Biodun.BBC: Portugal

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Thursday, August 1, 2019

From rescue in the Med, to a migrant's life in Portugal

Date created : 02/08/2019 - 08:35 GMT/ZULU

Fundao converted a former Catholic seminary into a refugee reception centre in 2017, offering itself as a model destination for integration while also moving to reverse the rural exodusAFP

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Fundão (Portugal)

by Elodie Bagnol and Biodun Iginla, France24

A year after the rescue vessel Aquarius plucked Deborah Osaretin from the Mediterranean's churning waters, she is building a new life as a refugee in Fundao, central Portugal.

The cheerful 21-year-old, who fled Nigeria in the face of continual attacks by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, prepares couscous in a modest apartment, paid for by city funds.

Portugal is an exception in Europe in that it faces a labour shortage and encourages immigration.

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Osaretin has found work in a firm making watch parts in Fundao, a town of 28,000 inhabitants, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Lisbon.

Her flatmate Augustina Sunday, also 21, works in a cherry orchard.

In June last year, the Aquarius was one of the first rescue vessels that the Italian government blocked as it closed the country's doors to NGOs picking up migrants from the Mediterranean.

After a week at sea, the boat docked in Spain and its 630 passengers were distributed across six countries, with Portugal taking in 19 -- all of whom wound up in Fundao.

- 'Pride at receiving refugees' -

Fundao converted a former Catholic seminary into a refugee reception centre in 2017, offering itself as a model destination for integration, while also moving to reverse the rural exodus.

The building at the foot of the Gardunha mountains is just minutes away from the small village of Donas, where the family of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, comes from.

The centre shelters some 30 refugees including those from the Aquarius, mostly from Nigeria, Senegal, Eritrea and Sudan.

"The migrants... help develop our businesses and create value," says Fundao Mayor Paulo Fernandes.

"We have moved beyond the first phase of mistrust to pride at receiving refugees."

Rosa Monteiro, secretary of state with responsibility for refugee affairs, says Portugal's "positive attitude towards migrants" stems from its own history of migration, most recently because of the 2008-09 financial crisis.

"The Portuguese have this facility to feel empathy with the new arrivals," Monteiro tells us at France24.

- Strive to keep them -

Since 2015, almost 2,000 people, including children and the elderly, have arrived in Portugal as part of an EU refugee distribution programme.

Monteiro said that 43 percent of those of working age had found jobs in agriculture, restaurants, the clothing industry or construction.

The others are still in training and resettlement programmes, or have left the country.

The government believes that nearly half of the refugees that Portugal has taken in have left the country, sometimes after only several weeks.

"The refugees we are losing often want to rejoin family members in other countries," says Monteiro.

"They may also leave for countries with a better economic outlook. To avoid that, we try to inform them about Portugal as much as possible."

- 'Seven children' -

Osaretin is enrolled in an 18-month European programme designed to foster the integration of new arrivals.

In six months she must give up the apartment and fend for herself without public assistance.

"To tell the truth, I am very happy as now I have a roof over my head, I am working, I eat well," she tells us at France24.

"My goal is to make my life here, find a husband and have seven kids," she grins.

Osaretin's journey took her across deserts in Niger and Libya before she arrived on the Mediterranean coast, where she boarded a barely seaworthy vessel before being rescued by the Aquarius.

"Every day I think of the risks I took, when I had no strength left, no water... I wouldn't advise anyone to do what I did," she says.

- 'Just want to be free' -

Another Fundao resident, 20-year-old Mory Camara, left Guinea in 2017 where he says he was persecuted for his Christian faith in his mainly Muslim village.

He made it to Libya, then tried to cross the Mediterranean and almost drowned when his vessel sank.

Having reached Portugal in March he intends to stay put, he says.

"Here, I am safe and free to go about my business. Those who risk getting to Europe like I did just want to be free," he says.

Camara, who would like to work in information technology, is taking language classes while looking for a job opening.

