Regional Briefs

Haitian refugee group urges Biden to rescind Trump’s ‘racist' immigration policies

NEW YORK (CMC):

A Haitian refugee group in New York in the United States is urging the incoming Joe Biden administration to rescind President Donald J. Trump’s “racist policies on immigration”.

The Brooklyn-based Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Committee said it was collaborating with the Haitian National TPS Alliance in holding Biden to his promise of reversing Trump’s immigration policies.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaigned on a promise that in the first 100 days of the Biden-Harris administration, they would reverse Trump’s discriminatory policies on immigration, including protecting TPS holders and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients, ending family separation and restoring asylum laws,” Ninaj Raoul, chair of the Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees.

“Now, we will go to Washington to fight for a permanent solution – permanent residency for all 400,000 TPS holders,” she added. “In January 2021, we are going to pressure the White House, to demand that if they truly reject racism and the nationalist acts of the past administration, they must favour our community and approve a permanent residency now."

Guns stolen from Belize police station

BELMOPAN (CMC):

Police have launched both a criminal and an internal investigation to determine how several firearms – including four 9mm pistols, two rifles and a 12-gauge pump action shotgun – were stolen during a burglary at the Succotz Police Station, a Maya village in the Cayo District.

The police have offered a reward for information that could lead to the recovery of the weapons.

Head of the National Crimes Investigation Branch, Assistant Commissioner of Police Joseph Myvett, said that “the investigation at this time has shown that the station was secured” before the incident.

“It is a two storey building and an officer resides upstairs with his family. There are parallel investigations being carried out, that of a criminal investigation and an internal investigation to see what policies if any were not followed or not being adhered to.

Myvett said he would not speculate at this time as to whether or not the robbery was an inside job, adding “we are following all angles”.

Mottley appointed to co-chair health global leaders group

BRIDGETOWN (CMC):

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has been appointed to co-chair the One Health Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

Mottley, along with the prime minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, will remain in the position for the next three years.

Mottley said she was pleased to have been invited to co-chair this critical Group, which has an extremely important role to play at this time.

She noted that the World Health Organization had declared AMR as one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity and that the cost of antimicrobial resistance to national economies and their health systems is significant.

“Therefore, you can see why this area would occupy my attention and that of my government because we seek to put people at the centre of everything we do. The wealth of a nation and by extension the world, is bound up in its citizens’ health," she said.

The One Health Global Leaders Group will provide high-level advisory and advocacy functions to ensure action is taken to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance.