Arabic press review: Seven Palestinians die after refugee boat sinks near Tunisia

Seven Palestinians die after boat sinks near Tunisia

Seven Palestinians from the Gaza Strip drowned while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in a boat off the Tunisian coast, according to a report published by the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency.

The political advisor to the Palestinian Foreign Minister Ahmed al-Deek, said the Palestine embassy in Tunisia was cooperating with Tunisian authorities to ascertain the identity of the bodies.

A search is still ongoing for other missing passengers. The families of the victims live in the southern Gaza Strip, where their homes have reportedly been opened for mourning.

"As soon as we learned of the sinking of a boat off the Tunisian coast, Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki directed the Embassy of the State of Palestine in the Republic of Tunisia to take immediate action to follow up on the details of this catastrophic incident, especially after we received information about the presence of Palestinian citizens on this boat," al-Deek said.

He confirmed that the embassies of the State of Palestine in Libya, Italy, Greece and Malta were also following up on any information they may receive from the authorities in those countries about the incident.

Saudi Arabia allocates $27m support for UNRWA

The Saudi Ambassador to Jordan, Nayef al-Sudairy, handed the commissioner-general of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, a cheque worth $27m to support programmes supporting Palestinian refugees, according to the Saudi Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

According to Sudairy, total Saudi support to Palestine has exceeded $5.2bn since 1999, including supporting the budgets of the Palestinian Authority and direct support for infrastructure, health, education, food and agricultural security, Palestinian civil society, water and environmental reform.

"The security and stability of the Middle East region requires... finding a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian case, according to the resolutions of international legitimacy, the Arab Peace Initiative and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital," said Sudairy, emphasising that Riyadh condemned "all unilateral measures that undermine the two-state solution and calls them to halt immediately and completely".

Iraq's farmers quit en masse

A large number of Iraqi farmers have been forced to leave their jobs and abandon their lands, with around half pushed below the poverty line, according to a report published by the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper.

The head of the Union of Farmers' Associations in Iraq, Hassan al-Tamimi, said that more than 50 percent of workers in the Iraqi agricultural sector live below the poverty line, and their living conditions are deplorable.

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He added that the lack of government support for farmers is one of the reasons for the increase in the poverty rate, as well as the poor plans implemented by the government, and the reduction of cultivated areas, which left many farmers exposed to desertification and drought.

Tamimi revealed that more than 40 percent of workers in the agricultural sector have abandoned the farming profession and started to search for new livelihoods that would secure their daily income.

To address the problem of agriculture in Iraq and reduce the high rates of poverty, al-Tamimi said the government should immediately contract with international companies, and adopt their agricultural expertise through modern irrigation methods, instead of the primitive irrigation methods that the Ministry of Agriculture still relies on.

He added that there were orchards and agricultural fields threatened with extinction due to razing operations, in addition to the great desertification that had begun to besiege the agricultural areas, leading to the migration of many families.