Colombia denounces mass deportation of citizens from Ecuador
On Thursday, the Colombian government reported that authorities in the neighboring country had announced plans to deport Colombians currently imprisoned in various Ecuadorian penitentiaries.
"Through diplomatic channels, Colombia has formally lodged its strongest protest against the Ecuadorian government for this unfriendly act, and is currently evaluating appropriate measures in response," the Foreign Ministry said Friday night.
The ministry emphasized that Ecuador had taken this action "without implementing any protocol to guarantee the safe, orderly, and respectful transfer of detainees, in line with their human rights."
Ecuador's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had notified Colombia via diplomatic channels of individual deportation proceedings starting July 8, and that the process followed the country's legal framework.
Authorities underscored their commitment to due process, citing the issuance of individual rulings and judicial release orders.
"Ecuador therefore rejects claims of mass deportations," the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Radio Caracol reported that Amilcar Pantoja, mayor of the Colombian border town of Ipiales, confirmed that around 700 Colombian detainees were being sent across the binational bridge without prior official notice.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘The matter is in his hands alone': president of Sierra Leone urged to ban FGM as court rules it tantamount to torture
As Kadijatu Balaima Allieu walked to a neighbour's house in her village in Sierra Leone, she had no idea that what was about to happen would alter the course of her life for ever. It was a beautiful September morning in 2016 and Allieu, 28 at the time, had gone to resolve a dispute she had with another woman, who belonged to the Bondo society, an influential and secretive group of women. Shortly after she arrived, she was forced into a room and the door locked. Her hands were tied. She was beaten, blindfolded and gagged. Then a woman sat on her chest while others forced her legs apart. She was forcibly subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), the partial or total removal by cutting of the female genitalia. 'There was nothing left of me [to fight],' says Allieu. 'Out of 100% energy, I was left with something like 1%. So they carried on with their operation.' Nine years later, Allieu's experience has led to a ruling against Sierra Leone by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) court of justice, which described FGM as 'one of the worst forms of violence against women' which 'meets the threshold for torture'. The case, filed by Forum Against Harmful Practices (FAHP), We Are Purposeful, and Allieu, held the government liable for human rights violations due to its failure to criminalise FGM. The court ordered Sierra Leone 'to enact and implement legislation criminalising female genital mutilation and to take appropriate measures toprohibit its occurrence and protect victims'. Though the UN passed a resolution to ban FGM in 2012, it is still practised in about 30 countries. In Sierra Leone, a national survey in 2019 found that 83% of women had undergone FGM, with 71% of them subjected to the practice before the age of 15. There is no law explicitly criminalising the procedure, part of a traditional initiation ritual that marks a girl's entry into womanhood, carried out by senior members of Bondo societies. Every year, women and children are left with health complications, and some die, as a result of such rituals. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the removal of part or all of the external genitalia for nonmedical reasons, as defined by the World Health Organization. There are different types of cutting: removal of the clitoris and/or its hood; removing the clitoris and the inner fold of the vulva (labia minora); and the narrowing of the vaginal opening by cutting and repositioning the labia minora through stitching. Also known as infibulation, this has the worst health consequences. The fourth type of cutting includes other forms of injury to the genitalia such as incising, scraping or cauterising. Since traditional practitioners use razor blades or knives, with no anaesthesia, girls experience excruciating pain and are at risk of severe bleeding and infections which can lead to sepsis. Some do not survive. For the girls, who are often married off soon after genital cutting, sex is traumatic and painful, and enjoying sex will always be difficult unless they have surgical reconstruction. In pregnancy, delivery is often risky due to obstructed and prolonged labour. Women are at risk of developing obstetric fistula (an abnormal opening between a woman's genital tract and her urinary tract or rectum) which can cause incontinence – leading to shame, stigma and rejection from their partners. When members of the Bondo society had finished mutilating Allieu, she was dragged to another room and left in a pool of blood for three days, until police found her and took her to hospital. She had three operations to fix some of the damage that had been inflicted. After the third operation, Allieu remembers the doctor telling her 'he had never seen this level of wickedness'. Even so, a crowd, including Bondo society members, marched on the hospital, calling for Allieu to be handed over. The woman who had cut her was very influential and was angry that Allieu had escaped, with the help of the police. Unable to walk, Allieu was dragged by staff to the basement to hide. 'I felt like this was the end of the road,' says Allieu. 