Page 6 - aruba-today-20240912

A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 12 sepTember 2024
Human rights group calls on governments to protect Venezuelan

and Haitian immigrants

By MANUEL RUEDA the United States. So far this
Associated Press year, some 238,000 people
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) have crossed.
— A global human rights Around 65% of those
watchdog on Wednesday crossing the swampy and
called on Latin American treacherous jungle are
governments to improve Venezuelans escaping
protection schemes, grant their nation’s political and
legal status and reverse economic crisis.
“onerous visa require- Hassan said that on a re-
ments” for millions of Hai- cent visit to Necoclí a
tians and Venezuelans who coastal town in Colombia
have struggled to find work, from where migrants de-
access to health care and part for Darien the group
education in South Ameri- identified people who left
can host countries, forcing Venezuela after the dis-
them to increasingly seek puted July 28 presidential
asylum in the United States. election.
Human Rights Watch, in a “We met families facing
report describing the situ- impossible choices. They
ation of Haitian and Ven- would either have to en-
ezuelan migrants, said that Migrants cross a river during their journey through the Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama, dure the repression and
“limited” integration and Oct. 15, 2022. fear of arrest in Venezuela
regularization policies in Associated Press or risk violence, exploitation
South America are forcing and asylum seekers to The report also calls for timelines, complex proce- and sexual assault and pos-
vulnerable people to head cross the dangerous Darien governments to eliminate dures, onerous document sibly even death,” she said.
to the United States every Gap,” said Tirana Hassan, barriers that hinder the in- requirements, and admin- So far this year, 11,000 Hai-
month. To reach the U.S. executive director of HRW, tegration of migrants and istrative delays,” said the tians have made the jungle
border, many asylum seek- during a presentation of refugees, including legisla- report, which reviewed crossing on their way to the
ers make a long, danger- the report in Bogota. tion that prevents people asylum policies in countries U.S. border, according to
ous journey that includes The group urged govern- from getting work permits, including Panama, Colom- figures published by Pan-
crossing the Darien Gap, ments in Latin America to while they seek asylum in bia, Brazil, Peru and Chile. ama’s national immigra-
a roadless swath of jungle implement a “region-wide other countries. “Asylum systems also strug- tion agency. While a new
between Colombia and protection regime that “While some Latin Ameri- gle with limited capacity, interim government was
Panama. would grant all Venezue- can governments have resulting in significant de- established in Haiti earlier
“What we have document- lans and Haitians legal sta- made commendable ef- lays,” the group said. this year, gangs continue to
ed through the course of tus for a fixed but renew- forts to receive migrants According to Panama of- control 80% of the capital,
our research over the last able term of adequate and asylum seekers, efforts ficials, more than 700,000 Port-au-Prince and millions
couple of years is how the duration,” even if they may to regularize migration in migrants have crossed the face “acute food insecu-
lack of safe and legal path- not qualify for refugee sta- the region have often fall- Darien Gap over the past rity,” according to the U.N.
ways has pushed migrants tus under domestic law. en short due to restrictive 18 months on their way to food agency.q

Critics say a South African education bill on language in schools

threatens new unity government

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME use Afrikaans, the language that devel-
Associated Press oped among Dutch and other European
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — An education bill colonial settlers in the 17th century.
that would give South Africa’s government Out of 23,719 public schools, at least 2,484
more control over white minority language are Afrikaans-language schools, accord-
schools is a threat to the country’s new ing to government figures.
government of national unity, the second Democratic Alliance leader John Steen-
largest political party said Wednesday. huisen said he would meet President Cyril
The bill seeks to give the government the Ramaphosa before he signs the bill into
power to determine language and admis- law on Friday. One civil society group has
sion policies in schools. In the current ar- said it would take legal action to oppose
rangement, school governing bodies con- the bill once Ramaphosa signs it.
sisting mostly of parents and community The Democratic Alliance joined the unity
leaders determine these. government led by the African National
Critics describe the bill as a threat to sin- Congress in June after the ANC lost its par-
gle-language schools, particularly those liamentary majority for the first time since
in the Afrikaans language that is spoken the end of the racist governing system of
In this photo provided by the South African Government by the country’s white, minority Afrikaner apartheid in 1994.
Communication and Information System, (GCIS), South African population and others. The ANC believes the bill would avoid the
Président Cyril Ramaphosa, right, greets opposition Democratic South Africa has 12 official languages. exclusion of majority Black learners from
Alliance (DA) leader, John Steenhuisen, left, at the first sitting of While most schools use English as a medi- schools where the only language of in-
Parliament since elections, in Cape Town, on June 14, 2024. um of instruction from a certain age, some struction is Afrikaans.q
Associated Press