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The Home Office is routinely changing the dates of birth of unaccompanied child asylum seekers to classify them as adults, according to experts who say the practice is now happening on a “horrifying scale”.

As a result, many children are being wrongly sent to the notorious Home Office site at Manston in Kent, the experts warn, and detained in unsafe conditions for up to several weeks.

The Refugee Council said interviews with 16 children released from Manston revealed that even in the cases of some boys who had identity documents stating they were children, the Home Office changed their dates of birth to make them over 18.

One of the children, interviewed at a hotel in London last week, said they had been attacked by adults in Manston, and others described fights and the police being called. 

Sonia Lambert, who works for the Refugee Council, described boys giving their ages as 15 to 17, but Home Office staff not accepting their stated ages. One had his birth date altered by one year, putting him over the dividing line of 18. “I cried so much but they still didn’t change it back,” said an Afghan boy.

Three of them showed images of ID documents or passports on their phones to officials from the Refugee Council’s age-dispute project, which had been either ignored or discounted by the Home Office. Some of the boys said they could not understand why they had been “given” a new age despite their protests.

Categorising the unaccompanied child asylum seekers as adults meant some were placed in Manston for more than 10 days at a time, and several for over 20 days.

Manston was emptied last week following a series of controversies at the site, including overcrowding, allegations of drug selling by guards, asylum seekers being left stranded in central London after their release from the centre, and outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as diphtheria.

On Saturday the Home Office said that the recent death of a migrant held at Manston may have been caused by diphtheria, a highly contagious infection that affects the skin, nose and throat.

Lambert, who was among those who visited the hotel where the children were interviewed, said: “One of the most shocking things to me is how young many of them looked. Several even had proof of their ages, and showed us images of ID cards or passports, which seem to have been ignored or discounted by Home Office staff.”

Of the 16 interviewed, eight said they were 16, six said they were 17 and two 15. Three had documents which appeared to prove their age, but had been ignored.

One of the 15-year-olds, from Iran, had an image of his passport and his ID card, but said that Home Office officials were “not interested”. He claimed they told him it didn’t matter that they’d given him a new date of birth because there would be a chance to correct it later on. The boy went on to spend 24 days in Manston.

One of the boys, from Syria, said: “I’ve never been more frightened than I was in Manston.” Another, from Sudan, added: “It’s the worst place I’ve ever been to.”

Renae Mann, executive director of services at the Refugee Council, said: “This is a misuse of power by the government. These children are very vulnerable and have been through so much already.

“Our staff are seeing many young people aged 15, 16 and 17 who have been wrongly treated as adults by Home Office staff. It is only once we get involved that these children are recognised as such and are taken into local authority care.” Once classified as adults the boys are at risk of being “dispersed” to adult accommodation, usually hotels, throughout the UK.

The Refugee Council has worked with 92 young people at the same hotel since the start of September, all of whom it has successfully managed to have taken into care. Mann added that the government had not published data that offered a clear picture of the numbers of children affected.

“As the government works to address the huge challenges in the asylum system, the treatment and welfare of children must be prioritised.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Age assessments are challenging but vital to identifying genuine asylum seeking children and stop abuse of the system. We are taking a holistic approach to prevent adults claiming to be children, or children being wrongly treated as adults – both present serious safeguarding risks to children.

“Our reforms through the nationality and borders act aim to make assessments more consistent and robust by using scientific measures, and creating a new national age assessment board. If there is doubt whether a claimant is an adult or child, they will be referred for a local authority assessment and will be treated as a child until a decision on their age is made.” By Mark Townsend, Guardian

 

Rwandan lawyer, Florida Kabasinga has been elected the Secretary General of the East Africa Law Society (EALS).

The EALS is a regional bar association for East Africa and has over 19,000 members.

Kabasinga is the Founder and Managing Partner of Certa Law, a well-known local law firm.

She boasts almost two decades of experience in the fields of International Criminal Law and Domestic Commercial and Criminal Justice.

In addition to her new responsibilities, she is also the Chairperson of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the East Africa Law Society and a member of the American Bar Association.

Kabasinga holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights Law from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA.

The EA Law Society includes all national bar associations of the EAC, including the Law Society of Kenya, Tanganyika Law Society, Uganda Law Society, Zanzibar Law Society, Rwanda Bar Association, Burundi Bar Association and the South Sudan Bar Association. - Esther Favour, The New Times

A total of 15 people were killed and 11 others injured in recent gun attacks in north Nigeria, a local official said Friday.

The deadly attacks were launched by unidentified gunmen to four villages in the state of Kaduna, said Samuel Aruwan, the state's commissioner for internal security and home affairs, in a statement. 

The attacks happened on Thursday when the gunmen invaded the villages to grab money but met resistance from villagers, The Nation, a local daily, reported Friday.

"From there, the thing started," a source was quoted as saying. 

Armed attacks have been a primary security threat in parts of Nigeria, resulting in deaths and kidnappings. Xinhua

 

At the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, a Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) will be deployed to observe the country’s general elections scheduled for 6 December 2022. 

The Commonwealth Secretary-General, The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, constituted the five-member group of observers, which will be led by Kenya’s former Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage and Culture and former Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Amina Mohammed. 

The Secretary-General said: 

“The Commonwealth has a long and proud history of standing in solidarity with citizens as they prepare to choose their leaders. 

