Latest news with #ForeignCommonwealthDevelopmentOffice
Daily Mail
24-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Popular tourist hotspot makes big change to travel advice
A popular winter sun city break destination has seen travel advice issued by the UK government changed this week. British tourists planning to visit Morocco have been warned by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office about the risks of carrying drugs in and out of the country, including Class B drug cannabis. The North African country has severe penalties for tourists caught carrying illegal substances while transiting through Moroccan airports, with heavy fines and long jail sentences handed out. The new Government travel advice issued yesterday says drug-detecting technology has been ramped up in recent years in the country. Its advice now reads: 'Illegal drugs, including cannabis, carry severe penalties. You should expect a long jail sentence and heavy fines for possessing, using or smuggling illegal drugs, including when transiting through the airport. 'Airports in Morocco have excellent technology and security for detecting illegal items. This is also used to scan the baggage of transiting passengers.' Tourism in Morocco continues to grow year-on-year, with around a million visitors descending on cities including Marrakech, Casablanca and coastal resorts including Essaouira and Agadir. The update comes just a day after a British mother was charged with trafficking drugs into Germany after being caught allegedly smuggling cannabis from Thailand. Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth in Hertfordshire, was arrested at Munich Airport on April 22nd when she attempted to collect her luggage. Authorities had become suspicious after she allegedly changed her flight at the last minute, having originally been due to fly to London Heathrow via Singapore. Her family had filed a missing person report after raising concerns when she did not return home as expected, but then learned the next day she was in Germany. Miss Bradford was arrested and held in custody - and has now been charged with attempted transit of cannabis and abetting the international trafficking of cannabis. The mother, who has a young son, is set to make an appearance at a hearing in Munich District Court on August 6 as authorities continue to investigate. A Foreign Office spokesman said today: 'We are supporting a British woman who is detained in Germany and are in contact with her family and the local authorities.' Miss Bradford's arrest is one of a series of cases involving suspected young British female drug mules stopped by police at airports in countries around the world. This week, another British woman was arrested in Mauritius accused of trying to smuggle cannabis inside her six-year-old son's suitcase. This week, Natashia Artug, 35, of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, was detained alongside seven other people accused of carrying more than 161kg of the drug - worth £1.6million - in their luggage. The boy's luggage alone is said to have had 24 packages of drugs wrapped in clear cellophane inside weighing 14kg. Campaign group Justice Abroad claimed Ms Artug is 'vulnerable' and was coerced into travelling to Mauritius by people involved in the drug trade who threatened her and her family, adding that she did not know the bags contained cannabis. Miss Artug's partner Florian Lisman, a 38-year-old Romanian, was also arrested and said to be carrying 32 drug packages, an iPhone and £260. The other Britons detained were Patrick Lee Wilsdon, 22, Lily Watson, 20, Shannon Ellen Josie Holness 29, Laura Amy Kappen 28, and Shona Campbell, 32, who each had between 30 and 32 packages, according to local newspaper Le Mauricien. They were all on the same British Airways flight from London Gatwick to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam airport last month. The suspects have all been charged with drug trafficking and remain in custody.
Telegraph
10-07-2025
- Telegraph
‘We smoked cannabis in Kabul hostels': Four writers recall the Middle East's golden age of travel
It is hard to imagine today, with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advising against travel to much of the region (Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Syria are all on its red list), but those parts of the Middle East now better associated with conflict and extremism were once essential stops on the backpacker route sometimes known as the 'hippie trail'. The region's previous life is perfectly illustrated by Lonely Planet's first-ever guidebook, Across Asia on the Cheap, published in 1973. 'Weed, of course, is the big seller in Afghanistan; so long as you only buy in small amounts you're extremely unlikely to run afoul of the law,' is one typical pearl of wisdom from the author, and Lonely Planet's co-founder, Tony Wheeler. Of Iran, he adds: 'In its efforts to attract even our type of tourists, the Iranian government has opened a number of excellent campsites.' With the prospect of Western holidaymakers enjoying such laid-back Middle Eastern adventures rarely looking so remote (even if Afghanistan did recently launch a bizarre tourism campaign), we asked Tony Wheeler – and three writers – to share their memories of trips to the region during this golden age. 