Daily Archives: August 13, 2017

Malcolm Turnbull and Barack Obama, whose administration pressed the Australian government to change its policy toward asylum seekers. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

The Obama administration urged Australia to change its policy of offshore detention of refugees while agreeing to accept up to 1,200 people to relieve their suffering, a former senior US official has said.

The former US deputy secretary of state Heather Higginbottom, who negotiated the deal designed to take refugees from offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru, makes the revelation in a Time magazine article.

Higginbottom penned the article to address the leak of the full transcript of the phone conversation between US president, Donald Trump, and the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, about the deal.

In the January phone call Turnbull persuaded Trump to honour the Obama-era agreement, despite protestations from the president it was a stupid deal that would kill him politically. Turnbull also falsely claimed that people held in Australias offshore detention centres were economic refugees.

Higginbottom said the refugees were people who risked their lives on makeshift boats to flee conflict and the lack of access to basic means of survival but were turned back by an Australian government that refuses asylum seekers who arrive by sea.

While the last administration strongly pressed the Australian government to change its policy toward asylum seekers, we also sought to immediately relieve the suffering of these refugees and agreed to resettle up to 1,200 after they went through the US governments rigorous refugee screening processes, she said.

Higginbottom, who is now the chief operating officer of the aid organisation Care, singled out the policy of detention as the aspect of Australias policy rejected by the Obama administration.

Higginbottom lamented that coverage of the Turnbull-Trump phone call had focused on personalities and not that the wellbeing of 2,000 actual human beings hangs in the balance.

The United Nations has called Australias policy of offshore detention of asylum seekers unjustifiably punitive and unlawful, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

In the leaked phone call, Turnbull told Trump that Australia had taken a very strong line on national security and border protection and said that he, Jared Kushner and a White House immigration adviser had reflected on how our policies have helped to inform your approach ... We are very much of the same mind.

Turnbull noted that Trump, who has attempted to ban immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries, prioritised minorities in his executive order and linked it to the fact 90% of the 12,000 refugees Australia had accepted from Syria were Christians.

Turnbull explained that Australia turned back boats at sea and sent asylum seekers to offshore detention not because they are bad people but rather to prevent people-smugglers of a product.

He said people who came by boat would not be let in even if they were a Nobel prize-winning genius, which prompted Trump to say that is a good idea.

We should do that too, he said. You are worse than I am.

Turnbull referred to a speech he gave to the UN in September claiming that Australias harsh treatment of refugees was necessary to control its borders and maintain support for its regular migration intake.

Read the original here:

Obama administration urged Australia to change offshore detention refugee policy - The Guardian

The newest tropical depression or storm will attempt to take shape offshore of the southeastern United States in the coming day or two.

A depression may form as a tropical low, dubbed 99L, churns northeast of the Bahamas this weekend, and then a few hundred miles off the southeastern U.S. coast on Monday.

When clusters of thunderstorms have a chance to become a tropical depression or storm, they are assigned a number between 90 and 99. The L designation refers to a system under investigation in the Atlantic.

Ninety-nine L has become better organized since Friday, heightening the concern for a depression or storm to develop. The next tropical storm in the Atlantic will acquire the name Gert.

Even if strengthening takes place, chances are low for 99L to rapidly intensify and become a hurricane.

The most likely future track for 99L keeps it over the open waters of the Atlantic, in between the southeastern U.S. and Bermuda.

Even if 99L attempts to graze the Outer Banks of North Carolina with rain later on Monday, it is expected to get swept off to the northeast and absorbed by a non-tropical system on Tuesday.

The favored offshore track would limit the hazards of 99L to cruise and shipping interests, as well as beachgoers.

Rough seas will get churned up over the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Swimmers at the southeastern U.S. beaches, the eastern coast of the Bahamas and Bermuda may face an increased risk for rip currents.

Regardless of 99L remaining offshore, the non-tropical system set to whisk it away from the U.S. will first enhance the risk for flash flooding in the southeastern U.S. into early next week.

