Khaled Idris Bahray, The 20-year-old Eritrean Refugee, was allegedly killed by Racists in Germany

Killing of Eritrean refugee in Dresden exposes racial tensions in Germany

RIP, the late Khaled Idris Bahray 1995-2015

Anti-immigration sentiment highlighted after 25,000 rally in support of far-right Pegida movement on night of murder. t was 8pm on Monday when Khaled Idris Bahray told his seven flatmates he was popping out to buy some cigarettes from the Netto supermarket about 100 metres away from his flat in a prefab high-rise in the south of Dresden.
The 20-year-old Eritrean said he wouldn’t be long. But a few hours later he still hadn’t returned. “We assumed he’d gone to stay with some other friends nearby,” said his flatmate, Abdulrezak Suleman. “So we weren’t really worried.”
But around 7.40 the following morning, other residents in the six-storey building found his body slumped in the inner courtyard of the housing estate.
According to his flatmates, in reports that the police will not confirm, he was covered in blood, with at least one deep cut visible on his body. Rigor mortis had already set in. “He was lying on his back, and had blood coming out of his nose and mouth, with drops of blood leading towards the door as if he’d tried to get in, but not made it, and drops on the grass,” said Abdulatif, 23, a fellow Eritrean who lives nearby but had spent that night in Bahray’s flat.
Hmm not surprisingly, Police say No Foul Play!
The police had first said there seemed to be no suspicious circumstances surrounding the young Muslim’s death, saying in their initial statement that on first appearance “there are no indications of foul play”. But just hours later they confirmed the results of the postmortem showed that Bahray had been unlawfully killed in what appears to have been a vicious knife attack.
“We now have evidence to confirm that a stab from a knife was the cause of his injuries,” said Dieter Kroll, president of Dresden police. “We can exclude the possibility that this was an accident. It is murder.”
Dresden police have launched a murder investigation in the east German city that has been making headlines recently for its anti-immigrant rallies, which, on the night of Bahray’s death, attracted a record number of 25,000 supporters. Tensions in the city have been high in the 12 weeks since the rallies began, with a reported increase in racist attacks.
I want to earn some money and send to Mom, Bahray

Calais : de l’exaspération des habitants au désespoir des migrants

Le nombre de sans-papiers à Calais, dont la très grande majorité souhaite se rendre en Angleterre, a explosé depuis le début de l'année 2014. Une situation qui pousse à bout les habitants et les migrants. France 24 est allé à leur rencontre.

 Elle avait haussé le ton ce weekend, exaspérée par la passivité britannique face au drame migratoire de Calais. Natacha Bouchart, la maire UMP de la ville du nord de la France, a finalement obtenu une réponse. Elle, qui avait demandé l’aide des Britanniques pour endiguer le flux de migrants illégaux a réussi à faire sortir  son voisin du mutisme. Face à la menace de l’édile français de bloquer le port de la ville, le ministre de l’Immigration anglais a proposé, dimanche 7 septembre, d’offrir à Calais les hautes clôtures d’acier qui avaient sécurisé la venue des chefs d’État lors du sommet de l’Otan à Newport. Soit 21 km de grillage de près de trois mètres de hauteur.

Que la proposition de Londres doive être prise au sérieux ou non, la menace lancée par

'Israel 'coercing Eritreans and Sudanese to leave' Human Rights Watch

The Irony is, this country which was founded at the beginning of 20th century by a few Israeli refugees who fled Europe to escape arbitrary detention, killing and inhumane treatment. Fast forward 2014, their descendants are repeating what happened to their parents, grandparents and great grand parents against fellow helpless and defenseless African refugees whose only crime is having a bit of more melanin on their skin. It just breaks my heart what these fellow human-beings have to go through in the Negev desert with no hope neither future. They have to chose the lesser two evils: being detained indefinitely in the "free country" or go back and face persecution, rape, and of course to be a modern day slave in the military camps in the case of Eritreans. Being a refugee is not a choice; these people have left their families, friends, careers and their home country behind, as if this is not enough, they are being treated like criminals is an open racism at its best.   

No Racists on Our Streets: 16 thousand Stockholmers

The rally was organized by Line 17, a neighborhood self-organization against racism and other socio-economic problems, in Kärrtorp in the south of capital with numbers swelled by last week's violence after a similar rally in the same place was marred by violence and attacks instigated by neo-Nazis. Representative of Line 17 group said at a brief press conference at noon that today's manifestation was more than just a protest against neo-Nazis but an overall rejection of racism as well as security problems. DJ pair Bianca and Tiffany Kronlöv in a short speech earlier in the day say

"It is too easy to say 'F you all Nazis,' we must together look at ourselves and understand the power we have in this matter every day."