'Iran: amazingly friendly country, shame about the awful government' We never actually called it the 'hippie trail'. In 1972, it was 'the Asia overland trip'. Whatever the title, 50 years later, it remains the peak travel experience of my life. Today, the Flightradar24 app neatly sums up what's happening to visitor flows to the region: there's a big empty expanse of sky; nobody's going there. In 1972, it was wonderful. The adventure started in Istanbul, where bridges or tunnels over or under the Bosphorus had yet to arrive. Going by ferry there was a distinct feeling of leaving behind Europe and arriving in Asia. Cappadocia and the 'fairy chimneys' of the Göreme Valley? It was a good job somebody suggested we go there, as the tourist crowds certainly hadn't arrived and it was nearly 20 years before the first hot-air balloon drifted across the valley. Today, there's barely elbow room up above, but it's still a fantastic experience. Then it was on to Iran. I've been back a number of times subsequently – most recently in 2017, driving right across the country in an old MGB sports car with my daughter, Tashi, as co-driver. Every time, my experience has been the same. What an amazingly friendly country, shame about the awful government. On an extensive solo visit in 2004, it was remarkable how many times somebody would come over to my restaurant table, point out that I looked neglected and invite me to join their table so they could practise their English. And Afghanistan? What a country. It's remarkable how often I meet people who announce they were there during that golden era and will never forget the place. That said, the greatest regret of my travelling life is also in Afghanistan. In 1972, my wife, Maureen, and I failed to continue up to Bamiyan to see the giant Buddhas. I got to Bamiyan in 2006, but the Buddhas had departed in 2001, destroyed by the Taliban. Tony Wheeler 'Beirut, the Paris of the Middle East, felt more like Miami Beach' 'No wonder Iranians are proud of their country,' I wrote in 1996, 'they feel invincible. They believe that the West, and America in particular, is afraid of them.' Political self-confidence can lead to arrogance but in Iran's case 30 years ago, it was evident in the friendliness and courtesy of the people. They just wished to talk to us and learn more about us. It reminded me of the self-confidence I had witnessed in the Middle East another 30 years earlier when my college friend and I hitchhiked there in 1963. Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel: stable, proud, and – yes – all feeling invincible. The people wanted to show us their countries. Admittedly, some of the locals were rather keen that we show them our bodies, but we dealt with this by linking up with a chaperone, Walter. Hitchhiking for him was easier with us, and with him we had less hassle. Beirut flaunted its reputation as the Paris of the Middle East, although it struck us more like Miami Beach with its high-rise hotels. Beautiful men and women strutted along the seafront, and students from the American University of Beirut chatted at the open-air restaurants in a cloud of cigarette smoke. We couldn't even afford a fruit juice. Damascus was not much better, but more exotic; it was in Jordan that the whole Middle East experience came together. Two years earlier, King Hussein had married an English girl, Toni Gardiner, whom the press loved to call the 'Ipswich typist'. She became Princess Muna and the Jordanians we met loved their royal family. We were invited into their homes, shared meals. We were taken to Petra, where the only other humans were Bedouin living among the ruins; we went to Bethlehem, where you could buy a crown of thorns in three different sizes; and we pottered around the Jordanian section of Jerusalem before crossing into Israel. We were 21 and politically naive, but we knew that no Arab country would have admitted us with an Israeli stamp in our passport. In Israel they were busy building a nation and had no time for tourists. We couldn't even thumb a lift – the young soldiers on military service formed hitchhiking queues at every road junction – and when someone did stop for us, the hospitality was lacking. It was almost like being home again. Hilary Bradt 'In Kabul hostels travellers familiarised themselves with Afghanistan's most famous product: cannabis' I didn't know it at the time, but I was one of the last of the generation of hopelessly idealistic travellers who journeyed overland to India along a route which was famously dubbed the 'hippie trail'. The year was 1977 and I was 18. Turkey, where thanks to a lift from a lorry driver heading to Syria I ended up in a remote village somewhere near Lake Van, was the first country that really opened my eyes – and ears – to a very different world: a world of strangely powerful peaks, sweet black teas and a succession of stirring melodies that conjured up the Orient. Tehran was an altogether different proposition: a fast-paced city which even then – little more than a year before the toppling of the Shah – was clearly on edge. I took refuge in Rasht on the Caspian Sea, where a kind soul who taught English at a local school brought me in to engage with bright-eyed children agog about the future and curious about London. I learnt a Persian word I still use to this day: Khodahafez (farewell; may God protect you). I watched entranced outside modest premises where flatbreads were baked in ovens, the smell alone making me giddy with hunger. I didn't bother with the great Islamic architectural wonders of Isfahan – oh, the folly of youth – instead hopping on a bus heading east towards Kabul, where travellers on the trail would congregate in hostels along 'Chicken Street' and, sitting on finely woven carpets, familiarise themselves with what at the time was another of Afghanistan's most famous products: cannabis. It's all a bit of a blur. But I remember hazy hills and dusty plains; mosques and men in turbans. I also remember feeling uneasy about the much lower visibility even then of women. The journalist in me had yet to stir, but, as with Iran, I detected something in the air. Not long after the Shah was ousted, Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union and the hippie trail was no more. I was lucky to experience it. But I do wish I'd gone to see the great Buddhas of Bamiyan before they were blown to smithereens by the Taliban. Adrian Bridge 'It's the hospitality of the people I remember most' It was 1983: my year off between school and university. I joined a small group of Americans, Australians and Britons in an expedition truck to drive overland from London to Kathmandu. The journey was to take three months, travelling through