UK sanctions West Bank settlers, and EU lifts sanctions on Syria
On this episode of Trending Middle East:
EU begins lifting sanctions on Syria
This episode features Thomas Harding, Security and Policy Editor; and Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Jordan Correspondent.
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The National
33 minutes ago
- The National
UK wasted £38 billion on migrant arrival programmes, Oxford report finds
Britain has wasted more than £38 billion ($51 billion) on its welcoming schemes for migrants over the past decade, a report has found. The programmes to adjust and integrate migrants had been 'poorly co-ordinated and driven by a reactive crisis mentality', Oxford's University's Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity found. The Future of Welcoming in the UK report disclosed that the overall costs of supporting newcomer communities from 2014 to 2024 totalled £20 billion over 26 funding streams, but came to £38 billion when adjusted for inflation. The major overspend came from finding accommodation for asylum seekers who had fled Afghanistan, Syria, Hong Kong and Ukraine. The report was critical that after 'front-end welcoming' during the first months after entering the UK, there was 'little focus on longer term integration' that included broader community consent for migration. Migrant communities were targeted by hard-right anti-immigration groups in Britain last summer with a series of riots that shocked the country. It was therefore important for the British government to understand that welcoming schemes support 'continuing local consent for migration, which is vital for mitigating tensions', the report said. It also highlighted that migration brought both costs and economic benefits. It said a net increase in migration of 350,000 people would reduce the UK's net borrowing by £7.4 billion by 2028. The report proposed a new model for welcoming migrants, changing from a crisis-led provision to 'proactive interventions to build up social infrastructure'. 'The sums that the UK has spent on asylum accommodation over the last decade are unnecessarily high, and this serves nobody well,' said Jacqueline Broadhead, director of the Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity, 'Better planning and organisation could have reduced this sum substantially ... and helped the country to invest in a longer-term and more acceptable model.' She argued that there is now an opportunity to improve the locations where migrants are hosted that 'supports wider community cohesion and consent for migration'. 'Sensible investment in welcoming has a genuine and positive impact for new arrivals,' she added. There was a positive note that the Labour government had 'taken several steps which address some of the issues highlighted in the report".
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
At least four killed as armed groups attack Syria's security troops in Sweida
Armed groups attacked Syria 's internal security troops in the southern city of Sweida on Sunday, killing at least four people and injuring others, local media and war monitor reported. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that three Syrian security forces personnel were killed "as clashes erupted with local factions around Tal Hadid in the western Sweida countryside". The Observatory also reported the death of a "local fighter". A source told Syria's state-run Al Ekhbariya TV that the armed groups breached the ceasefire deal made in the predominantly Druze region last month after sectarian clashes killed hundreds of people, many of them civilians. Tal Hadid is a 'key control point' at a relatively high altitude, according to the monitor, allowing whoever controls it to overlook neighbouring areas. Fighting also erupted around the city of Thaala, the monitor said, 'following bombardment of the area with shells and heavy weapons launched from areas under the control of government forces, while the sound of explosions and gunfire was heard in various parts of Sweida city'. According to the monitor and Sweida locals, Damascus has been imposing a siege on the province, with the Observatory saying the government wants to 'force inhabitants to comply'. Clashes erupted in early July between Bedouin and Druze factions, after the kidnapping of a Druze trader on a government-controlled road to the north of the city, and escalated into widespread violence in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Syrian government troops were sent to contain the unrest but Druze militias, who deeply distrust the newly established authorities in Damascus and accuse of siding with the Bedouin, mobilised to push them back. The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have been scarred by long-standing tension over land and other resources. A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. The government in Damascus said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee for that purpose. The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed Al Shara, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region. Israel in July attacked the main Syrian military compounds in the heart of Damascus, in a widening aerial campaign in response to the offensive on Sweida. Israel said it was acting to defend the Druze minority. Also on Sunday, the Israeli army announced it conducted a raid on targets in southern Syria the previous day, in which it seized weapons and questioned several suspects it said were involved in trafficking weapons in the area.
Sharjah 24
7 hours ago
- Sharjah 24
Israeli PM asks ICRC to help provide food to Gaza hostages
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the head of the Red Cross delegation in our region, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food to our hostages and providing them with immediate medical treatment", the statement read. The request came days after Palestinian militant groups released videos of two Israeli hostages held in Gaza appearing emaciated. The videos make references to the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where UN-mandated experts have warned a "famine is unfolding".
