadlock
El Salvador is one of 26 countries with a total ban on abortion, and the law is applied brutally. It’s not uncommon for women who have a miscarriage or a stillbirth to be charged with murder or, in the shocking case of Imelda Cortez, attempted murder.
Her case, and the ultimate acquittal of all charges against her, has given hope to women in El Salvador. Reporter Nina Lakhani and human rights lawyer Paula Avila-Guillen describe how Imelda Cortez came to be charged with the attempted murder of her child.
Continue reading...Despair endangers Dadaab refugees as smugglers seize their moment
Unsafe in Somalia and unwanted in Kenya, refugees increasingly risk abduction in search of a better life
Two months after he went missing from the Dadaab refugee complex, Abdullahi Mohamed called his mother, Ubah, from a detention centre in Libya where he was being been held by armed gangs. The men asked his mother to pay a ransom of up to $10,000 (£7,850) for the 19-year-old.
Relieved but distraught, Ubah started fundraising for his release, talking to family members in the diaspora and in Somalia.
Continue reading...Refugees at high risk of kidnapping in Horn of Africa, research reveals
More than one in 10 people travelling through the region are taken, as smugglers boost dwindling returns by preying on people for ransom, survey finds
More than 15% of refugees travelling north through the Horn of Africa were kidnapped during their journey last year, according to what is believed to be one of the most comprehensive surveys of migration journeys.
Researchers from the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), who conducted 11,150 interviews across 20 countries and seven migration routes, warned that kidnappings may be increasing and identified people travelling through the Horn of Africa to north Africa and Europe as the most vulnerable.
Continue reading...‘We need free period products in schools – it’s a human right’ – video
A teenager from London, Amika George campaigns against period poverty. One in 10 girls in the UK miss school because they cannot afford pads and tampons, and George describes the ‘horrific’ alternatives some are forced to use just to get an education
Continue reading...Children ‘still being tortured to confess to Isis links’ by Kurdish security forces
Nearly two years after raising the alarm, Human Rights Watch report reveals continued allegations of electric shocks and beatings on boys aged 14 to 17
Kurdish security forces in Erbil are continuing to torture children to confess their involvement with Islamic State, according to allegations in a report released by Human Rights Watch.
According to the organisation, which first raised the alarm about the mistreatment of child detainees by Kurdish security forces nearly two years ago, it has collected claims of the continued regular use of beatings and electric shocks to extract confessions, often prior to trials lasting a handful of minutes.
Continue reading...Trafficking convictions fall 25% despite rising number of victims in Europe
UN report shows drop in conviction rates over five years, as slavery expert condemns failure to recognise victims of abuse
The number of convictions for trafficking in Europe has fallen by a quarter, despite an increase in the number of victims and a global drive to tackle the abuse.
A report by the UN found that 742 people in Europe were convicted for trafficking offences in 2016, the latest year for which there is available data, compared with 988 in 2011. The number of identified victims increased from 4,248 to 4,429 over the same period.
Continue reading...Homeless children struggle to survive on the streets of Ethiopia’s capital
Driven from their rural homes by family problems and lack of opportunity, more and more children are making for Addis Ababa. Alone and vulnerable, they receive no state support
Behind Addis Ababa’s most iconic public space, Meskel Square, down a cobblestone alleyway in the shadow of half-finished high-rises, lies a small corner of the Ethiopian capital known by locals as “DC”.
Nestled between cramped brothels and dimly lit bars, it consists of low-slung, tin-roofed dwellings containing rows of bunk beds. Each night, hundreds of homeless children come looking for a place to sleep, sometimes two to a mattress.
Continue reading...‘You can feel the love’: Syrian who lived in airport on new life in Canada | Kate Hodal
Stranded in arrivals in Kuala Lumpur for eight months, Hassan al-Kontar was granted asylum to make Whistler his home
Hassan al-Kontar has been living in Canada for just under a month. But the Syrian refugee – who made global headlines after becoming stranded in a Malaysian airport for more than eight months in 2018 – is so busy with media requests that he jokes he has only managed to get out into the snow a handful of times.
“It’s very much like living in the airport, all the interviews. But obviously you cannot compare the two of them,” says Kontar, 37. “Whistler is an amazing place. There is nothing but nature, fresh air, wonderful people and beautiful snow.”
Continue reading...Suspected Ebola sufferer does not have disease, say Swedes
Tests negative for patient who had returned from Burundi and was treated in isolation
A young man being treated in isolation at Uppsala University hospital in Sweden after suspicion of Ebola contamination does not have the disease, the regional authority has said.
Region Uppsala, which oversees several hospitals and medical clinics north of Stockholm, said a test had been carried out on the patient, who was not identified.
