nationals

Myanmar citizens march in protest against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Sunday, February 28, 2021. Despite a civil war continuing in the Asian nation, the Trump administration on Monday announced it was terminating temporary protection status for Myanmar. File Photo by Xiao Long/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 25 (UPI) — The United States announced it was ending deportation protection for those from civil war-torn Myanmar, the latest nation to have Temporary Protected Status terminated amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination of TPS for Myanmar on Monday, saying it will be in effect in 60 days, on Jan. 26.

Some 3,670 Myanmar nationals were in the United States under the TPS program, according to the National Immigration Forum nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.

The previous Biden administration designated Myanmar for TPS in May 2021 in response to civil conflict that erupted in the country following the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup. The designation has been repeatedly renewed until Monday.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Myanmar, the junta has killed at least 7,488 people, with 30,013 others arrested, and nearly 22,700 still detained.

Since the coup began, more than 275,000 Myanmar nationals have sought refuge or asylum in neighboring countries, according to United Nations statistics.

In terminating deportation protections for those from Myanmar, Noem said the situation in the country “has improved enough that it is safe for Burmese citizens to return home” and conditions no longer meet TPS statutory requirements.

“Burma has made notable progress in governance and stability, including the end of its state of emergency, plans for free and fair elections, successful cease-fire agreements and improved local governance contributing to enhanced public service delivery and national reconciliation,” she said in a statement.

The announcement comes less than a week after the United States co-sponsored a resolution on the situation facing minorities in Myanmar, with Michael Heath, U.S. senior adviser for East Asian and Pacific affairs, stating they “remain deeply concerned” by evidence of human rights violations and abuses continuing to be committed by both the military and other armed groups engaged in the civil war.

The Trump administration has sought to end TPS for nine country, affecting more than 675,000 immigrants in the United States, according to Carolyn Tran, executive director of Communities United for Status and Protection.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi says both fighters who carried out suicide attacks on Islamabad and South Waziristan were Afghan nationals.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has said both suicide bombers involved in the two attacks in the country this week were Afghan nationals, as authorities announced having made several arrests.

Naqvi made the remarks in parliament on Thursday during a session carried live on television.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

On Wednesday, at least 12 people were killed and more than 30 were injured, several of them critically, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the Islamabad District Judicial Complex.

The Counter-Terrorism Department in Punjab province’s Rawalpindi said seven suspects were detained in connection with the Islamabad blast. The alleged perpetrators were apprehended from Rawalpindi’s Fauji Colony and Dhoke Kashmirian, the Dawn daily reported, while a raid was also conducted in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

The other suicide attack took place on Monday at a college in South Waziristan, KP.

Cadet College, which is near the Afghan border, came under attack when an explosive-laden vehicle rammed its main gate. Two attackers were killed at the main gate, while three others managed to enter, according to police.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been severely strained in recent years, with Islamabad accusing fighters sheltering across the border of staging attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies giving haven to armed groups to attack Pakistan.

Dozens of soldiers were killed in border clashes between the two countries last month, as well as several civilians.

On Tuesday, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Pakistan may launch strikes inside Afghanistan following the attacks this week, saying the country was “in a state of war”.

“Anyone who thinks that the Pakistan Army is fighting this war in the Afghan-Pakistan border region and the remote areas of Balochistan should take today’s suicide attack at the Islamabad district courts as a wake-up call,” he said.

Pakistan passes bill giving army chief immunity for life

In a separate development on Thursday, Pakistan’s parliament approved a sweeping constitutional amendment, granting lifetime immunity to the current army chief, boosting the military’s power, which was previously reserved only for the head of state, despite widespread criticism from opposition parties and critics.

The 27th amendment, passed by a two-thirds majority, also consolidates military power under a new chief of defence forces role and establishes a Federal Constitutional Court.

The changes grant army chief Asim Munir, recently promoted to field marshal after Pakistan’s clash with India in May, command over the army, air force and the navy.

Munir, like other top military brass, would enjoy lifelong protection.

Any officer promoted to field marshal, marshal of the air force, or admiral of the fleet will now retain rank and privileges for life, remain in uniform, and enjoy immunity from criminal proceedings.

The amendment also bars courts from questioning any constitutional change “on any ground whatsoever”.

Cecile Kohler, 41, and her partner, Jacques Paris, 72, had been jailed on charges of spying for France and Israel.

Iran has released two French nationals imprisoned for more than three years on spying charges their families rejected, French President Emmanuel Macron has said, though it remains uncertain when they would be allowed to return home.

Expressing “immense relief”, Macron said on X on Wednesday that Cecile Kohler, 41, and her partner Jacques Paris, 72 – the last French citizens officially known to be held in Iran – had been released from Evin prison in northern Tehran and were on their way to the French embassy.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

He welcomed this “first step” and said talks were under way to ensure their return to France as “quickly as possible”.

The pair were arrested in May 2022 while visiting Iran. France had denounced their detention as “unjustified and unfounded”, while their families say the trip had been purely touristic in nature.

Both teachers, although Paris is retired, were among a number of Europeans caught up in what activists and some Western governments, including France, describe as a deliberate strategy of “hostage-taking” by Iran to extract concessions from the West.

Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said they had been granted “conditional release” on bail by the judge in charge of the case and “will be placed under surveillance until the next stage of the judicial proceedings”.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France 2 TV they were in “good health” at the French ambassador’s residence but declined to give details on when they would be allowed to leave Iran.

Their Paris-based legal team told the AFP news agency in a statement that the release had “ended their arbitrary detention which lasted 1,277 days”.

The release comes at a time of acute sensitivity in dealings between Tehran and the West in the wake of the US-Israel 12-day war in June against Iran and the reimposition of United Nations sanctions in the standoff over the Iranian nuclear programme, which the country insists is purely for civilian purposes.

Some Iranians are concerned that Israel will use the sanctions, which are already causing further economic duress in the country, as an excuse to attack again, as it used the resolution issued by the global nuclear watchdog in June as a pretext for a war that was cheered by Israeli officials and the public alike.

The French pair’s sentences on charges of spying for France and Israel, issued last month after a closed-door trial, amounted to 17 years in prison for Paris and 20 years for Kohler.

Concern grew over their health after they were moved from Evin following an Israeli attack on the prison during the June war.

Kohler was shown in October 2022 on Iranian television in what activists described as a “forced confession”, a practice relatively common for detainees in Iran, which rights groups say is equivalent to torture.

Her parents, Pascal and Mireille, told AFP in a statement that they felt “immense relief” that the pair were now in a “little corner of France”, even if “all we know for now is that they are out of prison”.

France had filed a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over their detention, saying they were held under a policy that “targets French nationals travelling in or visiting Iran”.

But in September, the ICJ suddenly dropped the case at France’s request, prompting speculation that closed-door talks were under way between the two countries for their release.

Iran has said the duo could be freed as part of a swap deal with France, which would also see the release of Iranian Mahdieh Esfandiari.

Esfandiari was arrested in France in February on charges of promoting “terrorism” on social media, according to French authorities.

Scheduled to go on trial in Paris from January 13, she was released on bail last month in a move welcomed by Tehran.

Barrot declined to comment when asked by France 2 if there had been a deal with Tehran.

Among the Europeans still jailed by Iran is Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges his family vehemently rejects.