UK deports record number of Nigerians and Ghanaians in single flight
A record number of Nigerians and Ghanaians were deported to their home countries on one flight, with 44 forcibly removed on Friday, the Home Office has confirmed.
The news came as it emerged that any asylum seekers who arrive in Diego Garcia before a treaty between the UK and Mauritius to hand back the Chagos Islands is finalised will be sent to Saint Helena, a British territory in the Atlantic Ocean described as one of the most remote places on Earth.
The Chagos Islands deal is expected to be signed next year. About 60 Tamils who have been stranded on Diego Garcia since 2021 and who have mounted a legal challenge claiming they have been unlawfully detained on the island will not be included in the Saint Helena deal. Judgment in their unlawful detention claim is expected soon.
Numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Diego Garcia since 2021 are in the hundreds, not comparable to the tens of thousands crossing the Channel in small boats from northern France to the UK in recent years.
The Home Office told the Guardian on Friday evening that the Nigeria and Ghana deportations were part of a “major surge” in immigration enforcement and returns.
Since Labour came to power in July, 3,600 people have been returned to various countries, including about 200 to Brazil and 46 on a flight to Vietnam and Timor-Leste. There are also regular deportation flights to Albania, Lithuania and Romania.
Deportation flights to Nigeria and Ghana are relatively rare, with just four recorded since 2020, according to data released under freedom of information rules. The previous flights had far fewer people onboard, with six, seven, 16 and 21 respectively. Friday’s flight had more than double that number removed on a single flight.
The Guardian spoke to four Nigerians while they were held at Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick before their deportation. One man due to fly tried to kill himself. His cellmate, who witnessed the attempt, said he was “very traumatised” by what he had seen.
A second man said: “I’ve been in the UK for 15 years as an asylum seeker. I have no criminal record but the Home Office has refused my claim.”
A third man said he had been groomed into exploitation as a child and had torture scars on his body. “I told the Home Office I was a victim of trafficking. They rejected my claim.”
A fourth said he had desperately searched for a solicitor to challenge his removal directions, but had been unable to find anyone to represent him.
Fizza Qureshi, the chief executive of Migrants’ Rights Network, who was in contact with some of the people on the Nigeria/Ghana deportation flight before they left the UK, said: “We are extremely shocked at the cruelty of these deportations, especially with the speed, secrecy and the lack of access to legal support. In the words of one detainee we spoke to before he was put on the flight: ‘The Home Office is playing politics with people’s lives. We have not done anything wrong other than cry for help.’”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have already begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK and ensure the rules are respected and enforced, with over 3,600 returned in the first two months of the new government.”
More than 600 people crossed the Channel in small boats on Friday, according to Home Office figures.
A total of 647 people made the crossing in 10 boats, pushing the total for the year above 28,000.
Friday’s crossings came after French authorities announced the death of a baby off the coast of Wissant in the Pas-de-Calais region on Thursday evenin
Elon Musk celebrates Starlink's new milestone in Kenya
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has publicly celebrated the expansion of Starlink in Kenya, marking a milestone for the satellite internet service in the country.
Musk took to X to react to news reports about Nairobi City County’s implementation of Starlink as a backup internet link for its Customer Service Centre.
“Starlink in Nairobi!” Musk tweeted, applauding the integration of the service into the county’s ICT infrastructure.
The Nairobi City County Government recently announced that it had integrated Starlink satellite technology to enhance service delivery for residents.
This upgrade is particularly aimed at improving the reliability of the Nairobi Pay system, which is critical to the county’s e-government services.
Tiras Njoroge, Chief Officer of ICT Infrastructure, highlighted the importance of this integration, stating, “We are excited to announce the integration of Starlink satellite technology into our Customer Service Centre, aimed at enhancing and improving service delivery to the residents of Nairobi.”
According to Truphena Ogonda, the Nairobi City County Director of ICT Infrastructure, the system’s redundancy is expected to improve the county’s capacity to manage higher data loads, ensuring uninterrupted service delivery.
Kim Jong Un executes 30 officials over floods in North Korea that killed 4,000
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered up to 30 officials to be executed over their alleged failure to prevent massive flooding and landslides in the summer that resulted in the deaths of some 4,000 people, according to South Korean media.