“Under the chairmanship of Hon. Amina Mohammed, I firmly believe that the observer group will provide an informed, comprehensive, and impartial assessment of the electoral process.” 

The observer group will arrive in Roseau on 30 November 2022 and stay until the completion of the electoral process. During their stay, which will see them deployed throughout the country, they will be supported by a team from the Commonwealth Secretariat led by Ms Chantal Sciberras, Adviser and Head of Europe in the Governance and Peace Directorate. 

The COG will observe all aspects of the election process - from the opening of polling stations and the voting process to the counting of ballots and announcement of results - and determine whether the elections are conducted in line with international standards as well as the domestic democratic standards to which Dominica has committed itself. They will also meet and hold briefings with stakeholders, including election management officials, representatives of political parties, civil society groups, the media, and other key stakeholders. 

As per the COG’s mandate, observers will act impartially and will adhere to the standards of the Commonwealth Guidelines for the Observation of Elections as well as the International Declaration of Principles for Election Observation, to which the Commonwealth is a signatory. 

Two days after election day, the Observer group will issue an interim statement outlining its initial findings. A final report, which will include the assessment of the electoral process and a set of recommendations for reforms to improve future elections, will be presented to the Government of Dominica, the Electoral Office, and other stakeholders, before being made public. 

The group will depart Dominica by 11 December 2022.

 

The Commonwealth Observer Group members are:

 

Hon. Amina Mohamed - Chairperson

Former Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage and Culture and former Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs

Kenya

 

Hon. Liberata Mulamula

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs

United Republic of Tanzania

 

Prof. Praja Trivedi

Commonwealth Envoy

India

 

Mr Ian Hughes

Assistant Chief Electoral Officer of Elections Commission

Antigua and Barbuda

 

Mrs Wyvolyn Patterson

Journalist

Jamaica

The Commonwealth has been observing electoral processes for over four decades. In that time, more than 160 elections have been observed in 40 countries. ​

Commonwealth Observer Groups (COGs) are independent and autonomous and will normally be chaired by a former Head of Government or senior political figure.

They are composed of eminent persons from a range of fields, including electoral commissioners, parliamentarians, legal experts, gender experts, human rights experts, and media experts.

Christopher Kkonde (right) displays some of the cassava flour during a farmer’s fair in Kabizi Yard.  Photo/Fred Muzaale 

What you need to know:

  • Many people think they can only make ugali out of cassava but one gets mandazis, cakes, crisps, chips and chapati as well. Christopher Kkonde slices the harvested tubers into smaller parts of, say, 5cm each, dries for two to three weeks and, thereafter, grinds into flour which is used to prepare meals such as ugali, doughnuts and porridge.

Kabizi Yard is a sleepy hamlet about 10 kilometres from Jinja Njeru town on the newly tarmacked Buikwe-Katosi route in Nyenga Sub-county. 
The area is mainly known for artisan mining practised by scores of young men and women. Farming is another vibrant activity here, but not preferred by many young people. Christopher Kkonde is among the few who have taken to farming and his 15-acre farm hosts cassavas, and other crops such as maize, eggplants, soy beans and sweet potatoes. 

Cassava farming 


Cassava is one of his most profitable crops as he and a group of others add value to the produce. The crop sits on two acres and he harvests more than 100 100 kilogramme bags of dried cassava, with a kilogramme (three tubers) going for Shs30,500.
“Some traders from Jinja come to buy the tubers fresh from the farm. They sell to people who boil and eat,” says Kkonde.

Value addition 

The farmer further makes flour from cassava for more income. 
“I hire a grinding machine from our association. I then sell the flour at Shs1,500 per kilogramme,” says Kkonde.
He slices the harvested tubers into smaller parts of, say, 5cm each, dries for two to three weeks and, thereafter, grinds into flour which is used to prepare meals such as cassava ugali, doughnuts and porridge.

It can be used to make crisps, Bagiya snack and biscuits too.
Scores of farmers in the region shy away from growing cassava because it takes long to mature, but for Kkonde, the crop brings good fortune.
“I grow cassava and forget it for eight months as I concentrate on other crops. Cassava is rarely attacked by pests too,” he says.
According to Kkonde, cassava requires a well-prepared land and good seeds. A lot of weeding should be done at the initial stages of planting and the crop is drought-resistant.

Invest in quality seeds


The farmer grows cuttings from the stems of recently harvested plants. “I cut 8 inches from the bottom of the stem then slice 10-inch cuttings. I then plant the cuttings every 3 feet in rows that are 3 feet apart. If the soil is dry, the cuttings are planted at 45-degree angle. If the soil is wet, they are planted vertically,” he says.
To harvest, the stem is cut, leaving a stub as a handle to pull the cassava roots out of the ground. 

Challenge 


His major challenge is the short post-harvest shelf-life of the freshly harvested cassava. Cassava does well in well-drained sandy loam soils with a pH of between 5.5 to 6.5. It thrives in a temperature of between 250C to 320C and rainfall of between 1,000-1,500mm. However, the crop can survive in dry conditions making it suitable for arid and semi-arid areas.


To defeat the deadly cassava brown streak mosaic disease, the farmer says one should invest in quality seeds.
“When I was beginning, I used Shs50,000 to buy the improved cassava variety nodes. This variety matures in eight months and has a root yield of 25 tonnes per acre,” he says. By Fred Muzaale, Daily Monitor

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