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AFP
16-07-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Scripted clip falsely presented as 'theft by Bangladeshi refugee'
"These Bangladeshi/Rohingyas live in huts near the railway tracks and indulge in acts of snatching and robbery," reads the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook video posted on July 7, 2025. The video -- viewed more than 20,000 times -- shows a man using a stick to knock a mobile phone out of the hands of a person filming from a fast-moving train. The man then grabs the phone, which has fallen near the tracks, and celebrates. Image Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on July 14, 2025, with a red X added by AFP The same video also surfaced in similar Facebook and X posts after India deported hundreds of people to Bangladesh without trial, drawing condemnation from activists and lawyers who called the expulsions illegal and based on ethnic profiling ( ). New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants. Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka's government, a former friend of India. India has also been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation. The video circulating online, however, was scripted. A on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a higher-quality Facebook reel posted on July 1 (archived link). The false posts use a horizontally flipped version of the video. "Do not keep your mobile phone and hands outside while travelling," reads its Bengali-language caption, alongside hashtags for "funny reels" and "comedy". Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the original Facebook clip (right) The video was shared on the Facebook page of Md Rota Mia, a user based in Bangladesh who describes themselves as a comedian. The page also features similarly staged clips (archived link). AFP has previously debunked other posts misrepresenting scripted videos.
Asahi Shimbun
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Asahi Shimbun
Groups plan to bring refugees to Japan for skilled work, studies
Nana Yamamoto, right foreground, and Hiroaki Ishii, left foreground, pose with Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, southeast Bangladesh. (Provided by Mobility for Humanity) Organizations are trying to bring overseas refugees to Japan to ease labor shortages, improve the economy and help Tokyo respond to international calls to do more to support displaced people around the world. The plan is to place those fleeing war or persecution into Japan's 'specified skilled worker' system or accept them as students. These routes would be outside the Japanese government system for recognizing refugee status, which is known for its low acceptance rates. The United Nations, which marked its World Refugee Day on June 20, has been calling on member states to accept more refugees in similar manners to deal with the growing humanitarian crisis. Around 1 million minority Muslim Rohingya people who have fled military-controlled Myanmar are crowded in a refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh. Nana Yamamoto, co-leader of Mobility for Humanity, a nonprofit based in Tokyo, visited the camp in April. She saw refugees taking online courses for university applications and other purposes. Refugees around 20 years old told her passionately in English that they want to enter the business world as a career, while others intend to help fellow refugees around the world. Mobility for Humanity is working on a new program to select young refugees at the camp who want to work or study in Japan. They could apply as specified skilled workers, a status-of-residence category set up in 2019 to help Japan address its labor shortages. The system allows workers under that category to become economically independent. Type 1 specified skilled workers can stay in Japan for up to five years. They can try to obtain Type 2 status with 'expert skills,' making them eligible for permanent residency. Applicants for Type 1 status must take a Japanese proficiency test and a skill test for the corresponding industrial fields. Mobility for Humanity plans to start offering training in the Japanese language and in industrial skills, particularly agriculture, at the camp as early as autumn, and have 10 or so refugees come to Japan next year. Officials of the nonprofit said they hope the refugees can continue studying Japanese in the country. They added that they plan to work with local governments, businesses and other parties to ensure respective communities will embrace the refugees in an organized manner. 'Many refugees at the camp have no future to envisage because they have no opportunities to take regular education courses or land jobs,' Yamamoto said. 'The status of specified skilled workers would certainly give them big hopes for rebuilding their lives.' She said the newcomers would be contributing to Japan not just as workers but also as taxpayers and consumers. 'I hope to help design a mechanism that would allow both parties to carve out their respective futures,' she said. SYRIANS, AFGHANS ALREADY COVERED Hiroaki Ishii, co-leader of Mobility for Humanity with Yamamoto, has also been working for Pathways Japan, a public interest incorporated foundation based in Tokyo, to bring refugees to Japan as international students. Pathways Japan and a partner group have provided free education to about 200 individuals from Syria and Afghanistan at universities and Japanese language schools in Japan since 2017. Those who have finished the corresponding programs are working for businesses and other entities as highly skilled professionals. The Japan International Cooperation Agency has also been inviting Syrians who have fled to neighboring countries as international students to Japan since fiscal 2017. More than 80 of them have arrived under the program through last fiscal year. From fiscal 2023, JICA expanded the program to cover refugees from Myanmar. Not everyone is eligible for the student program. But the specified skilled worker system is expected to further broaden the range of eligibility for admission. Japan recognized 190 individuals as refugees last year, reaching triple-digit figures for the third consecutive year. The nation has also started a system of 'complementary protection,' which is commensurate with refugee protection. However, most of the more than 10,000 refugee status applications filed every year end up being rejected. Many refugees are dying on dangerous voyages toward Europe and the United States. The United Nations adopted a Global Compact on Refugees at its General Assembly in 2018. It has been calling on member states to work with concerted efforts of the entire society, including businesses and universities, to ensure refugees' access to 'safe and lawful' pathways, such as education and employment.