An official under Kim’s regime said between 20 and 30 leaders in North Korea had been charged with corruption and dereliction of duty, with the state sentencing them to capital punishment, TV Chosun reported.
“It has been determined that 20 to 30 cadres in the flood-stricken area were executed at the same time late last month,” the official told the outlet.
Reports of the executions were not immediately verified by independent outlets.
The North Korean Central News Agency previously reported that Kim ordered authorities to strictly punish the officials after catastrophic flooding hit Chagang province in July, claiming about 4,000 lives and displacing more than 15,000 people.
The officials who were executed were not identified, but the report noted that Kang Bong-hoon, the Chagang province provincial party committee secretary since 2019, was among the leaders dismissed by Kim in an emergency meeting during the flooding disaster.
Following the meeting with Kim, former North Korean diplomat Lee Il-gyu told TV Chosun that it was clear that officials in the province were “so anxious that they don’t know when their necks will fall off.”
Burkina Faso issues new passports without West African bloc’s logo
Burkina Faso has launched new biometric passports without the logo of West Africa’s main political and economic bloc on their cover, further signalling its determination to withdraw from the regional alliance after military leaders took power in a coup.
Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, three neighboring states now led by military juntas, jointly announced in January they would leave the 15-member Economic Community of West African States, which has since sought to persuade the three to reconsider their decision
“On this passport, there’s no ECOWAS logo, and no mention of ECOWAS either. Since January, Burkina Faso has decided to withdraw from this body, and this is just a realisation of the action already taken by Burkina Faso,” security minister Mahamadou Sana told reporters at the launch on Tuesday.
ECOWAS has warned that the three countries’ withdrawal would undermine the freedom of movement and common market of the 400 million people living in the 50-year-old bloc.
Their departure comes as their armies battle groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, whose insurgencies have destabilised West Africa’s central Sahel region over the past decade and threaten to spill over into coastal states.
Since their militaries seized power in a series of coups from 2020-2-23, the three countries have formed a three-way defence and cooperation pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States and severed long-standing military and diplomatic ties with Western powers, seeking instead closer relations with Russia.
At least 129 killed during mass prison break attempt in Democratic Republic of Congo
Prisoners tried to break out en masse from the Makala Central Prison in the capital, Kinshasa, at around 2 a.m. local time (9 p.m. ET) on Monday, Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani Lukoo Bihango told reporters.
“The provisional human toll stands at 129 dead including 24 by gunshot after warning. The others died by jostling, suffocation and some women were raped,” Bihango said. He added that 59 people were receiving medical care.
One Kinshasa resident, Daddi Soso, told Agence France-Presse that gunfire rang out for several hours during the incident and that he later saw security vehicles removing bodies from the scene.
Extensive damage to several prison buildings was also seen in interior ministry video. A large hole is shown in one exterior wall, where bricks appear to have been removed, while the walls of other buildings are black and burnt out.
Video filmed inside the prison showed several ransacked rooms with debris, burnt office furniture and papers strewn across the floor.
Several prison buildings including offices, the registry, the infirmary and food depots were destroyed by fires during the attempted prison break, the minister told the press conference.
Interior minister Bihango convened a crisis meeting of the country’s defense and security services on Tuesday after receiving instructions from the country’s “senior hierarchy.”
The government is relieved “by the restored calm,” he said, adding that investigations into the incident are ongoing.
More than 12,000 inmates, mostly pretrial detainees, were held in the Makala prison before the attempted jailbreak even though the facility could only contain 1,500 people, according to a recent report by Amnesty International which highlighted the “appalling” detention conditions at the facility.
In a statement on social media Monday, Justice Minister Constant Mutamba condemned the prison break attempt as a “pre-meditated act of sabotage.”
Mutamba barred public prosecutors from transferring any inmates to Makala prison “until further notice” as part of a series of measures he announced to tackle overcrowding at the country’s prisons.
Uganda’s main opposition leader Bobi Wine ‘seriously injured’ during police confrontation, his party says
Uganda’s main opposition leader Bobi Wine has been “seriously injured” in a confrontation with police, his party the National Unity Platform (NUP) said Tuesday.
