| | | | | | | Hello. As more people with foreign passports trickle out of Gaza, we’re taking a look at how countries lobby for their citizens - some luckier than others. On another border, between Serbia and Hungary, Nick Thorpe reports on the surge of violence between smuggling gangs. Scroll down for some Italian cuisine - but not the one you’d expect. |
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| | | | | | Questions Answered | | Countries lobby for their citizens in Gaza | | | | A Palestinian holding a U.S. passport, waits for permission to leave Gaza. Credit: Reuters |
| | Hundreds of foreign passport holders have left Gaza for Egypt since Wednesday - a very small fraction of the two million people remaining in the Strip. At the heart of the issue is a list of people allowed to leave, but how it is compiled is unclear. There are, for instance, no Canadians on that list, while a number of citizens from other countries, including the US and the UK have crossed the border. | | | | James Landale, Diplomatic correspondent |
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| | What’s the issue? | | There were roughly 200 British nationals and their dependents in Gaza. Few were expected to cross on Thursday. In contrast, about 400 US citizens were on the list of those approved to leave. This has raised questions about what criteria Egypt and Israel are using to draw up that daily list. | | How are countries applying pressure? | | Diplomats from the more than 30 countries who have trapped nationals are lobbying hard to get them higher up the list. UK officials say “we continue to press at the most senior level for all British nationals to be able to cross as soon as is practically possible”. It seems that the vulnerable and those with medical needs are being given priority. | | What factors are at play? | | In this diplomatic competition, a superpower like the United States will have greater sway than smaller countries. There is also the sheer logistical confusion involved in such complex diplomacy, with so many countries trying to influence a queue in which not everyone can be at the front. | | | | • | Still trapped: The BBC’s Sam Cabral has spoken to Ramiz Younis, an American father anxiously waiting for his wife and two children to return - but his spouse, unlike their toddlers, is only a permanent resident of the US, not a citizen. Read their story. | | • | The latest: Four schools-turned-shelters in the Gaza Strip have been damaged in the past 24 hours, the UN said. Israel's military says it has 'completed encirclement of Gaza City'. Follow our live updates. |
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| AT THE SCENE | Subotica, Serbia | | Gun battles and car crashes plague Europe migrant route | | | | The Hungarian government has shared footage of guns being used at the southern border with Serbia. Credit: Hungarian government | | Lethal exchanges of gunfire between rival smuggling gangs have made the migrant route through the Western Balkans into the EU even more treacherous in recent months. And yet the number of arrivals keeps rising. | | | | Nick Thorpe, East and Central Europe correspondent |
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| "Sometimes the agents [his word for smugglers] are very cruel, very angry, and they beat us," said Sadar, a 33-year-old former Afghan army officer. "Other times they are kind, bring us food, and give us good accommodation." I met him near a collection of derelict buildings in the scrubland on the Serbian side of the Hungarian fence. He had just arrived by bus from Pirot on the Serbia-Bulgaria border, he said, after a gruelling 25-day forced march across Bulgaria. He had come from Istanbul, where he paid $10,000 (£8,250) for a through-ticket to Germany.
A video seen by the BBC in Subotica shows smugglers berating and beating terrified young Afghans who tried to cross the fence without paying them. Another video shows an earlier gun battle near Subotica. The arrival of automatic rifles and pistols from Kosovo has added a new element of risk. In one deadly incident in July last year, in the Makova Sedmica suburb of Subotica, a 16-year-old girl was killed and seven migrants injured in a gun battle, allegedly between Moroccan and Afghan gangs. |
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| | The big picture | | Chinese leader's hometown mourns his death | | | | A toddler lays flowers in Jiuzi. Credit: BBC |
| | National flags flew at half-mast across China on Thursday, as the country put Li Keqiang to rest. The former premier, sidelined by President Xi Jinping, remained a popular figure in the country. In Mr Li’s home city of Hefei, our China correspondent Stephen McDonell finds praiseful mourners and nervous officials ushering them away from the media. | | | | |
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| | | For your downtime | | The ‘Not Barbecue' | | How an Italian chef is redefining flame-fired cooking. | | |
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| | And finally... in Mexico | | People have been taking part in Día de los Muertos traditions, celebrated during the first days of November. Watch how Mexicans marked this "Day of the Dead", gathering around the tombs of their loved ones to bring them the treats and objects they loved while they were alive. |
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