Andreia Roque, a Fundao official, praised the migrants' determination to succeed.

"Despite the language question, which is the most difficult, they are very motivated," she says.

"That's why we hope in the short term to have more communal space and extend our capacity to take people in."

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Apple breaches $1 trillion stock market valuation

August 3, 2018 00H:32 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Tamara Kachelmeier and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters Technology reporters, SAN FRANCISCO

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) became the first $1 trillion publicly listed U.S. company on Thursday, crowning a decade-long rise fueled by its ubiquitous iPhone that transformed it from a niche player in personal computers into a global powerhouse spanning entertainment and communications.

The tech company’s stock jumped 2.9 percent to end the day at $207.39, giving it a market capitalization of $1.002 trillion. During the session, Apple’s stock market value reached as much as $1.006 trillion.

Apple has rallied about 9 percent since Tuesday, when it reported June-quarter results above expectations and said it bought back $20 billion of its own shares. It was Apple’s best-two-day run since April 2014.

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Started in the garage of co-founder Steve Jobs in 1976, Apple has pushed its revenue beyond the economic outputs of Portugal, New Zealand and other countries. Along the way, it has changed how consumers connect with one another and how businesses conduct daily commerce.

Apple’s stock market value is greater than the combined capitalization of Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Procter & Gamble (PG.N) and AT&T (T.N). It now accounts for 4 percent of the S&P 500.

The Silicon Valley stalwart’s stock has surged more than 50,000 percent since its 1980 initial public offering, dwarfing the S&P 500’s approximately 2,000-percent increase during the same almost four decades.

One of three founders, Jobs was driven out of Apple in the mid-1980s, only to return a decade later and rescue the computer company from near bankruptcy.

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Jeff Carbone, co-founder of Cornerstone Financial Partners in Charlotte, North Carolina, has included Apple in his clients’ portfolios for about a decade. Recently, some of his older clients have bought Apple shares for their grandchildren.

“We still see upside from it, and as new money gets deposited we continue to buy, preferably on the dip,” Carbone said.

Apple’s stock has risen over 30 percent in the past year, fueled by optimism about the iPhone X, launched a decade after the original. Also propelling Apple higher in recent months was Apple’s announcement that it earmarked $100 billion for a new share repurchase program.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

EU questions budgets of seven eurozone countries

26 October 2016 - 03H05 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Isabelle Roussel and Biodun Iginla, France24, Brussels

BRUSSELS -

The European Commission demanded "clarifications" from seven eurozone countries over their draft budgets, expressing particular concern that Italy, Cyprus and Finland are not meeting EU targets.

Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Lithuania, whose budgets were flagged for different reasons, have also been sent letters by the EU executive seeking explanations. The countries' responses are due by Thursday.

"For Italy, Cyprus and Finland, we have a real problem," a European source said, adding that the three countries could potentially see their budgets rejected by Brussels.

Italy, the eurozone's third biggest economy, is notably forecasting a budget deficit of 2.3 percent of GDP in 2017 -- significantly higher than that expected by Brussels -- due to a deadly earthquake in August as well as the costs of dealing with a huge influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.

"We will need clarifications on the amounts included on the draft budget for consideration as 'exceptional expenditures'," commissioners Valdis Dombrovskis and Pierre Moscovici wrote to Rome.

The Commission also wrote to the governments of Belgium and Portugal -- even though their budgets are in line with EU rules -- because their ability to stick to them is in doubt.

Spain and Lithuania have also been requested to send updated budgets "in the coming days", as both are in the process of forming new governments.

Spain and Portugal, both of whom have let their budgets slide, have until now avoided sanctions from Brussels, but they remain under threat of having their funding cut.

The European Commission is seeking by Monday to either approve or reject the draft budgets presented in mid-October by the eurozone countries.

In the event of a rejection -- which would be unprecedented -- "the Commission would seek a revised budget within three weeks", a European source said.