Month: October 2017

The White House said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has developed a “warm rapport” with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte even though the Manila leader has verbally attacked the United States in profane terms.

A senior Trump administration official, talking about details of Trump’s five-nation Asia visit that starts Friday and includes a stop in Manila, said Trump and Duterte have become friendly during telephone conversations and exchanges of letters.

“I think there’s a warm rapport there and he’s very much looking forward to his first in-person meeting with President Duterte,” the official said. Their meeting is scheduled on the last stop of Trump’s 12-day trip that includes visits to Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam.

Anti-drug campaign praised

Duterte has alleged that the U.S., despite its long-standing alliance with the Philippines, has treated it “like a dog,” and a year ago, before Trump assumed power, announced a “separation” from the U.S. The Philippine leader was angered that the administration of former President Barack Obama voiced objections to the country’s extrajudicial killings of people involved in drug transactions.

But Trump, in a May call to Duterte, praised his anti-drug campaign, saying Duterte was doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.”

The White House official said, “The amount of cooperation that’s taking place below the leader level, made possible by our long-standing relationship and alliance with the Philippines, is still very robust. And that expands to areas like counter-terror, all of the close people-to-people ties between the countries, and human rights as well. The president will have frank and friendly discussions in his first meeting with Mr. Duterte.”

Elsewhere on his trip, Trump is planning to advance efforts to force North Korea to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and pushing countries in the region to adhere to United Nations sanctions to limit trade with Pyongyang that it needs to fund its missile and nuclear tests.

No DMZ visit

But the White House official said Trump, unlike some other U.S. presidents, “is not going to visit the DMZ,” the heavily armed buffer zone between North and South Korea.

He said, “There’s not enough time in his schedule. It would have had to be DMZ or Camp Humphreys,” a military base south of Seoul, the South Korean capital, to highlight the military cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea.

“No president has visited Camp Humphreys, and we thought that that made more sense in terms of its messaging, in terms of a chance to address families and troops there,” the official said.

“It’s becoming a little bit of a cliche, frankly” to visit the DMZ, the official said, noting that Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all visited the buffer zone this year.
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The government of Afghanistan’s territorial control has declined to its lowest level in two years while battling a resurgent Taliban insurgency, a U.S. government watchdog revealed Tuesday.

In its quarterly report submitted to Congress, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) noted 56.8 percent of the country’s 407 districts are under government control or influence as of August, 2017.

The assessment shows a 15 percent decrease in territory held by Kabul in 2015 when SIGAR began analyzing district control data.

“As of August 2017, there were 54 districts [13.3 percent] under insurgent control [13] or influence [41], an increase of nine districts over the last six months,” the agency said.

Citing U.S. military assessments, it added that 11.4 percent of the country’s population, or 3.7 million Afghans, now live in districts under insurgent control or influence. That’s a 700,000-person increase over the last six months.

SIGAR reported that 30 percent or 122 Afghan districts are contested, and the statistic remained mostly unchanged.

“It was not clear whether these districts are at risk or if neither the insurgency nor the Afghan government exercises any significant control over these areas,” it said, citing U.S. military assessments.

The Taliban also claims it captured several Afghan districts in October and has been inflicting heavy casualties on Afghan forces since launching its so-called “Mansouri” spring offensive this year. While Afghan forces lost nearly 7,000 personnel in the first 10 months of 2016, the figures reportedly are much higher this year.

The U.S. agency noted more than 60 percent of the roughly $121 billion in U.S. funding for reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2002 has gone to build up the Afghan forces. Also, the increased classification of Afghan forces’ data will “hinder SIGAR’s ability to publicly report on progress or failure in a key reconstruction sector.”

In its latest report, SIGAR said Washington has agreed to classify data on the number of Afghan forces killed and wounded in the conflict. It quoted the U.S. military as telling the agency “the casualty data belonged to the Afghan government, and the government had requested that it be classified.”