The NUP said in a post on social media that Wine was shot in the leg in an attempt on his life, just outside the capital Kampala. Local police said however that the injury was caused when the popstar-turned-politician “stumbled while getting into a vehicle.”
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, was the main opposition frontrunner in the presidential elections in January 2021 and lost to President Yoweri Museveni. Museveni claimed at the time that he had been re-elected for a sixth term despite widespread allegations of fraud and intimidation.
The NUP said in a post on ‘X’ that Wine was in Bulindo to meet a lawyer when “the police and military … surrounded our vehicles and started firing live bullets, teargas canisters and other projectiles.”
According to the NUP, Wine “was clearly targeted” and shot in the leg.
Images posted on his own ‘X’ account show Wine bleeding and lying in a hospital bed, with a bleeding injury on his shin. A statement on his account said he is being treated by doctors after the shooting
Local police said in a statement that they intervened after Wine’s group blocked the road without permission. Despite being warned not to organize an event in the road, Wine “insisted on proceeding and closing the road, leading to police intervention to prevent the procession,” the police statement
Maduro decrees Christmas will start in October as Venezuela cracks down on dissent
Christmas will start next month in Venezuela, authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro has decreed – even as thousands of Venezuelans look set to pass the holidays behind bars amid his government’s crackdown on political unrest.
Maduro’s decree – not the first of its kind, but the earliest – comes as Venezuela grapples with the fallout from July’s presidential election, which saw Maduro claim a third term despite global skepticism and outcry from the country’s opposition movement.
“September smells like Christmas!” Maduro said in his weekly television show on Monday, to the apparent delight of his audience.
“This year and to honor you all, to thank you all, I am going to decree the beginning of Christmas on October 1. Christmas arrived for everyone, in peace, joy and security!” he said.
Just a few hours before Maduro’s announcement, Venezuelan authorities published an arrest warrant for his main rival, opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, accusing him of “crimes associated with terrorism.” Gonzalez has failed to respond to three summons regarding an investigation into an opposition website that posted results from the contested vote, the Venezuela Prosecutor’s Office said.
Maduro has been under pressure at home and abroad since claiming victory. The opposition coalition backing Gonzalez insists the presidential vote was stolen, publishing online vote tally sheets, which experts say indicate Maduro actually lost the presidency by a significant margin.
Protests over the vote in the streets of Venezuela have been fiercely repressed. Some 2,400 people have been arrested, and many others are now fleeing the country. Some are hiding in their homes, telling CNN they are afraid to step foot outside due to intimidation by government supporters.
Maduro, despite his jollity on Monday, has been at the forefront of the crackdown, ordering the opening of two new prisons to accommodate detained protesters and openly calling for everyone in the streets to be imprisoned
Dozens killed in Russian strike on military educational facility in central Ukraine
A Russian strike against a military educational facility in central Ukraine killed 51 people and injured more than 200 others, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office, in one of the deadliest single attacks since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said preliminary information indicated two ballistic missiles hit the facility in the city of Poltava and a nearby hospital on Tuesday morning.
“We say again and again to everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terror: air defense systems and missiles are needed in Ukraine, not somewhere in a warehouse,” Zelensky said in a statement.
The head of the Poltava region military administration, Filip Pronin, announced the latest death toll on Telegram, adding that that rescue crews continue to clear and search through the debris at the site. Pronin said authorities believe up to 18 more people may be under the rubble.
At least 10 residential buildings were also damaged in Poltava, he said.
Moscow has not commented on the attack, but a well-known Russian military blogger Vladimir Rogov reported earlier on Tuesday that Russia struck a military school in Poltava.
Speaking about the attack, President Zelensky repeated his call on Ukraine’s Western allies to supply Kyiv with more air defenses and lift restrictions on his country’s military using their weapons to strike inside Russia.
“Long-range strikes that can protect against Russian terror are needed now, not later. Every day of delay is, unfortunately, the death of people,” he added.
2024 Hajj: Six Ghanaians dead as intense heat wave kills over 1000 in Saudi Arabia
Six Ghanaian nationals have been reported dead in Mecca due to a heat wave that swept through Saudi Arabia.