Continue reading...Ex-Credit Suisse bankers arrested in $2bn fraud investigation
Trio arrested in London on US charges as calls grow for debt claim against Mozambique to be dropped
Three former Credit Suisse bankers have been arrested in London on US charges of alleged involvement in a fraud involving $2bn (£1.6bn) in loans to state-owned companies in Mozambique.
Mozambique’s former finance minister, Manuel Chang, and a senior executive from the shipbuilder Privinvest Group, Jean Boustani, have also been arrested in South Africa and New York, respectively, in recent days.
Continue reading...Schoolgirls in Kenya to face compulsory tests for pregnancy and FGM
Girls in Narok County will be made to reveal identities of babies’ fathers and tell police about female genital mutilation
Plans to subject schoolgirls in Kenya to mandatory tests for female genital mutilation and pregnancy are a violation of victims’ privacy, campaigners have warned.
All girls returning to school this week in Narok, Kenya, will be examined at local health facilities as part of a countywide crackdown.
Continue reading...‘My parents sold me’: poverty drives trade in child brides in Zimbabwe | Nyasha Chingono
Married off at 13, Maureen lost her education and her health. Her plight is common in a country racked by economic turmoil
The end of Maureen’s days at a primary school in north-eastern Zimbabwe marked the beginning of her life as a wife.
At 13, the brightest student in her class in Mudzi, Mashonaland, she was married to a man three times her age.
Continue reading...‘It’s like 1984’: Venezuela targets human rights defenders
Amid Venezuela’s collapse, Nicolás Maduro has locked up those accused of criticizing his regime – often without due process
Geraldine Chacón, a 24-year-old lawyer from Caracas, went four months without seeing the sun while a prisoner in the Helicoide, the feared hillside prison complex administered by Venezuela’s secret police, where she was denied access to sunlight, water and food.
“The guards told me I was a political prisoner, and for that I don’t get anything,” said Chacón, speaking by phone from Caracas, where she is on conditional release. “Without seeing the sun, you lose a sense of time, you don’t know if it’s day or night – it’s horrible.”
Continue reading...Somalia expels top UN official over ‘interference with internal affairs’
Nicholas Haysom told to leave after urging inquiry into civilian casualties during protests over former al-Shabaab leader’s arrest
Somalia has asked the UN secretary general’s special envoy to leave the country “as soon as possible” after accusing him of “interfering with the country’s internal affairs”.
A statement from the ministry of foreign affairs on Tuesday declared top UN official Nicholas Haysom persona non grata. The ministry said that Haysom “is not required and cannot work in this country”.
Continue reading...Experts urge Egypt to rethink two-child population strategy
Medics say limiting families s not the answer for a country where a baby is born every 15 seconds
In the cramped office of New Cairo hospital’s family planning clinic, Safah Hosny sets a box overflowing with contraceptives next to the visitors’ ledger on a small desk.
There are eight condoms for one Egyptian pound, about 4p, or ampoules of injectable birth control, for just under 9p. A contraceptive implant lasting three years costs 22p, while copper IEDs – the most popular form of birth control on offer according to Dr Hosny – cost 17p.
Continue reading...Mother of student held over Ortega protest in global plea for help
Family of activist Amaya Eva Coppens, 24, appeal for help to ‘stop the repression’ of Nicaraguan government
The mother of a medical student facing more than 20 years in prison for protesting against the Nicaraguan government is appealing to the international community to put pressure on president Daniel Ortega’s regime.
Amaya Eva Coppens, a Belgian-Nicaraguan dual national, is due to stand trial in the capital Managua after being “abducted” in a raid by more than 30 riot police and paramilitaries on 10 September.
Continue reading...Yemen: Houthi rebels’ food aid theft only tip of iceberg, officials say
Questions over relief effort multiply as it emerges aid officials knew for months of armed groups diverting food
The theft of food aid in Yemen by Houthi rebels might be only the tip of the iceberg, officials believe, as questions multiply over international relief efforts in the famine-ravaged country.
It has emerged that aid officials have been aware for months that armed groups – most prominently Houthi rebels in the capital, Sana’a – have been diverting food aid into the key areas they control, including by manipulating data in malnutrition surveys used by the UN.
Continue reading...‘It’s a very big torture’: the children growing up in hiding in Dubai | Katie McQue
With sex outside marriage punishable by jail, migrant workers who become pregnant are often forced to keep their babies locked away
A sweltering, windowless room in an old district of Dubai, no more than 5 metres by 3 metres in size, is home to nine people from the Philippines. Eight are adults, working long hours in low-paid jobs so they can send money home to their families. The ninth is a six-year-old boy.
His name is Jerry and he shares a tiny bed with his mother, Neng. Jerry loves dancing, Peppa Pig and doughnuts. This small dark room is the only home he has known, as he’s spent his life in hiding as a stateless child. Growing up without a birth certificate or any other identification means he has no access to education and has never visited a doctor. Officially, this little boy does not exist.
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