Religious freedom found declining in Cuba

VIOLATIONS of religious freedom in Cuba more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, a new report from Christian Solidarity Worldwide has found. In 2022, the report, published on Monday, documents 657 violations, which it describes as a “staggering jump” from the 272 reported the previous year. This was despite its researchers’ having had to flee the country, owing to continuing threats and harassment since the government crackdown that began in July 2021. The report concludes: “It is now even more vital that governments around the world, and especially Cuba’s friends and neighbours in Latin America, emphatically voice concerns about Cuba’s consistent violations of human rights including FoRB.”

Iranian Christian families detained in Turkey

FIVE Iranian Christian asylum-seeker families (17 individuals) in Turkey have been arrested and detained in “removal centres” where they have been threatened with deportation, Church in Chains reports. Its partner organisation, the Christian advocacy group Article 18, has gathered testimonies from the families, who, in some cases, have been held for more than three months in the camps, reportedly in insanitary conditions with limited food, hot water, and medication. Husbands have reportedly been separated from their wives and children, and permitted to see them only once a week, for 15 minutes.