Photo source: The New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront By tightening national and security protocols, Greece is using Middle Eastern and South Asian refugees to carry out extrajudicial deportations. In a report by Human Rights Watch in April 2022, asylum seekers who crossed the Greco-Turkish border were stripped, beaten, robbed and forced to wade through chest-high freezing water back to Turkey. This is a sadistic twist on the European border regime. Known as refugee commandos, they work not on money, but on the promises of asylum. No one should be surprised that the securitisation of Europe’s border has directly depended on the violence and humiliation of refugees. Since the Arab Spring happened, the European Union has shaped its border policy in such a way that it deflects people seeking safety inside Europe. No European leader condemns this. Member states are banding together their border defence forces which are now stronger than Frontex, the EU’s own border agency. The...

  Photo source: Al Jazeera By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Swedish cities of Norrkoping and Linkoping have been rocked by anti-migrant rallies and clashes as Sweden’s far-right extremists have gone as far as instigating a campaign for burning the Muslim holy book, the Quran. The riots sparked after an anti-Muslim Danish Swedish politician called Rasmus Paludan, belonging to Stram Kurs (Hardline) party, announced his ‘burning tour’ of the Quran during the holy month of Ramadhan across Sweden in April 2022. This highly provocative incitement was publicly sanctioned by the Swedish authorities. After that, several other cities witnessed riots as well. As a matter of fact, Azra Muranovic, deputy chair of the Municipal Council of Vernamo and a Social Democrat party politician believed that the Quran burning was a planned campaign. But, the Swedish government believes that there are some foreign actors behind the riots, despite giving Paludan a green signal for Quran burning. The ...

Photo source: New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront For further normalisation of Israel-Arab relations, Negev Summit happened in Israel in March 2022. Organised by Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, it was a diplomatic move which would strengthen the already drafted Abraham Accords. Four Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Egypt attended the summit. There was a hefty dose of symbolism to the Negev Summit, beginning with its location which was in Kibbutz Sde Boker, the final home of Israel’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, who was also the first signatory of the country’s declaration of independence.  The Negev Summit was also concomitant as it took place twenty years to the day since the adoption of the Arab Peace Initiative at the Beirut Arab League summit of 2002. That initiative, ground-breaking at the time, offered full normalisation and peace with Israel upon Israel’s acceptance of a Palestinian state and the fruition ...

  Photo source: The Times By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has planned to send asylum seekers off to Rwanda in June 2022. Many see this as a quick fix, ‘offshored strategy’ to instill otherness, sending a clear message that Tory led UK government is not interested to help distressed people in the name of humanity. Under this plan, many refugees who enter the UK from 'safe' countries will be sent to Rwanda for processing. Only if their claim succeeds will they be allowed into the UK. Even if this scheme is mainly catered to single men, the move will create a lack of cohesion, as they won’t be able to raise children, form relationships, and obtain other important rights. It has inflated their hardship. This is, infact, a contravention of international law. But, UK prime minister believes the other way round.  Conversely, the UK supreme court ruled the Rwanda plan unlawful because asylum seekers would face real risk of ill treatment due to a ...

  Photo source: Guardian By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront The demise of Imran Khan as prime minister was a result of an intra-elite struggle after a no-confidence vote was passed in the parliament in April 2022. It was not based on mass people mobilisation, as seen in the late 1960s, and 1980s, or more recently in 2007-08. As ‘electable leaders’ switched sides in the parliament, his opponents got newer reasons to find flagrant faults in his so-called ‘hybrid regime’, which include enforced disappearances of activists, the vicious restrictions on media freedom, the convictions and harassment of political opponents, and the wide, cordial space given to religious extremists. As per Azeem Ibrahim's article in Foreign Policy, some of Khan's allies even controversially allege that 'the intra-elite struggle' in the parliament was initiated by the Pakistani military, as his government was insufficiently respectful towards China's interests in the country, including au...

Photo source: Financial Times By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront Sri Lanka hasn’t seen an economic catastrophe like seen in March 2022 in seventy years. Food inflation alone rose to a record thirty percent. Essentials, such as rice, lentils and chicken, have become unaffordable for many.  As cost of living in the tourism driven country has become unbearable, Sri Lankans have taken out to the streets. As a response, government had gagged the social media and messaging apps. The protests have settled a great unease within Rajapaksa family, whose members hold key positions in the government. Due to a public anger, the cabinet of ministers had resigned, and a new finance minister was announced. After a few days, he too resigned. It seems that most of Sri Lankans aren’t content with Rajapaksa’s rule. Former government officials have alleged that the Rajapaksa family has hidden their multibillion-dollar fortune in bank accounts in Dubai, the Seychelles, and St. Martin. For example, a...

Photo source: New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront It was in December 2020 when Donald Trump ended US neutrality in Western Sahara Conflict. Trump had announced Morocco’s sovereignty over every inch of the Western Sahara territory in exchange for Rabat entering the Abraham Accords. It made Morocco the fourth Arab country to normalise relations with Israel in 2020. Trump’s decision violated international law, and the UN’s peacekeeping efforts to end the conflict. But, all of this has been traumatic for Algeria. It has led many Algerians angry and extremely worried about national security, as they think Rabat may become militarily superior to Algiers in the future, due to enhanced cooperation between the United States and Morocco. As Biden has not reversed Trump’s decision, it has led to a new cold war between Algeria and Morocco. That’s why Algeria severed ties with Morocco in August 2021. While the step undertaken by Algeria may not reflect the same severity of 1994, when Al...

  Photo source: The New Arab By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront To mark the eleventh anniversary of the 20 February Movement, thousands of activists rallied in more than fifty cities in Morocco in February 2022. They wanted the release of journalists and activists. Waving black flags, they chanted slogans praising the people, instead of the king.  In an interview with New Arab, Alali Aitaoui, a prominent activist in the 20 February Movement believed that none of the legitimate demands first raised by the people in 2011 has been fulfilled. The brutal phase of repression testified itself after the arrest of prominent activist, Noureddine Al Awaj. He was convicted in 2020 with a two-year sentence for insulting constitutional provisions after saying in an interview that Morocco became a ‘disaster’ due to failed policies of the regime. Morocco’s Spring started in 2011 after it imitated other Arab nations. The revolution sustained for more than five months. The protests brought ...