American combat casualties also are rising with the increase in U.S. troop commitment to the Afghan mission, according to SIGAR. Within the first eight months of this year, it noted, 10 American soldiers were killed and 48 were wounded. That is double the personnel killed in action when compared to the same periods in 2015 and 2016.

The embattled Afghan National Army saw a roughly 4,000-person decrease in force strength, while the Afghan National Police decreased by about 5,000

The watchdog also has reported a spike in “insider attacks” since the beginning of 2017, targeting both U.S. and Afghan forces. They are incidents involving renegade or pro-Taliban Afghan soldiers who turn their guns on colleagues or American partners.

U.S. military commanders hope President Donald Trump’s new Afghan strategy that was unveiled in August will help Afghans reverse insurgent battlefield gains.

Washington has since taken on a greater combat role in Afghanistan, dropping 751 bombs against the Taliban and Islamic State in September, the highest monthly munitions since 2012, and conducting a record 2,400 airstrikes in the first nine months of 2017, according to SIGAR.

The intensified conflict also has led to a record increase in Afghan civilian casualties this year, warned the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.

The mission documented a 52 percent increase in civilian casualties from Afghan coalition air operations in the first nine months of 2017, compared to the same period last year. More than two-thirds of these victims reportedly were women and children.

UNAMA attributed 177 or 38 percent of all civilian casualties from airstrikes to International military forces, although U.S. military disagreed with the assessment and methodology, offering instead that it had confirmed 43 civilian casualties caused by international airstrikes during this period, noted SIGAR in its report.
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Bangladesh will extend an agreement to protect garment workers drawn up in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster and embed it into national regulations, promising more stringent safety checks for its 4 million apparel workers, a labor union said.

Poor working conditions and low wages have long been a concern in Bangladesh’s garment industry, which suffered one of the worst industrial accidents in 2013, when more than 1,100 people were killed in the collapse of the Rana Plaza complex.

The Bangladesh Accord is a legally-binding agreement between global brands and trade unions to establish a fire and safety program for the country’s $28 billion a year textile industry.

The accord runs to May 2018, but the government has agreed for it to continue beyond that date until a national regulatory body is ready to take over monitoring, a trade union said Tuesday.

“A goal of the accord has always been to transition to a credible regulatory regime by the Bangladeshi government,” said Christy Hoffman, Deputy General Secretary of Uni Global Union.

“The talks with the government show that it recognizes the importance of a safe ready-made garment industry, and we will continue to work with regulators to help enhance their capacity.”

The new agreement was reached on Oct. 19 between brands, trade unions, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the U.N.’s International Labour Organization and the Bangladeshi government, said a statement from the Accord.

Under the accord, more than 118,500 fire, electrical and structural hazards have been identified at 1,800 factories which supply at least 200 brands.

Boiler room inspections will be included in the program following concerns after a blast in July killed 10 workers.

“At present, we are working out how we can fund the inspections, remediation and technical expertise needed,” Hoffman said.

The program will also establish safety committees on factory floors as mandated by law to ensure better monitoring of safety features, Hoffman said.

Earlier this month, trade unions welcomed a ruling allowing complaints to proceed against two global fashion brands for allegedly violating the Bangladesh Accord. The cases will be the first under the accord to be judged by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.
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The U.N. refugee agency reports at least four Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar died Tuesday morning when their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal close to the southern shore of neighboring Bangladesh.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said 42 members of six families, including men, women and children, were aboard the doomed vessel when it ran into rough seas while approaching the shore. U.N. refugee aid workers and partners on the ground reportedly rushed to the scene to provide medical aid, food, blankets and clothes to survivors.

“The boat was hit by large waves and eventually capsized, trapping people underneath. Several were injured when they hit the engine. A 15-year-old boy died on the spot. In all, 22 injured were rushed to hospitals and NGO (non-governmental organization) clinics, but three reportedly died en route,” he said.

Baloch said the remaining 19 were taken to UNHCR’s transit center near Kutupalong camp.

In a separate incident, authorities in Bangladesh said three infants drowned after slipping from their mothers’ laps when a boat bringing them from Myanmar reached shore.