'I was in so much pain, I was tired and had nothing left.' Police and soldiers were called to protect the hospital and the crowd dispersed, but remaining in the hospital was impossible. One of Allieu's neighbours worked for the UN and offered to drive her to the border with Liberia so she could leave the country. She made it to the other side and after 14 days arrived at a friend's house. Over the next five years, Allieu was helped by various people and organisations. She also met someone who offered to help after hearing her story, and paid for her to go abroad for surgery on her injuries. After her trauma had subsided and she found out there had been a change of government, Allieu's thoughts turned to her family, especially her son who was 10 when she left. She decided to return to Sierra Leone. 'People saw me, said I was dead and came to feel me to check I was alive,' she says. 'When I saw my son and my family, it was good, I was happy.' Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion When word spread she was back, an activist got in touch and introduced her to Yasmin Jusu-sheriff, a human rights lawyer and former vice-chair of the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, who was instrumental, among others, in bringing the case to Ecowas. The ruling on 8 July comes at a critical time in the fight against FGM in Sierra Leone. A few weeks before, on 21 June, the president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, became chair of Ecowas, marking a historic moment as the first Sierra Leonean head of state to hold the position. He has yet to acknowledge the ruling publicly. Meanwhile, celebrations at the passing of the Child Rights Act 2025 in Sierra Leone in early July were tempered when parliament issued a press release on 7 July stating that the act, which prohibits all forms of violence against children, including physical and mental abuse, 'does not contain any provision imposing a fine, penalty, or punishment specifically addressing FGM'. The act is awaiting presidential assent. But as there is no mention of banning FGM, Josephine Kamara, advocacy and communications manager at Purposeful, says: 'If we can't name a violent action for what it is, and boldly call it out, we cannot begin to end it.' 'Politically and internationally, the situation just does not look good,' says Jusu-sheriff. 'Since the president is chairman of Ecowas, and in light of the Ecowas decision, let him send the act back to parliament and let them rethink it.' She adds: 'The matter is in his hands, and his hands alone. He holds the sword of Damocles over himself. This is the thing that will determine whether he will go down as the greatest, most human rights-loving president of all time, or not.' Allieu, who is bringing a separate case in Sierra Leone against the woman who mutilated her, is due to be awarded $30,000 (£22,000) in compensation as part of the Ecowas ruling. She says she can't find work because of the public stigma surrounding her case, but wants to use the money to further her education and become an activist. 'I really want the government to look into this, especially the sitting president with his power as head of state,' she says. 'I want him to honour the ruling of the Ecowas court and [make it so] the Child Rights Act can help eradicate FGM.'
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Daughter of woman murdered by man who US deported speaks out: ‘He was denied due process'
The daughter of a woman murdered by a man from Laos who is among those controversially deported from the US to South Sudan has spoken out about her family's pain but also to decry the lack of rights afforded to those who were expelled to countries other than their own. Birte Pfleger lives in Los Angeles and was a history student at Cal State University in Long Beach when her parents came to visit her from their native Germany in 1994 and ended up shot by Thongxay Nilakout during a robbery while on a sightseeing trip. Pfleger's mother, Gisela, was killed and her father, Klaus, wounded. Nilakout, now 48, is Laotian and was among eight convicted criminals from countries including Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam and Myanmar who were deported to the conflict-torn African country, amid uproar over Donald Trump's extreme immigration policies. In an interview with the Guardian, Pfleger said: 'It's been 31 years living with the irreparable pain and permanent grief, so, on the one hand, I wanted him gone. On the other hand, I'm a historian and I have taught constitutional history. He was denied due process and that's a constitutional problem.' The government of South Sudan has not disclosed the men's exact whereabouts since arriving in the country earlier this month, after legal problems had caused them to be stuck in nearby Djibouti after legal wrangling, or provided any details about their future. A lawyer representing the men said 'their situation is fragile,' noting their relatives have not heard from the deportees since a US military plane flew them to Juba, South Sudan's capital, before midnight on 4 July. A police spokesperson in South Sudan, Maj Gen James Monday Enoka, indicated that the men may ultimately be moved on. 'They will be investigated, the truth will be established and if they are not South Sudanese they will be deported to their rightful countries,' Enoka said. But few details are forthcoming. The US Department of Homeland Security called the men 'sickos'. The deportations had been initially blocked by US district judge Brian Murphy, who had ruled that the group needed to receive notice and due process before being taken to South Sudan, including the opportunity to express fear of being harmed or tortured there. But in a 7-2 ruling, the US supreme court paused Murphy's orders, clearing all obstacles preventing the Trump administration's plan. Just days after the ruling, the administration issued a memo suggesting officials would ramp up deportations to third countries with little notice and due process. The directive by Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), said US officials may deport migrants to countries other than their own with as little as six hours' notice, even if those third party nations have not made assurances about their safety. Legal experts have objected. 