This tragic development adds to the two deaths reported on June 13, raising the death toll to eight so far.
Abdul Rahman Alhassan Gomba, the Spokesperson of the Hajj Board, confirmed this to Umaru Sanda on Eyewitness News.He noted that the pilgrims, who were staying in Madina as part of their religious journey, were subjected to extreme temperatures exceeding 41 degrees Celsius.
In response to the scorching heat, Saudi authorities mandated that all pilgrims remain within their tents during the peak heat hours between noon and 4 p.m. local time.
The situation worsened when reports emerged of fatalities among the pilgrims, initially involving some Georgian nationals. It was later revealed that Ghanaians were also among the victims of the heat wave.
More than 1,000 people have now died during the Hajj pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, according to Sky News.
“The temperature was so high—above 41 degrees Celsius,” A.R Gomda said, adding, “They asked the authorities to confine us to our camps between noon and 4 p.m. Saudi time. Later, we heard that some Georgians lost their lives in town. At the time, we didn’t even know that some Ghanaians were also going to lose their lives under the conditions said to be related to the heat waves that swept across Saudi Arabia on the day.
“I had the opportunity to speak with an official at the time word spread around the Ghanaian camp that 13 of our nationals had lost their lives. These people were persons who did not travel via the Hajj Board. These were people suspected of having travelled with a non-Hajj visa.
He continued: “The forensic centre at the morgue, where the corpses are kept before being buried, had only managed to get six nationals from Ghana. When I asked him how they were doing it, they told me they were using fingerprints, and it was a laborious task.
“So, it will take days before the number of Ghanaians who died as a result of the heat wave will be established. Currently, we can say six people died during the heat wave, even though an autopsy report is not yet out regarding the subject.”
Former UK ambassador to Ghana ‘fired’ after pointing gun at staff
A former UK ambassador to Ghana, currently serving as the UK’s High Commissioner to Mexico, Jon Benjamin, has reportedly left his post after pointing an assault rifle at a local member of the embassy staff.
The that Jon Benjamin was on an official trip to Durango and Sinaloa, two states with strong organised crime groups, when he looked down the gun’s sights at a colleague, who gestures uncomfortably in the five-second clip.
The firearm presumably belonged to the security detail accompanying the diplomat, who was sacked soon after the incident in April,the Guardian reported.
The video was released by an anonymous account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“In a context of daily killings in Mexico by drug dealers, he dares to joke,” the caption reads.
Benjamin became UK ambassador to Mexico in 2021, having previously held posts in Chile, Turkey, Ghana, Indonesia and the US over a career of almost four decades.
Meanwhile, according to the Guardian, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We are aware of this incident and have taken appropriate action. Where internal issues do arise, the FCDO has robust HR processes to address them,” FCDO told the Financial Times.
However, on the gov.uk website, Mr Benjamin is credited as having served as ambassador to Mexico “between 2021 and 2024”.
Mexico has seen more than 30,000 homicides a year for the last six years – one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America—as organised crime groups fight to control territory and businesses across the country.
Before his posting in Mexico, Mr Benjamin served as British ambassador to Chile from 2009 to 2014 and ambassador to Ghana between 2014 and 2016.
According to the London-based global broadcaster, Mr Benjamin and FCDO have yet to respond to its request for comments.
Credit: BBC/Guardian
Girls freed from Boko Haram in Nigeria can face further detention and abuse by military, Amnesty report finds
Girls and young women freed from Boko Haram terrorists in northeast Nigeria continue to suffer severe hardships, including unlawful military detention, neglect, and inadequate support to start over, according to a new Amnesty International report.
While protracted military detention has decreased recently, the report released Monday noted that many women still experienced mistreatment.
Titled, “‘Help us build our lives’: Girl Survivors of Boko Haram and Military Abuses in Northeast Nigeria,” it probes how girls and young women have been abducted, forced into marriage, and subjected to sexual violence by Boko Haram.
Survivors recounted giving birth to children fathered by Boko Haram fighters, often when they were still minors themselves. One young woman revealed that she twice witnessed Boko Haram members execute women who had taken contraceptive pills.