Seas will also be churned up across most of the East Coast this weekend.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, the system that attempted to brew just east of Florida has lost its chance to develop, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.

A new tropical wave that emerged off the western coast of Africa will be the next feature to be monitored by AccuWeather meteorologists.

If it can overcome the dry air that has plagued most systems so far this season, it may have an opportunity to develop as it crosses the open waters of the eastern and central Atlantic next week.

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Read more from the original source:

New tropical depression may soon form offshore of US Southeast ... - Fox News

Ejiofor Alike

Indications have emerged that a letter written by a human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, when he was the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Corporation (NNPC), exposed Nigerias huge losses in the Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) signed with the international oil companies (IOCs) on the deep offshore oil fields.

THISDAY had reported that the country lost close to $60 billion to the non-enforcement of the terms of the PSCs signed between the federal government and the IOCs in 1993, quoting the minister, who had disclosed this at the 2017 conference of the Nigerian Council of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) held recently in Lagos.

The federal government had in 1993, awarded some oil blocks in the deep water to the IOCs under PSCs, which provide that the royalties to be paid by the IOCs would depend on the depth of the water where oil is found.

The 1993 PSC also provides that royalties paid by the IOCs on oil blocks located in deep water should be reviewed upward when crude oil price exceeds $20 per barrel.

Nigeria lost out in the PSCs as oil was discovered in water depths above 1,000 metres in all the five deep-water oilfields that came on stream between 2005 and 2010, as the contracts stipulate that royalty is zero in water depths exceeding 1,000 metres.

Though the terms of the PSC also stipulate that the agreements would be reviewed when oil price exceeded $20 per barrel, the federal government did not enforce this provision.

In a letter dated August 5, 2015 written by Falana to Kachikwu when he was the group managing director of the NNPC, the constitutional lawyer had called on the National Assembly to repeal the provision of the PSCs, which stipulates that royalty on crude oil production in water depths exceeding 1,000 metres is zero.

Falanas letter titled Re: Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, which was obtained by THISDAY, also recalled how the military administration of Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1999 enacted the Deep Offshore and Inland Sharing Contracts Act Decree in order to give effect to certain fiscal incentives for the oil and gas companies operating in the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin under production sharing contracts between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other companies holding oil prospective licences or mining licences and various petroleum exploration and production companies. Falana noted that by virtue of section 5 of the Act, the payment of royalty in respect of the Deep Offshore production sharing contracts shall range from 4 to 12 per cent while no royalty shall be paid whatsoever in areas in excess of 1000 metres depth.

According to him, since a large quantity of the oil and gas produced by Nigeria is located beyond 1000 metres depth, the multinational oil companies have taken advantage of the Act to avoid the payment of royalties to the Federation Account.

Thus, the fiscal incentives given to the oil companies have led to the loss of several billions of dollars by the Federal Government. As the existence of the obnoxious law can no longer be justified the National Assembly ought to repeal or amend it by taking advantage of section 16 thereof which provides for a review after a period of fifteen years from the commencement and every five years thereafter, Falana said.

In view of the fact that the 15-year period of non-payment of royalty expired last year, for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation collect royalties from the oil companies, the National Assembly should amend section 5 of the Act by deleting the section which provides for zero per cent royalty in areas of 1000 metres.

If the National Assembly fails to discharge its constitutional duty in the circumstance we shall not hesitate to file an application for mandamus at the Federal High Court with a view to ensuring compliance with the law forthwith, Falana added.

THISDAYs investigation revealed that on receipt of the letter, Kachikwu was said to have directed that the NNPCs Secretary/Legal adviser, Mr. Chidi Momah should discuss with constitutional lawyer on the matter.

Kachikwu was also said to have spoken totally in agreement with the position of Falana and also directed that a legal opinion be sought internally to enable him respond to the issue.

THISDAY could not confirm if Falana had any discussion with the NNPCs Secretary/Legal Adviser on the matter.

Original post:

How Falana's Letter to Kachikwu Exposed Nigeria's Huge Losses in Deep Offshore PSCs - THISDAY Newspapers