The UN refugee chief on Friday welcomed Tokyo’s decision to accept a handful of Myanmar refugees but called on the Asian economic giant to improve its assistance to asylum seekers.
“Japan is the first Asian country to adopt a resettlement program,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said. “This is indeed a very important symbolic measure.”
Japan said Thursday that it was ready to take about 30 Myanmar refugees who are living in camps on the border with Thailand. The announcement came as Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, met Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso.
While small by global standards, Guterres said he hoped it would pave the way for Japan — which only accepts dozens of refugees each year under strict conditions — to take in more people in future.
“For us what is important is quality,” he told reporters, adding that a successful integration would require helping the refugees learn the language and obtain jobs.
“Of course what is important is that this small program becomes a success and based on that Japan develops a more substantial resettlement program,” he said.
Guterres said he hoped the move would “also be symbolic of improvements in the general asylum policy of Japan.”
The UN refugee chief, who held talks with Japanese officials in charge of refugee recognition, said he focused on improving examinations that determine refugee status and on detention conditions.
Human rights groups have often criticized Japan for detaining rejected asylum seekers indefinitely.
About 1,000 people seek refugee status in Japan annually, a number that has doubled over the past few years.
The Refugee Assistance Headquarters, an auxiliary body under the foreign ministry, said it temporarily had to suspend financial aid for asylum seekers this month due to the growing number of applicants.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
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