 Members of the Left party made speeches and solidarity messages from Sweden as well as all over the world were read at the manifestation. The neo-Nazi group were vandalizing the area with Nazi symbols and racist graffiti recently and that why residents of Stockholm took to the street to express that such practices are not welcome on their streets and neighborhoods. Regardless of the cold weather, the atmosphere was jovial and an estimated 16-20 thousand people of all groups (men, women, children, young and old with different religious and ethnic backgrounds) were enthusiastically showing their condemnation against racism and fascism. The highlight of today's protest was that racism and Nazism are not acceptable in any forms and shape. The protesters said loud and clear "No racists on our Streets". Local artists staged performances while representatives of the left party and self-organized youth groups of different areas of Stockholm made speeches. A FaceBook group dedicated to this cause fetched nearly 20 thousands supporters from all over the world and #Kärrtorp is the highest trending hashtag here in Sweden since last week's protest. The protest against Nazism and racism was held under heavy police presence numbering over 100 officers.

Similar protest marches were held elsewhere in Sweden on Sunday including Borås, Luleå, Malmö and Motala.

Israel's "Red Cross" rejects blood from Ethiopia born lawmaker

According to JTA Israeli lawmakers called for an examination of Magen David Adom blood donation policies after an Ethiopia-born Knesset member was rejected as a donor.

Pnina Tamano-Shata of the Yesh Atid party tried to donate during a special blood drive Wednesday at the Knesset but was told she could not because she had “the special kind of Jewish-Ethiopian blood,” according to Ynet, which first broke the story.

Tamano-Shata was told subsequently that she could donate but the blood would be frozen and never used.

“I am good enough to serve the state and in the Knesset,” Tamano-Shata told Ynet. “But for some reason to give blood I am not good enough. This is insulting.”

The Knesset’s Labor, Welfare and Health Committee will meet in emergency session on Monday to discuss the issue.

Tamano-Shata has lived in Israel since she was 3 years old and served in the Israel Defense Forces. As a youth she protested the MDA practice of discarding Ethiopian blood donations, according to Ynet.

Eilat Shinar, MDA’s director of blood services, told Ynet that “the regulations of the Ministry of Health do not allow the use of a blood infusion from someone who was born or lived for more than a year in an HIV-prevalent country since 1977, including countries in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean islands.”

In the wake of Wednesday’s incident, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein banned further MDA blood drives at the parliament.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Tamano-Shata and said he would call for an investigation into the Health Ministry directives.

“There can be no differentiation between one blood and the other in the State of Israel,” Israeli President Shimon Peres told Ynet.

Health Minister Yael German told Ynet, “I find it absurd that in Israel of 2013, people of Ethiopian descent that came to Israel over 25 years ago can still not donate blood.”

Israel passes law to detain undocumented African migrants for a year without trial

According to AFP Israel's parliament has approved a law which allows undocumented immigrants from Africa to be detained for up to a year without trial, MPs announced on Tuesday.

Hardliners from Prime Minister Netanyahu's Likud party praised the new legislation, with Interior Minister Gideon Saar saying it would "allow us to keep undocumented immigrants away from our cities."

And MP Miri Regev said Israel should "send them all back to their countries."

But not everyone welcomed the legislation.

"Would you also have placed Nelson Mandela in a closed detention centre?" asked Tamar Zandberg from the left wing Meretz party.

Human rights groups say most African migrants in Israel cannot be deported because their lives would be under threat if they returned home to Sudan and Eritrea.

The government-backed bill amends earlier legislation from 2012 under which undocumented immigrants could be held for three years without trial that was overturned by the Supreme Court in September.

The new bill passed by 30 votes in favour to 15 against during a late-night vote in the 120-member parliament, or Knesset.

It was the latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on the numbers of Africans entering the country illegally, which Israel says poses a threat to the state's Jewish character.

Last year, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000 undocumented African immigrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.

On November 24, the cabinet approved measures aimed at tackling the question of illegal immigrants, including a crackdown on employers and financial incentives for those agreeing to return to their country of origin.

It has also invested in the construction of a sprawling detention facility for undocumented immigrants arriving in Israel and for immigrants already in the country who "disturb the public order," the premier's office said.

The facility, to be inaugurated on December 12 and run by the Israel Prisons Services, will be open during the day but locked at night, and it will initially house up to 3,300 people, Haaretz newspaper reported.

It said capacity could be expanded to hold up to 11,000.