LONDON: Britain’s new Labour government on Thursday said it had deported 46 people to Vietnam and East Timor, after ditching the previous Conservative administration’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper this week said flights initially intended to fly undocumented migrants to the east African nation would instead be used to deport foreign criminals and immigration offenders.
The chartered return flight, which took off on Wednesday and arrived on Thursday, is the first ever to East Timor and the first to Vietnam since 2022, her department said.
“Today’s flight shows the government is taking quick and decisive action to secure our borders and return those with no right to be here,” added Cooper.
Labour, elected in a landslide election win this month, has scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda plan, which had been deemed illegal under international law by the UK Supreme Court.
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak had aimed for the first flights to take off this month, after legislating to designate the African nation a safe third country.
Cooper this week called the Rwanda scheme, intended to deter migrants making the Channel crossing in small boats from northern France, “the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money” she had seen.
The Tories had spent £700 million ($900 million) on the scheme but only four migrants had relocated to Rwanda — and they went voluntarily.
She also told parliament Sunak’s government planned to spend more than £10 billion on the scheme in total.
Labour’s approach is to prioritize returns of failed asylum seekers to designated safe countries to ease a huge backlog in the claims system.
It also wants closer cooperation with European partners to “smash” the people-smuggling gangs behind the Channel crossings, which so far this year have seen nearly 16,000 people brought ashore.
Vietnamese nationals accounted for 20 percent of undocumented migrants intercepted making the journey between January and March this year, Oxford University’s Migration Observatory said.
In March this year, Sunak’s government launched a global social media campaign, aimed at Vietnam in particular, to deter people from using the route.
On Wednesday, a gang of British people-smugglers were jailed after trying to hide two Vietnamese migrants in a hidden compartment of their campervan as they traveled between France and the UK.
Eleven people have been convicted in the UK in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found in the back of a lorry in 2019 after being smuggled from northern Europe.

MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Thursday that climate change was to blame for the severe floods that submerged the capital Manila, after heavy rains from Typhoon Gaemi triggered a deadly deluge and landslides.

Gaemi, known as Carina in the Philippines, did not make landfall in the country but has intensified seasonal monsoon rains, causing landslides and flooding over the past few days and forcing authorities to declare a state of calamity in the capital region that is home to roughly 15 million people.

At least 14 people were killed, and more than 1.1 million people were affected by Typhoon Gaemi in the Southeast Asian nation.

Marcos joined relief efforts on Thursday and handed out food parcels to those hardest hit by the floods in Manila.

“I wanted to see what the situation was. I was right; it’s very different reading a piece of paper than actually seeing what the people have to go through,” Marcos said.

“This is what the effects of climate change are.”

Philippine climate activists are now renewing their calls for action, citing the devastating effects of Typhoon Gaemi.

“Typhoon Carina highlights the extreme weather impact being experienced in the world, and especially in the Philippines. It just emphasizes that our country is at the forefront of the climate crisis,” Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Khevin Yu told Arab News.

“It is really important for the Philippines to demand climate justice. So, this has been echoed by President Marcos, but we are pushing him to do more.”

Activists demand that bills related to climate justice and accountability be passed. Yu said Filipinos must also be included in discussions and urged officials to move forward with energy transition plans.

Jashaf Shamir Lorenzo, head of policy development and research at BAN Toxics Philippines, said Typhoon Gaemi sent a “very clear” message.

“Climate targets that have long been ignored by developed countries are impacting our countries … and this will only get worse unless we call for accountability. We call for actions on the end of not only the Philippines, but these developed countries who are contributing a lot to climate change,” Lorenzo told Arab News.

“Extreme weather conditions have been becoming more common,” he said. “This is only going to get worse if we do not address all the fundamental issues that we have.”

The Philippines sees about 20 storms and typhoons every year, but the changing climate is making the storms more unpredictable and extreme.

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded, left more than 6,000 people dead or missing and displaced millions in central Philippines, while in 2021, Super Typhoon Rai, known locally as Odette, killed over 200 people.