The International Organization for Migration reports more than 607,000 Rohingya have arrived in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, since the mass exodus of refugees from Myanmar began August 25. IOM spokesman Joel Millman said new arrivals appear to be slowing, although people continue to arrive daily in the area’s makeshift settlements.

“The settlements are dangerously congested and overcrowded, and the pressure on sources of clean drinking water and basic sanitation are enormous. Having walked for days without water and food, the refugees arrive to the settlements exhausted and thirsty. Many are ill,” he said.

Millman said all the spontaneous and makeshift sites where the refugees are camped out urgently need water, sanitation and hygiene to prevent diseases from breaking out.
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Japan will clamp down on asylum seekers’ rights to work and detain other refugee applicants, the Yomiuri daily reported on Tuesday, in a move that would put further curbs on one of the developed world’s tightest refugee systems.

From as early as mid-November, Japan will only allow those it regards as bona fide refugees the right to work, leading to more than 10,000 asylum seekers a year becoming unable to work, the Yomiuri said, without citing sources.

Others, including those deemed as clearly not refugees in initial checks and multiple asylum applicants, will be held in detention centers after their permission to stay in Japan expires, the report said.

At present, asylum seekers with valid visas receive renewable permits allowing them to work in Japan while their refugee applications are reviewed – a system the government says encourages people to seek asylum in order to work.

“We are looking at policies, including this in the (Yomiuri) article. We haven’t decided whether to put it into action,” said Yasuhiro Hishida, a Justice Ministry official overseeing refugee recognition.

Japan accepted just three refugees in the first half of 2017 despite a record 8,561 fresh asylum applications, and only 28 in 2016. Human Rights Watch in January described the country’s record on asylum seekers as “abysmal.”

The world’s third biggest economy has remained unwelcoming to immigration despite a shrinking, ageing population that has exacerbated the worst labor shortages in four decades and drags on an already slow economic growth.

Japan’s reluctance to accept foreign workers and refugees is in contrast to the policies of other industrialized countries, and has forced labor-hungry industries including construction and manufacturing to rely on asylum seekers with work permits.

Immigration remains a controversial subject in Japan, where many pride themselves on cultural and ethnic homogeneity.

Almost six in 10 Japanese think diversity of ethnic groups, religions and races makes their country a worse place, a poll this month by the Pew Research Center showed.
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Japan will clamp down on asylum seekers’ rights to work and detain other refugee applicants, the Yomiuri daily reported on Tuesday, in a move that would put further curbs on one of the developed world’s tightest refugee systems.

From as early as mid-November, Japan will only allow those it regards as bona fide refugees the right to work, leading to more than 10,000 asylum seekers a year becoming unable to work, the Yomiuri said, without citing sources.

Others, including those deemed as clearly not refugees in initial checks and multiple asylum applicants, will be held in detention centers after their permission to stay in Japan expires, the report said.

At present, asylum seekers with valid visas receive renewable permits allowing them to work in Japan while their refugee applications are reviewed – a system the government says encourages people to seek asylum in order to work.

“We are looking at policies, including this in the (Yomiuri) article. We haven’t decided whether to put it into action,” said Yasuhiro Hishida, a Justice Ministry official overseeing refugee recognition.

Japan accepted just three refugees in the first half of 2017 despite a record 8,561 fresh asylum applications, and only 28 in 2016. Human Rights Watch in January described the country’s record on asylum seekers as “abysmal.”

The world’s third biggest economy has remained unwelcoming to immigration despite a shrinking, ageing population that has exacerbated the worst labor shortages in four decades and drags on an already slow economic growth.

Japan’s reluctance to accept foreign workers and refugees is in contrast to the policies of other industrialized countries, and has forced labor-hungry industries including construction and manufacturing to rely on asylum seekers with work permits.

Immigration remains a controversial subject in Japan, where many pride themselves on cultural and ethnic homogeneity.

Almost six in 10 Japanese think diversity of ethnic groups, religions and races makes their country a worse place, a poll this month by the Pew Research Center showed.
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