Europe, eastern Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan and India – an impossible itinerary today. Then, it seemed adventurous, but mostly because communication with home was so sporadic. We relied on receiving letters, often weeks out of date, at Poste Restantes along the way. My dog-eared, teenage travel diary brings back vivid memories of that formative journey. The souks of Istanbul, a swim in the Dead Sea, the medieval stronghold of Krak des Chevaliers in Syria, where 'we saw guards' rooms, baths, secret doors, everything…' (Now a World Heritage Site, it was badly shelled in 2012 during the Syrian Civil War.) After entering Damascus at dusk, twinkling with lights, I noted a feast of exotic dips and kebabs. Miles and miles of empty desert roads were to follow. Overtaking buffalo carts, besieged by curious children in isolated villages, refuelling at local markets, camping in the wilderness – my diary is full of the wonder and novelty of it. The Indus Valley was 'green and fertile', the houseboats of Kashmir 'ornate', the golden temple of Amritsar 'inspiring' – so many standouts. But it's the hospitality of the people we met along the way that I remember most, and especially on one sweltering afternoon in south-eastern Iran. Just four years after the 1979 revolution, Iran was a tense place and we travelled through quickly. But, pausing at the 15th-century shrine of the Sufi poet Shah Nimatullah in Mahan, we entered a courtyard full of greenery with a pool surrounded by geraniums where a chador-clad woman beckoned us over to cool off on her shady rug. There we sat for so long, sharing her watermelon, that we never got to see the shrine itself.
The Independent
29-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Nurse ‘forever' haunted by image of toddler killed in Gaza
A Scottish nurse has told how she will be 'forever' haunted by the image of a dead toddler at a Gaza hospital where she worked. Mel Graham, from Elderslie in Renfrewshire, has spoken about her two-month deployment to a UK Government-funded hospital in Al Mawasi between February and April this year. Ms Graham, 50, says she has never been more frightened in her life, but wants to return to Gaza regardless in order to further help the those caught in the crossfire. Two emergency field hospitals funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and run by Manchester-based frontline health charity UK- Med have treated more than 400,000 patients in Gaza so far. Ms Graham said: 'I was in Gaza last year and didn't think it could possibly get any worse, but it has. That first night the ceasefire shattered was easily the worst thing I have ever experienced. Even though we knew it was coming, it was still such a shock. 'The sound of explosions and fighting were so close to the hospital, so we knew we were going to be busy. At maybe two or three in the morning the first casualties started coming in. It was a conveyor belt of carnage. 'My role involved triaging patients. Amongst that first load of patients brought in, there were was a two-year-old girl dead on arrival. 'There wasn't a mark on her and I just remember standing there thinking 'How can this happen?'. She looked completely perfect and was just covered in a thick layer of dust. 'It's different when you are dealing with people with visible injuries. With some blast injuries there are no obvious signs externally, but the shockwave had fatally affected her tiny wee lungs. 'The porters went to get a body bag for her, but the shortage of aid getting in meant there were only adult body bags available. She just disappeared into it. 'We took her to the temporary mortuary at the back of the hospital. We put two chairs out for the family to come in… but no-one ever came. I fear her parents had obviously been killed too.' Traumatised by what she saw, Ms Graham continued: 'The sight of that little girl will haunt me forever. It is the thing that I think about most. 'It's at the forefront of my brain. It is not natural for a child to die like that. 'I didn't want to leave her there alone, but I had to get back to help the many other casualties who had been rushed in.' More than 50,000 people have now been killed in the conflict and more than 90% of the Gaza population displaced from their homes, often on more than one occasion. The UK announced £129 million in the last financial year (2024-25) for Occupied Palestinian Territories, including £11.5 million to support UK-Med's life-saving work in Gaza. Ms Graham – who has also been deployed twice to conflict-hit Ukraine – said: 'When I was in Gaza last year, we heard explosions close to us, but this time my heart was in my mouth much of the time. 'Some bomb blasts were so close you'd feel your feet move first and then you heard the explosion. I don't know what the science is behind that. 'It was just one incident after another. Two of the 14 Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance workers killed had left from our field hospital. They were our colleagues. The news shook me to the core. 'Last year, our accommodation shook a few times, but this year it was practically every day. Sometimes you got woken up thinking 'I can't believe I've not got a whole house on top of me'. 'Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure I was going to make it out. That's how scary it was. I'm a bit embarrassed to say that because the people in Gaza are experiencing that 24/7, 365 days a year. 'The emotions are strange because it was brilliant to have done it and I do not regret it for a second. Once I've detangled my brain, I want to get back out. I feel like I still have one foot in Gaza and once I give myself some rest I'll want to get back. 'I find I struggle with the guilt of leaving. I struggled with the guilt of wanting to leave because the local people do not have that option. They are trapped. There's no respite for them. 'I also feel guilty putting my family through the worry. I know they are proud of the work I am doing but it's only natural they have concerns.'