Based on 126 interviews with women and girls aged between 12 and 48 years old, including 82 who survived being abused while children, the report details the atrocities carried out by Boko Haram. The interviews were conducted between 2019 and 2024 in northeast Nigeria, with the majority undertaken in the past year.
Amnesty has contacted several global partners about its findings, including the office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, urging it to investigate “crimes under international law committed by all parties during the conflict in north-east Nigeria.”
Amnesty researchers say they spoke to nearly 50 girls and young women who escaped Boko Haram and found their way to government-held territory, risking their lives and those of their children in the process.
However, their horrific experiences at the hands of their captors were further compounded by the hardship they faced once they regained their freedom.
“These girls, many of whom are now young women, had their childhood stolen from them and suffered a litany of war crimes and other human rights abuses. They are now showing remarkable bravery as they seek to take control of their future,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s regional director for West and Central Africa.
Aircraft carrying Malawi vice president goes missing
According to a statement from the president’s office, the Malawi Defense Force aircraft “went off the radar” after departing from the nation’s capital, Lilongwe, on Monday, June 10, 2024.
Reports stated that the president ordered a search and rescue operation when aviation officials lost contact with the aircraft.
It was scheduled to land at Mzuzu International Airport, in the northern region of the country, shortly after 10:00 local time (11:00 BST).
Upon learning of the incident, Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera cancelled his planned flight to the Bahamas.
Capital Hill, Lilongwe – The Office of the President and Cabinet wishes to inform the general public that the Malawi Defense Force Aircraft that left Lilongwe today, Monday 10th June 2024 at 09:17
Hours, carrying the Vice President, the Right Honourable Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima, and nine others, failed to make its scheduled landing at Mzuzu International Airport at 10:02.
All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the Aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far. As such, the Commander of the Malawi Defense Force, General Valentino Phiri, has since informed His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera of the incident and the President has since canceled his scheduled departure for the Bahamas and ordered all regional and national agencies to conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft.
Bill Gates is breaking ground on a nuclear power plant in Wyoming
Bill Gates and his energy company are starting construction at their Wyoming site for a next-generation nuclear power plant he believes will “revolutionize” how power is generated.
Gates was in the tiny community of Kemmerer Monday to break ground on the project. The co-founder of Microsoft is chairman of TerraPower. The company applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March for a construction permit for an advanced nuclear reactor that uses sodium, not water, for cooling. If approved, it would operate as a commercial nuclear power plant.
The site is adjacent to PacifiCorp’s Naughton Power Plant, which will stop burning coal in 2026 and natural gas a decade later, the utility said. Nuclear reactors operate without emitting planet-warming greenhouse gases. PacifiCorp plans to get carbon-free power from the reactor and says it is weighing how much nuclear to include in its long-range planning.
The work begun Monday is aimed at having the site ready so TerraPower can build the reactor as quickly as possible if its permit is approved. Russia is at the forefront for developing sodium-cooled reactors.
Gates told the audience at the groundbreaking that they were “standing on what will soon be the bedrock of America’s energy future.”
“This is a big step toward safe, abundant, zero-carbon energy,” Gates said. “And it’s important for the future of this country that projects like this succeed.”
Advanced reactors typically use a coolant other than water and operate at lower pressures and higher temperatures. Such technology has been around for decades, but the United States has continued to build large, conventional water-cooled reactors as commercial power plants. The Wyoming project is the first time in about four decades that a company has tried to get an advanced reactor up and running as a commercial power plant in the United States, according to the NRC.
It’s time to move to advanced nuclear technology that uses the latest computer modeling and physics for a simpler plant design that’s cheaper, even safer and more efficient, said Chris Levesque, the company’s president and chief executive officer.
TerraPower’s Natrium reactor demonstration project is a sodium-cooled fast reactor design with a molten salt energy storage system.
“The industry’s character hasn’t been to innovate. It’s kind of been to repeat past performance, you know, not to move forward with new technology. And that was good for reliability,” Levesque said in an interview. “But the electricity demands we’re seeing in the coming decades, and also to correct the cost issues with today’s nuclear and nuclear energy, we at TerraPower and our founders really felt it’s time to innovate.”