The Star
05-07-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Myanmar junta releases 93 child soldiers after UN criticism
YANGON: Myanmar's ruling junta said on Friday (July 4) it has already discharged 93 minors from military service, responding to a United Nations report last month accusing it and its allies of recruiting over 400 children, many in combat roles. In a rare admission published in its mouthpiece newspaper, the junta said it conducted a verification process last year that resulted in the discharge of 93 verified minors, who were also provided with financial assistance. "To date, only 18 suspected minor cases remain pending verification," a government-run committee said in a statement published in the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper. Myanmar's military and the armed groups affiliated to it last year recruited 467 boys and 15 girls, including over 370 children used in combat roles, the UN Secretary-General's report on Children and Armed Conflict said. Anti-junta groups had also recruited children, the report said, although their number was far lower than that of the military. Myanmar has been in turmoil since a 2021 coup that unseated an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, causing widespread protests that morphed into a nationwide armed uprising against the powerful military. Established ethnic armies and new armed groups formed in the wake of the coup have gained control over much of Myanmar's borderlands, hemming the junta largely into the country's central plains. The struggling junta in 2024 activated a mandatory military service law, conscripting young people to replenish its depleted ranks after months of relentless fighting forced it to cede swathes of territory. Nearly 3.5 million people were internally displaced in the war-torn country, with children accounting for over 33 per cent of that population in 2024, according to Unicef. The largest proportion of child recruitment appears to have taken place in western Rakhine state, home to the minority Muslim Rohingya community, where the Myanmar military - along with two allies fighting there - enlisted 300 minors, according to the UN report. Reuters reported last year that children as young as 13 were fighting on the frontlines in Rakhine state, citing a U.N. official and two Rohingya fighters. Millions of Rohingya driven out of Myanmar remain confined in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, where militant recruitment and violence surged last year. - Reuters
Bangkok Post
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Bangkok Post
Myanmar junta releases 93 child soldiers after UN criticism
NAY PYI DAW - Myanmar's ruling junta said on Friday it has already discharged 93 minors from military service, responding to a United Nations (UN) report last month accusing it and its allies of recruiting over 400 children, many in combat roles. In a rare admission published in its mouthpiece newspaper, the junta said it conducted a verification process last year that resulted in the discharge of 93 verified minors, who were also provided with financial assistance. "To date, only 18 suspected minor cases remain pending verification," a government-run committee said in a statement published in the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper. Myanmar's military and the armed groups affiliated to it last year recruited 467 boys and 15 girls, including over 370 children used in combat roles, the UN Secretary-General's report on Children and Armed Conflict said. Anti-junta groups had also recruited children, the report said, although their number was far lower than that of the military. Myanmar has been in turmoil since a 2021 coup that unseated an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, causing widespread protests that morphed into a nationwide armed uprising against the powerful military. Established ethnic armies and new armed groups formed in the wake of the coup have gained control over much of Myanmar's borderlands, hemming the junta largely into the country's central plains. The struggling junta in 2024 activated a mandatory military service law, conscripting young people to replenish its depleted ranks after months of relentless fighting forced it to cede swathes of territory. Nearly 3.5 million people were internally displaced in the war-torn country, with children accounting for over 33% of that population in 2024, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). The largest proportion of child recruitment appears to have taken place in western Rakhine state, home to the minority Muslim Rohingya community, where the Myanmar military - along with two allies fighting there - enlisted 300 minors, according to the UN report. Reuters reported last year that children as young as 13 were fighting on the frontlines in Rakhine state, citing a UN official and two Rohingya fighters. Millions of Rohingya driven out of Myanmar remain confined in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, where militant recruitment and violence surged last year.
Hindustan Times
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Myanmar junta releases 93 child soldiers after UN criticism
By Naw Betty Han and Shoon Naing Myanmar junta releases 93 child soldiers after UN criticism July 4 - Myanmar's ruling junta said on Friday it has already discharged 93 minors from military service, responding to a United Nations report last month accusing it and its allies of recruiting over 400 children, many in combat roles. In a rare admission published in its mouthpiece newspaper, the junta said it conducted a verification process last year that resulted in the discharge of 93 verified minors, who were also provided with financial assistance. "To date, only 18 suspected minor cases remain pending verification," a government-run committee said in a statement published in the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper. Myanmar's military and the armed groups affiliated to it last year recruited 467 boys and 15 girls, including over 370 children used in combat roles, the UN Secretary-General's report on Children and Armed Conflict said. Anti-junta groups had also recruited children, the report said, although their number was far lower than that of the military. Myanmar has been in turmoil since a 2021 coup that unseated an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, causing widespread protests that morphed into a nationwide armed uprising against the powerful military. Established ethnic armies and new armed groups formed in the wake of the coup have gained control over much of Myanmar's borderlands, hemming the junta largely into the country's central plains. The struggling junta in 2024 activated a mandatory military service law, conscripting young people to replenish its depleted ranks after months of relentless fighting forced it to cede swathes of territory. Nearly 3.5 million people were internally displaced in the war-torn country, with children accounting for over 33% of that population in 2024, according to UNICEF. The largest proportion of child recruitment appears to have taken place in western Rakhine state, home to the minority Muslim Rohingya community, where the Myanmar military - along with two allies fighting there - enlisted 300 minors, according to the UN report. Reuters reported last year that children as young as 13 were fighting on the frontlines in Rakhine state, citing a U.N. official and two Rohingya fighters. Millions of Rohingya driven out of Myanmar remain confined in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, where militant recruitment and violence surged last year. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