'We are going to continue to fight the policy that conflicts with the statute, the regulations and with the constitution,' said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, an organization leading a class-action lawsuit against Ice. The UN human rights office denounced the action and urged the US to halt deportations to third-party countries. More than 250 Venezuelans have just been repatriated after being deported by the US without due process to a brutal anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador. Previously a multinational group of migrants was sent to Panama from the US and ended up trapped in a hotel then caged in a jungle setting, while more recently another group was deported to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, which critics there described as 'human trafficking' and lamented the prospect of more to follow. 'International law is clear that no one shall be sent anywhere where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to serious human rights violations such as torture, enforced disappearance or arbitrary deprivation of life,' the UN said in a statement. Nilakout was 17 when he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his murderous attack on Birte Pfleger's parents. In 2012, the US supreme court ruled that life without parole was unconstitutional for minors. After nearly 30 years behind bars, Nilakout became eligible for parole in 2022, despite a challenge from Pfleger, and was released from a California state prison the following year. He was picked up in Trump's mass deportation dragnet after the Republican president returned to the White House in January. Pfleger, now a history professor at Cal State University in Los Angeles, said she felt conflicted when she found out that Nilokaut had been deported to South Sudan. 'The moral dilemma here is that he should have never been let out of prison. But once he was released from prison, Ice should have been able to deport him, or he should have self-deported to Laos. But of course, what happened is he was put on a Gulfstream jet headed for South Sudan that violated a federal judge's orders to give notice. He and the others were denied due process,' she said. Pfleger continued: 'I am not involved in victims' rights organizations or anything like that. I have not gone to law school, but I have read the constitution and the history of it. And I think that due process rights are fundamental. And when they're no longer fundamental, we all have a problem.' The pain for Pfleger and her sister of losing their mother and their father being wounded having watched his wife get shot and being unable to help her persists, and the family had not expected Nilakout to be freed, she said, adding that her father, Klaus, is 93 and frail. My mom was everything to him,' she said. In a statement, the government of South Sudan cited 'the longstanding support extended by the United States' during its fight for independence and its post-independence development, for the latest cooperation. Between 2013 and 2016, a civil war killed 400,000 people in South Sudan. Earlier this year, the threat of a new war breaking out pushed the US embassy to issue a level 4 warning to Americans not to go to South Sudan because of crime, kidnapping and armed conflict there. The German government recently warned, via the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, posting on social media that: 'After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is again on the brink of civil war.' The UN commission on human rights in South Sudan warned 'We are witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won public progress.' The UN added that a humanitarian crisis was looming with half the country already suffering food insecurity and two million internally displaced, with a further two million having fled the violence to seek sanctuary in neighboring countries.
BBC News
11 hours ago
- BBC News
'My parents were taken hostage in Iran. I need to hear from them'
The son of a couple arrested in Iran has said it is "intolerable" that he has not been able to speak to his parents in more than 200 days. Joe Bennet said the Foreign Office told him he could call Lindsay and Craig Foreman last week, but after a "sleepless night of anticipation" it did not happen. A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said they were "deeply concerned" by the case and continued to raise it directly with Iran's government. Mr and Ms Foreman were arrested by Iranian authorities in January while on a "once in a lifetime" trip around the world. They have since been charged with espionage - something the family denies. 'Vague reassurances' Mr Bennet says the family has not spoken to his 52-year-old parents, who are from East Sussex, since they were arrested. "We don't know their condition, their state of mind, or even with certainty that they are alive."All we have had are vague reassurances through officials," he added. Mr Bennet described the situation as unbearable and called directly on Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy to intercede on their behalf."It is a weight no family should have to bear," he said. Scottish National Party MP Brendan O'Hara, vice-chair of the all-parliamentary group for arbitrary detention and hostage affairs (APPG), previously told the BBC the couple were "innocent victims of a geopolitical power struggle" between western states and Iran, likening them to "bargaining chips".He pointed to the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian national who was held hostage by the Iranian government for six years to pressure the UK to pay a long-standing, multi-million-pound debt.