A Georgia utility just finished the first two scratch-built American reactors in a generation at a cost of nearly $35 billion. The price tag for the expansion of Plant Vogtle from two of the traditional large reactors to four includes $11 billion in cost overruns.
Russia threatens Britain with retaliation if involvement in Ukraine war deepens
Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities and said it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons amid sharply rising tensions over comments by senior Western officials about possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine.
After summoning the British ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, Moscow warned that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.K.-supplied weapons could bring retaliatory strikes against British military facilities and equipment on Ukrainian soil or elsewhere. The remarks came on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to a fifth term in office and in a week when Moscow on Thursday will celebrate Victory Day, its most important secular holiday, marking its defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The drills are a response to “provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
It was the first time Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, although its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises. Tactical nuclear weapons include air bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions and are meant for use on a battlefield. They are less powerful than the strategic weapons — massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles anThe Russian announcement was a warning to Ukraine’s Western allies about becoming more deeply engaged in the 2-year-old war, where the Kremlin’s forces have gained an upper hand amid Ukraine’s shortage of manpower and weapons. Some of Ukraine’s Western partners have previously expressed concern that the conflict could spill beyond Ukraine into a war between NATO and Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron repeated last week that he doesn’t exclude sending troops to Ukraine, and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Kyiv’s forces will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Some other NATO countries providing weapons to Kyiv have balked at that possibility.d are intended to obliterate entire cities.
The Russian announcement stirred little reaction in Ukraine, where the spokesman for the Military Intelligence agency, Andrii Yusov, said on national television: “Nuclear blackmail is a usual practice of Putin’s regime; it does not constitute major news.”
Western officials have blamed Russia for threatening a wider war through provocative acts. NATO countries said last week they are deeply concerned by a campaign of hybrid activities on the military alliance’s soil, accusing Moscow of being behind them and saying they represent a security threat.
9 dead, 54 injured as wind causes stage collapse at Mexico election rally
Nine people were killed and a presidential candidate was briefly taken to hospital after a stage collapsed under heavy winds at a campaign rally in Mexico on Wednesday.
Candidate Jorge Álvarez Máynez said he was not injured in the incident, which happened during his campaign event in the northeastern city of San Pedro Garza García.
The governor of Mexico’s Nuevo Leon state said at least 54 people were injured and rescue operations were ongoing to save some of the people trapped under the collapsed stage.
Among the dead is one minor, Governor Samuel García Sepúlveda said in a post on X, adding that some of the injured are stable while others are undergoing surgery.
Footage taken in the aftermath of the accident shows a large number of emergency vehicles at the scene, their lights flashing in the darkness, as injured people are carried away. The area was cordoned off and guarded by heavily armed security personnel.
The weather conditions were very atypical: the rain didn’t last for even five minutes … it wasn’t even a storm, it was truly atypical what happened,” he said.The presidential candidate said an investigation into the incident would take place.
UK presses Ghana High Commission for £5 Million in unpaid London Congestion charges
The United Kingdom government is intensifying its efforts to recoup outstanding congestion charges, dating back two decades, from various countries, including Ghana and the United States.
Despite persistent diplomatic representations, a significant number of embassies in
London have staunchly refused to settle their dues, prompting the UK government to escalate the matter.
Plans are underway to bring the issue to the International Court of Justice, underscoring the gravity of the situation.
In response,the foreign office has reaffirmed its stance, emphasizing that diplomats are expected to adhere to local regulations, with no legal basis for exemptions.
However, echoing international law outlined in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the US Embassy in London contends that diplomatic missions are exempt from the congestion charge, a position supported by several other diplomatic entities.
Former Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab previously disclosed efforts to compel diplomatic missions to settle outstanding debts, encompassing congestion charges, parking fines, and business rates.
Transport for (TfL) sheds light on the staggering extent of unpaid charges, with diplomatic missions collectively owing over £143 million, underscoring a systemic challenge.
The Ghana High Commission emerges as one of the significant debtors, with an outstanding balance exceeding £5 million, contributing to the substantial financial burden on TfL.