At a meeting of the International Commission for Missing Persons in The Hague this week, Cyprus, Greece and Malta pledged to coordinate and beef up their efforts to trace nearly 18,500 migrants who have disappeared since 2014 while making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.

Italy — which has taken a hard line on migrants under its populist government and interior minister Matteo Salvini — did not sign up to that new joint statement due to what the ICMP described as internal government issues

The four countries are the main point of entry to Europe for many of the migrants fleeing the war in Syria and other regions.

Finding out what happened to those missing — whether they are eventually found alive or whether they have been confirmed dead and their remains found — provides crucial closure for families.

“We are starting a process that is extremely important,” Queen Noor of Jordan, one of the ICMP’s longest-serving commissioners, told AFP in an interview.

“Helping the families and communities that have lost their members in conflict can create a path to truth, justice and reconciliation — and where possible, accountability,” said the Jordanian royal.

Born out of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and set up in 1996 in Sarajevo by then US president Bill Clinton, the ICMP uses increasingly sophisticated DNA technology to trace missing persons.

It has already succeeded in identifying around 70 percent of the 40,000 people who went missing in the Balkans conflicts of the 1990s, including around 90 percent of the nearly 8,000 killed in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

But it is now turning its attention to one of the biggest human catastrophes of recent times — the migration crisis that has hit the Middle East, North Africa and Europe since 2014.

‘Give them hope’

The plan to better locate and identify missing migrants fleeing conflict and economic hardship in the Middle East and Africa was launched in Rome last year.

But this week’s meeting of the southern European states was key to pushing the process forward.

Top ICMP representatives nevertheless called for more to be done to help find the missing migrants, particularly those from Syria’s war where the fate is of an estimated 85,000 people is not known.

“What we are implicitly saying to states is that they have a responsibility to deal with this, but that it is also in their interest to deal with it,” former Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders told AFP.

The ICMP also wants to obtain permission from Syria’s neighbours to start mapping the thousands of refugees fleeing the bitter eight-year war — in a move that could one day help identify war crimes, Queen Noor said.

Collecting and having access to data about these refugees will make it easier in future to identify “where crimes may have occurred, where mass graves exist — and where families and relatives may be,” she said.

But the longer-term aim is to bring millions of displaced people back to their homes.

“I can see in a future that is hopefully not too far off that we can set in motion steps that will provide greater hope for many of the migrants and refugees to Europe.”

“To give them hope that they can return home,” she said.

The Chinese trawler sailed away after the incident Sunday near Reed Bank that sank the fishing boat, sparking outrage from Philippine authorities and media.

While President Rodrigo Duterte has largely set aside the once tense stand-off with China over the resource-rich waterway, many in the Philippines bristle at Beijing’s actions in the sea.

The Chinese embassy in Manila said the crew of trawler Yuemaobinyu 42212 “bumped into” the Philippine boat and then left due to safety fears.

“The Chinese captain tried to rescue the Filipino fisherman, but was afraid of being besieged by other Filipino fishing boats,” the statement said.

It went on to say the incident was not a “hit-and-run”, as some Philippine authorities had claimed, because the trawler “confirmed the fishermen from the Filipino boat were rescued”.

However, the 22 fishermen told a very different story, saying they had spent hours in the water awaiting help.

They were eventually picked up by a Vietnamese boat and brought home Friday aboard a Philippine navy vessel.

The Philippine coast guard has started an investigation of the incident which Duterte’s spokesman branded as “outrageous and barbaric”.

Duterte has yet to make any public comment but he recently criticised China’s assertive stance over the sea.

“I love China… but it behoves upon us to ask, ‘Is it right for a country to claim the whole ocean?'” he said in a speech last month.

Manila’s Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said this week that he had lodged a diplomatic protest with China over the sinking.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Thursday called the incident “an ordinary maritime traffic accident”.

Geng said it was irresponsible for the Philippines to “politicise the incident without verification”.

Competing claims over the South China Sea are a point of regional contention because trillions of dollars of goods pass through it, and rich petroleum reserves are thought to sit deep beneath its waters.

Reed Bank, an area claimed by Manila and Beijing, is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and far from China’s nearest major landmass.

