Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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Greece hides human rights abuses under the cover of coronavirus
While the Greek government attempts to justify the mass detention of refugees without the prospect of asylum as a response to the pandemic, human rights groups and lawyers battle to expose the truth, writes BETHANY RIELLY
Moria camp on Lesbos, where 20,000 people are crammed into a facility with a capacity of 3,500
[Ahmad Rezai (ReFOCUS Media Labs photographer)]
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
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NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
SINCE the Greek government suspended the right to claim asylum on March 1, all new arrivals have been rounded up, detained and taken to unpublicised facilities. Rights groups have described conditions where refugees have been detained as akin to “concentration camps,” and the newly established centres “unacceptable.”
Strict curfews on the sprawling camps on the Aegean islands have effectively imprisoned thousands in intolerable conditions with few measures in place to prevent the inevitable spread of the virus.
Asylum suspension and mass detention
“There’s thousands of people who’ve arrived in Greece since March 1 who we have almost no contact with,” Lorraine Leete, a co-ordinator of advocacy group Legal Centre Lesbos tells me.
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