Turkey blocked entry of 1.25m illegal immigrants in 3 years

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on Friday that his country had blocked the entry of 1.25 million illegal immigrants over the past three years, Anadolu Agency reported. Speaking to Al Jazeera Mubasher, Soylu shared that Ankara had caught 400,000 Afghans since 2016, noting that 151,000 were returned to their country by air. He stated that 80,000 received international protection and stayed in Turkey, another 20,000 obtained a residency permit, while the rest left the country illegally. Soylu assured the Turks that there would not be a new immigration wave from Afghanistan towards Turkey, noting that his country is closely following up on illegal immigration and is working hard to confront it. According to Anadolu Agency, the minister confirmed that about eight million refugees reside in the lands around Turkey, including 3.8 million in Idlib, 600,000 in Afrin and 1.2 million in the area of the Euphrates Shield in the north of Syria. He stressed that his country has adequate resources to control illegal immigration along its borders, adding that 175 kilometres of the border wall between Turkey and Iran have been completed.

Source: Middle East Monitor

Social care tax rise: Boris Johnson wins Commons vote

MPs have voted 319 to 248 for a 1.25 percentage point rise in National Insurance for workers and employers to help fund health and social care.

Boris Johnson hopes the tax increase, which breaks a Conservative manifesto pledge, will raise £12bn a year.

The prime minister said his plan would deal with "catastrophic costs" faced by those who need care.

But Labour raised concerns that people could still have to sell their home in order to pay for the help they need.

During a House of Commons debate, some Conservative MPs also raised objections to the proposals.

Former minister Steve Baker called on his party to "rediscover what it stands for" rather than "every time there is a squeeze on the public finances, coming back for higher taxes".

Opposition MPs voted against the rise but the government, which has a majority of 80, comfortably won the vote.

National insurance rise: MPs clash over plans to raise taxes to ‘highest level since war’

Health and care proposals

Politicians have long agreed on the need to reform England's social care system, which helps older and working-age people with high care needs to carry out tasks such as washing, dressing, eating and taking medication.

The key proposals of the new plan are:

• People will no longer pay more than £86,000 in care costs - not including food and accommodation - over their lifetime, from October 2023

• Once people have reached this cap, ongoing costs for personal care will be paid for by local authorities

• Those with between £20,000 and £100,000 in assets will get means-tested help towards costs from their local council

• Those with less than £20,000 will not have to pay towards care costs from their assets at all, but might have to contribute from their income

• The tax will be raised through a 1.25 percentage point rise in National Insurance - which working people and their employers pay - from next April

• Income from share dividends - earned by those who own shares in companies - will also see a 1.25% tax rate increase

• The NI rise will cost £255 a year for someone earning £30,000, and £505 a year for someone on £50,000, the government says

Currently workers pay 12% National Insurance on earnings between £9,564 and £50,268. However, anything earned above this amount attracts a rate of just 2%.

Mr Johnson has said the majority of the £36bn fund raised by the tax rise will go towards catching up on the backlog in the NHS created by Covid.

A smaller portion of the money - £5.4bn over the next three years - will also go towards changes to the social care system, with more promised after that.

The UK-wide tax will be focused on funding health and social care in England, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also receive an additional £2.2bn to spend on their services.

From 2023, the increase in National Insurance will become a separate levy, while the National Insurance rates will return to their previous level.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said that under Mr Johnson's plan "someone with a house worth £186,000 would still have to pay £86,000 even with this cap - and that's before living costs of going into a care home."

"How does the chancellor suggest they pay those fees without selling their home?" she asked.

Along with Labour, the SNP also voted against the government's proposals, with its Westminster leader Ian Blackford accusing the Conservatives of "taxing Scottish workers twice" and "forcing them to pay the bill for social care in England as well as at home in Scotland".

And Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the prime minister had failed to come up with a plan to tackle care staff vacancies or help unpaid family carers.

Conservative MP Jake Berry was among the critical voices from the government's own backbench, warning ministers that "throwing other people's money down a bottomless pit doesn't become a good idea if you put the NHS logo next to it".

Mr Johnson sought to reassure his own MPs ahead of the vote, telling a meeting of backbenchers: "We should never forget we are the party of low taxation."

Source: BBC

Kim orders tougher virus steps after N. Korea shuns vaccines

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered officials to wage a tougher epidemic prevention campaign in “our style” after he turned down some foreign COVID-19 vaccines offered via the U.N.-backed immunization program.

During a Politburo meeting Thursday, Kim said officials must “bear in mind that tightening epidemic prevention is the task of paramount importance which must not be loosened even a moment,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.

While stressing the need for material and technical means of virus prevention and increasing health workers' qualifications, Kim also called for “further rounding off our style epidemic prevention system,” KCNA said.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during a Politburo meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021

Kim previously called for North Koreans to brace for prolonged COVID-19 restrictions, indicating the nation's borders would stay closed despite worsening economic and food conditions. Since the start of the pandemic, North Korea has used tough quarantines and border closures to prevent outbreaks, though its claim to be entirely virus-free is widely doubted.

On Tuesday, UNICEF, which procures and delivers vaccines on behalf of the COVAX distribution program, said North Korea proposed its allotment of about 3 million Sinovac shots be sent to severely affected countries instead. North Korea was also slated to receive AstraZeneca shots through COVAX, but their delivery has been delayed.

According to UNICEF, North Korea’s health ministry still said it would continue to communicate with COVAX over future vaccines.

Some experts believe North Korea may want other vaccines, while questioning the effectiveness of Sinovac and the rare blood clots seen in some recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The previously allocated 1.9 million AstraZeneca doses would be enough to vaccinate 950,000 people — only about 7.3% of the North’s 26 million people — meaning North Korea would still need much more quantities of vaccine to inoculate its population.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, said North Korea is likely angling to receive more effective jabs from COVAX and then strategically allocate them domestically.

“Pyongyang appears to have issues with COVAX involving legal responsibility and distribution reporting requirements. So it might procure vaccines from China to deliver to border regions and soldiers while allocating COVAX shots to less sensitive populations,” Easley said.

“The Kim regime likely wants the most safe and effective vaccine for the elite, but administering Pfizer would require upgraded cold chain capability in Pyongyang and at least discreet discussions with the United States. The Johnson & Johnson option could also be useful to North Korea given that vaccine’s portability and one-shot regimen," he said.

In a recent U.N. report on the North’s human rights situation, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asked North Korea to “take all necessary measures, including through international cooperation and assistance, to provide access to COVID-19 vaccines for all persons, without discrimination.”

He also asked North Korea to form a plan to enable diplomats and aid workers to return to the North and revive humanitarian aid distribution systems as soon as possible in conjunction with its COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

After their meeting in Seoul last month, Sung Kim, the top U.S. diplomat on North Korea affairs, and his South Korean counterpart Noh Kyu-duk told reporters that they discussed humanitarian cooperation with North Korea in providing anti-virus resources, sanitation and safe water.

Source: Yahoo