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Malcolm Turnbull will be spared the sight of beggars on Manila's streets
Sydney Morning Herald - November 16, 2015
In a "clearing operation" Philippines municipal authorities have rounded up several hundred mostly indigent and homeless residents of the sprawling city, including more than 140 children, and detained them without charge.
Many of the adults operate food carts or sell scavenged items on the streets and live in squatter shanty towns, home to millions impoverished Filipinos. Many of the children are beggars.
"They were merciless. They took our things or did not allow us to bring our belongings," Dario, a scavenger arrested on the waterfront Roxas Boulevard, told Human Rights Watch.
Mr Turnbull and world leaders including US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will see a veneer of cleanliness when they peer from their limousines during the two days of talks, where participants will parade in culturally distinctive shirts designed by their Philippine hosts.
"The removal and detention of homeless and impoverished residents from where they live and work without due process is a violation of their basic human rights," said Phelim Kine, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Rounded-up adults and accompanied children have been taken to the Manila Reception and Action Centre, a government-run shelter for street children.
The facility made headlines last year after a photograph of a severely malnourished child went viral on the internet, prompting a parliamentary inquiry and its temporary shut-down. Children with no parents are sent to government-run shelters.
Officials of Manila city and surrounding municipalities have admitted the operation but told reporters it was not just because of the APEC summit, claiming round-ups were undertaken regularly.
But Catherine Scerri, deputy director of Bahay Tuluyan, a non-government organisation campaigning for children's rights, said it was aimed specifically at APEC.
"When we asked the children... they do not feel they're being taken away from danger, they feel they're being caught," Ms Scerri told the Rappler news site. "They feel they are being punished and they don't know why," she said.
Rights groups said a similar operation was launched on Manila's streets ahead of the Pope's visit to the city earlier this year.
The APEC summit is being held from November 17 to 19. Mr Turnbull is then due to fly to Kuala Lumpur for a summit of East Asia leaders hosted by Malaysia's prime minister Najib Razak who is embroiled in controversy following revelations that US$700 million ($984 million) mysteriously turned up in private bank accounts in 2013.
Mr Najib has refused to explain the source of the funds or what happened to the money, while denying he pocketed any for personal gain.
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