Manila won a key 2016 ruling against China’s claims in the waterway, but Duterte opted to set it aside in exchange for Chinese investments.

Opposition politicians as well as segments of the public and media charge that Duterte has bartered away Philippine sovereignty with little to show in return.

Nang Mwe San frequently updates her Facebook — the main mode of online communication in Myanmar — with photos of herself dressed in swimsuits and lingerie, mimicking US model Kendall Jenner’s sheer outfits, as well as form-fitting Myanmar traditional wear.

But while the country’s youth have embraced modern clothing and pop culture, attitudes are slow to evolve and the conservative society still frowns on any depictions of overt sexuality.

Her risque outfits ran afoul of the Myanmar Medical Council, who issued her a letter dated June 3 revoking her license for “her dressing style which is against Myanmar culture and tradition”.

The notice came after a warning in January, making her promise to take down the Facebook posts, Nang Mwe San said, which she signed but did not comply with.

The 29-year-old, who worked for five years as a general practitioner before pursuing a modelling career in 2017, said there are no specific restrictions on dress code in medical ethics.

“I am not dressed like that when I am treating patients,” Nang Mwe San said, adding that this was “unacceptable” and she plans to appeal the council’s decision within the month.

“I don’t think they should interfere with personal freedoms and it is not their business,” she said, adding that she still hopes to return to medicine in the future.

Myanmar currently faces a “critical shortage” of trained health workers, according to the World Health Organization.

The medical council members could not be reached for comment.

But local netizens had plenty to say, with some harpooning her for criticising a lack of human rights and democracy in Myanmar.

“Human rights is not about exposing your body,” said commenter Shwe Thu Razza. “You should maintain Myanmar culture.”

But others came down on the model’s side.

“What she wears… outside of work should not matter to her profession,” said Swa Win Kyaw.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official told AFP that as of June 13 almost 4,300 detainees were being confined across 39 facilities for exposure to mumps, more than 800 for exposure to chicken pox, and about a hundred for both.

The first confirmed case of mumps among ICE detainees was reported on September 7, 2018 and since then the figure has grown to 334, the official added.

Nathalie Asher, ICE’s executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations, said that 75 percent of the current detention population came directly from the border, while the others were detained within the US.

Given this, and recent outbreaks of mumps in Central America, “the preponderance of evidence points to the major influx at our Southwest border being, at minimum, a significant contributing factor of these occurrences,” she said.

“The impact is significant in the short and long term,” she said, including longer detentions and delayed removals.

The number in quarantine represent about a tenth of the approximately 52,000 ICE detainees overall.

The agency was giving exposed asymptomatic detainees measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines and quarantining them for 25 days from the last incubation period, it said.

Mumps is a contagious disease with symptoms such as puffy cheeks and a tender, swollen jaw as well as fever, muscle aches and loss of appetite.

Most people make a full recovery within two weeks but in rare cases there can be severe complications.

The US has been experiencing its own sporadic mumps outbreaks in the past several years, which scientists believe might be linked to the vaccine’s waning immunity over time and the need for a booster shot at the age of 18.

Cases fell dramatically after the two-MMR dose program was introduced in 1989, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with only a few hundred reported annually for several years thereafter.

But they have been on the rise again since 2006, with more than 6,000 cases in 2006, 2016 and 2017.

There have been 1,002 cases reported this year from January 1 to May 24.

The world body said Thursday that Vladimir Voronkov, the under-secretary general for counterterrorism, was on a visit to China. UN sources said that trip included a stop in Xinjiang.

Chinese authorities have placed an estimated one million people, mostly ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, in internment camps, which Beijing downplays as “vocational education centers” needed to combat extremism.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan called UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday to express his “deep concerns,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.

“Such a visit is highly inappropriate in view of the unprecedented repression campaign underway in Xinjiang against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims,” the statement said.

Sullivan told Guterres that “Beijing continues to paint its repressive campaign against Uighurs and other Muslims as legitimate counterterrorism efforts when it is not,” the spokeswoman added.

