In Italy, a shipwreck kills dozens of migrants

A wooden boat carrying migrants from Turkey to Europe crashed near the southern coast of Italy on Sunday, killing at least 67 including children. Dozens more of the boat’s nearly 200 passengers were reported missing, according to the United Nations. The Italian Coast Guard said that at least 80 people on board were found alive, 22 of whom were hospitalized. 

Suspected smugglers charged each passenger 8,000 euros to board the ship, according to the Associated Press. The vessel left Turkey four days before the shipwreck, carrying migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Iran and Iraq. 

Giorgia Meloni, who was elected as Italy’s prime minister in October of last year, recently advanced a policy that restricts non-governmental search-and-rescue boats, making it more difficult for migrants to enter Italy through the Mediterranean sea. The policy requires these boats to sail to specific, designated ports as opposed to the closest port, and enforces a fine of up to 50,000 euros if captains fail to comply. Meloni’s policy is described by TIME Magazine as an “extreme approach to the European Union’s policies on migration already in effect.”

The sailboat primarily carried Afghan refugees who hoped to flee from the Taliban. Following the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, the European Union issued a statement saying that it will work with other countries to “prevent illegal migration from the region.” Additionally, a 2022 Human Rights Watch report found that Syrian refugees in Turkey are often treated as second-class citizens and often experience poverty and the risk of deportation, prompting them to seek refuge elsewhere.

Doctors Without Borders, the independent humanitarian group, provided survivors with psychological care, including for a 16-year-old Afghan boy whose 28-year-old sister died shortly after getting to the shore. Another 12-year-old boy from Afghanistan lost his parents and four siblings.

The victims’ relatives have been traveling from their respective countries to the Calabrian town of Crotone, where coffins have been laid out. Aladdin Mohibzada, who drove 25 hours from Germany, said that he was looking for his aunt and her three children, one of whom is 5 years old and is currently being sheltered in a center for minors. His aunt and her two other children died from the crash.

“We are looking into possibilities to send the bodies to Afghanistan, the bodies that are here,” Mohibzada said outside the morgue. “We are helpless here. We don’t know what we should do.”

In Australia, extradited Indian charged with murder

An Indian national suspected of murdering an Australian woman more than four years ago is being extradited from India to Australia. The suspect, Rajwinder Singh, was officially charged with the murder of 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley, who was killed in 2018 while walking her dog, this past Thursday. 

Singh, who has long denied committing the crime, was escorted from New Delhi to Melbourne, Australia by police on Wednesday. Martin Grinberg, an Australian judge, ordered Singh’s extradition to the Australian state of Queensland — where Cordingley’s body was found — after police revealed DNA and telephone evidence linking him to the murder.

The investigation continued for over four years, until Indian law enforcement finally tracked Singh down last November. Cordingley’s murder sparked controversy among the community in Queensland, particularly due to the fact that it took so long to get ahold of the suspect. A Delhi court approved Singh’s extradition in January. 

Prior to his arrest, Australian police sent out a 1 million Australian dollar reward, or roughly 600,000 USD, for any information on where Singh — who flew from Sydney to India the day after Cordingley died — might be located. Police suspect that he spent time in his home state of Punjab after leaving Australia in 2018. 

Sonia Smith, a Queensland detective, said that the judicial process will begin soon, but did not provide information on whether the reward was collected or how Singh was found. Cordingley’s mother also expressed relief in light of Singh’s arrest.

“I am so relieved to have this person back here in Queensland,” Cordingley’s mother, Vanessa Gardiner, said to the Associated Press. “We thank the community for the ongoing love and support throughout these difficult times.”

In Germany, the government introduces new feminist foreign policy

Germany’s foreign and development ministers recently announced a plan to promote gender equality. The new rule, based on the lauded “feminist foreign policies” pioneered by the leftist Swedish government in 2014, aims to improve women’s representation in foreign affairs, and allocates government funds to anti-discrimination efforts.

Although Sweden was the first to implement feminist foreign policies, the country abandoned them last year after a new, right-wing government came to power. In recent years, however, countries such as Canada, France, Mexico and Spain have embraced similar policies. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock described the decision as “self-evident” and said the policy will include humanitarian aid and education reforms. 

The policies aim to protect women from violence and grant them more freedom to take social and political action, according to AP. In Germany, the guidelines for the policy put more than 90% of new government project funds toward advancing gender equality. The German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur revealed that the figure was around 64% in 2021.

According to Deutsche Welle, Berlin is seeking to invest 12 billion euros, or 12.7 billion USD, and around 8% of Germany’s development funds in funding for new projects. The government is also in the process of creating a new “ambassador for feminist foreign policy” role. 

Baerbock added that among other developments, the policy is geared toward expanding gender equality at the German foreign office, where only 26% of ambassadors are female. German development minister Svenja Schulze said that more equality will lead to less hunger and poverty, and increase social stability in the country overall.

“It’s simply a matter of common sense to pay particular attention in development policy to ensuring that women also have rights, that they have resources and that they are also represented,” Schulze said to AP.

Contact Yezen Saadah at [email protected].