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Nurse ‘forever' haunted by image of toddler killed in Gaza
A Scottish nurse has told how she will be 'forever' haunted by the image of a dead toddler at a Gaza hospital where she worked. Mel Graham, from Elderslie in Renfrewshire, has spoken about her two-month deployment to a UK Government-funded hospital in Al Mawasi between February and April this year. Ms Graham, 50, says she has never been more frightened in her life, but wants to return to Gaza regardless in order to further help the those caught in the crossfire. Two emergency field hospitals funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and run by Manchester-based frontline health charity UK-Med have treated more than 400,000 patients in Gaza so far. Ms Graham said: 'I was in Gaza last year and didn't think it could possibly get any worse, but it has. That first night the ceasefire shattered was easily the worst thing I have ever experienced. Even though we knew it was coming, it was still such a shock. 'The sound of explosions and fighting were so close to the hospital, so we knew we were going to be busy. At maybe two or three in the morning the first casualties started coming in. It was a conveyor belt of carnage. 'My role involved triaging patients. Amongst that first load of patients brought in, there were was a two-year-old girl dead on arrival. 'There wasn't a mark on her and I just remember standing there thinking 'How can this happen?'. She looked completely perfect and was just covered in a thick layer of dust. 'It's different when you are dealing with people with visible injuries. With some blast injuries there are no obvious signs externally, but the shockwave had fatally affected her tiny wee lungs. 'The porters went to get a body bag for her, but the shortage of aid getting in meant there were only adult body bags available. She just disappeared into it. 'We took her to the temporary mortuary at the back of the hospital. We put two chairs out for the family to come in… but no-one ever came. I fear her parents had obviously been killed too.' Traumatised by what she saw, Ms Graham continued: 'The sight of that little girl will haunt me forever. It is the thing that I think about most. 'It's at the forefront of my brain. It is not natural for a child to die like that. 'I didn't want to leave her there alone, but I had to get back to help the many other casualties who had been rushed in.' More than 50,000 people have now been killed in the conflict and more than 90% of the Gaza population displaced from their homes, often on more than one occasion. The UK announced £129 million in the last financial year (2024-25) for Occupied Palestinian Territories, including £11.5 million to support UK-Med's life-saving work in Gaza. Ms Graham – who has also been deployed twice to conflict-hit Ukraine – said: 'When I was in Gaza last year, we heard explosions close to us, but this time my heart was in my mouth much of the time. 'Some bomb blasts were so close you'd feel your feet move first and then you heard the explosion. I don't know what the science is behind that. 'It was just one incident after another. Two of the 14 Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance workers killed had left from our field hospital. They were our colleagues. The news shook me to the core. 'Last year, our accommodation shook a few times, but this year it was practically every day. Sometimes you got woken up thinking 'I can't believe I've not got a whole house on top of me'. 'Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure I was going to make it out. That's how scary it was. I'm a bit embarrassed to say that because the people in Gaza are experiencing that 24/7, 365 days a year. 'The emotions are strange because it was brilliant to have done it and I do not regret it for a second. Once I've detangled my brain, I want to get back out. I feel like I still have one foot in Gaza and once I give myself some rest I'll want to get back. 'I find I struggle with the guilt of leaving. I struggled with the guilt of wanting to leave because the local people do not have that option. They are trapped. There's no respite for them. 'I also feel guilty putting my family through the worry. I know they are proud of the work I am doing but it's only natural they have concerns.'
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Court halts conclusion of Chagos Islands deal with injunction
The Government has temporarily been banned from concluding its negotiations on the Chagos Islands deal by an injunction granted in the early hours by a High Court judge. Downing Street insisted the deal is the 'right thing' but would not comment on the legal case. A hearing is expected to take place at 10.30am. In the injunction granted at 2.25am on Thursday, brought against the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Mr Justice Goose granted 'interim relief' to Bertrice Pompe, who had previously taken steps to bring legal action over the deal. 'The defendant shall take no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer,' Mr Justice Goose said in his order. It requires the Government to 'maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order'. According to the order, the judge granted the injunction 'upon consideration of the claimant's application for interim relief made out of court hours' and 'upon reading the defendants' response'. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had been expected to attend a virtual ceremony alongside representatives from the Mauritian government on Thursday morning to sign off on the deal. Britain would give up sovereignty of the island territory to Mauritius under the deal, and lease back a crucial military base on the archipelago for 99 years. A Government spokesperson said: 'We do not comment on ongoing legal cases. 'This deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security.'