“The UN’s topmost counterterrorism official is putting at risk the UN’s reputation and credibility on counterterrorism and human rights by lending credence to these false claims.”

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet asked Beijing in December for permission to carry out a fact-finding mission in Xinjiang, but has been left waiting.

On Thursday, China’s new ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Chen Xu, said the UN high commissioner for human rights would visit when “we can find a time which is convenient to both sides.”

Twenty Democrats will take the stage in prime time on June 26 and 27 in Miami — in two groups of 10 — as they battle to become the nominee who will challenge President Donald Trump for the White House next year.

Former US vice president Biden, the unequivocal frontrunner, and liberal senator Sanders, who is polling in second, will be among 10 candidates sharing the stage on the second night.

They will be joined by South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has surged from obscurity into fourth place in early polling, and fifth place Senator Kamala Harris, who launched her campaign to strong buzz but has struggled to maintain momentum.

That leaves liberal Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is polling in third place and whose star has risen recently, as the clear headliner on the first night.

Her primary on-stage rivals will be ex-congressman Beto O’Rourke and Senator Cory Booker.

With the opening debate now set, the political stakes of the primary race were becoming clearer.

Warren squares off against several lower-polling rivals scrambling for a breakout moment.

Joining her will be New York Mayor Bill de Blasio; former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, the only Latino in the 2020 race; former congressman John Delaney; congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard; Washington Governor Jay Inslee; Senator Amy Klobuchar; and congressman Tim Ryan.

But the second night’s broadcast may ultimately score more eyeballs given it features the lion’s share of popular candidates.

In addition to the top-tier candidates, Day 2 will include Senator Michael Bennet; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand; former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, congressman Eric Swalwell; best-selling author on spirituality Marianne Williamson; and technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

The debates will give unprecedented public exposure for candidates like Williamson and Yang, who are new to the political realm.

Yang, a 44-year-old Asian-American, has proposed a Universal Basic Income of $1,000 per month for every American adult to help address the growing threat of automation.

“My dreams are coming true,” he tweeted after the debate line-up was announced.

The debate, two hours per night, will air live on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo.

A manual random drawing to determine the line-ups was held at NBC News headquarters in New York, conducted in the presence of Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials and candidate representatives.

The 2020 Democratic race features the largest primary field in modern history, and the party was not able to accommodate all candidates.

Congressman Seth Moulton, Montana Governor Steve Bullock and Mayor Wayne Messam of Miramar, Florida failed to meet the polling and fund-raising criteria set by the DNC and were not invited to attend.

Trump theatrically waved the one-page document in front of reporters Tuesday, fending off critics who said his use of tariff threats to force Mexico into a deal on curbing migration had in fact extracted little in the way of new commitments from the Mexican side.

Photojournalists managed to capture a few sentences of the document, but the full contents had not previously been revealed.

The document is a “supplementary agreement” to the deal the US and Mexico signed last Friday, and outlines additional measures the two sides agree to take.

The two countries “will immediately begin discussions to establish definitive terms for a binding bilateral agreement to further address burden-sharing and the assignment of responsibility for processing refugee status claims of migrants,” it says.

Under that “binding bilateral agreement,” the countries “would accept the return, and process refugee status claims, of third-party nationals who have crossed that party’s territory to arrive” in the neighboring country, it says.

That language appears to resemble Trump’s demand for a “safe third country” agreement in which migrants entering Mexican territory would have to seek asylum there, not the United States, and be immediately deported to Mexico if they entered the US.

The document adds that the agreement would be “part of a regional approach” to dealing with undocumented migrants and refugees.

“Mexico also commits to immediately begin examining domestic laws and regulations with a view to identifying any changes that may be necessary to bring into force and implement such an agreement,” it says.

Under last Friday’s main deal, Mexico agreed to deploy 6,000 National Guardsmen to reinforce its southern border, and to expand its policy of taking back migrants as the United States processes their asylum claims.

If after 45 days the US decides, “at its discretion and after consultation with Mexico,” that those measures are not enough, Mexico “will take all necessary steps under domestic law to bring the (binding bilateral) agreement into force with a view to ensuring that the agreement will enter into force within 45 days,” the document concludes.