Travel News

BY  Anna Tims

Travellers told to apply as soon as possible as MPs accuse agency of running ‘absolute shambles’

A couple this week told how they face having to cancel their wedding because of continued delays at the Passport Office.

Lucia Thompson and her partner, both British nationals who live in Australia, have been told they must allow 13 weeks for their newborn baby’s British passport to arrive. They are due to marry in the UK next month; the ceremony was twice postponed because of Covid.

“We applied for our son’s passport in March as soon as the birth certificate was issued,” Thompson told Guardian Money.

“The helpline has told us we should have allowed more time, even though we had no control over when our baby was born. The cost of the wedding is about £40,000, not to mention the cost to guests flying in, and our insurance does not cover us for passport issues.”

Meanwhile, thousands of families face losing holidays they have booked for this summer because of the delays.

Weeks after the Guardian reported problems at the government agency, the backlog has not been tackled, and this week MPs accused it of operating an “absolute shambles”.

The Home Office is urging travellers to get their passport applications in “as soon as possible” as the new 10-week processing target is repeatedly being breached.

Travellers have been left hundreds of pounds out of pocket because of being unable to fly after their new passports failed to arrive in time. Some had been waiting up to five months from application.

Holidaymakers have complained of a system in meltdown, with uncontactable customer services, processing errors and a lack of appointments for the premium-price fast-track service. Others claim that their applications were delayed or even terminated because the Passport Office failed to log supporting documents.

According to the Home Office, more than 5 million people have applied for passports after the ending of Covid restrictions. The EU’s introduction of post-Brexit rules that require passports to have at least three months’ validity remaining has added to the pressures, and MPs have accused the Passport Office of failing to prepare adequately for a “foreseeable” increase in demand.

Simon Hoare, the Conservative MP for North Dorset, told parliament that the Passport Office helpline is letting down applicants desperate to track their applications. “Constituents going abroad for a family funeral, for a holiday or for business reasons are not getting through to the office, and are lied to by officials when they do,” he said.

Service shortfalls by the Passport Office’s contracted courier, TNT, are compounding the delays, with some deliveries taking weeks.

A Passport Office spokesperson told Guardian Money it has increased staff numbers by 500 in the past year to cope with demand and processed a record number of applications in March. It said more staff were being recruited by the private contractor that runs its helpline to improve the service, and Royal Mail and DHL had been contracted to help with deliveries.

“We have been advising people to allow up to 10 weeks when applying for their British passport as more than 5 million people delayed applying due to the pandemic,” a spokesperson said. “We urge people who need a new passport to apply for one as soon as possible. The vast majority of all passports applications are being dealt with well within 10 weeks.”

A TNT spokesperson said: “We took a number of actions to restore service levels across our HM Passport Office network – including operational resources, extra team support and additional customer support resources – and we are currently operating within the service level requirements agreed with the Home Office. We apologise to any customer who has experienced a delay with their passport delivery and we will continue to work with HMPO to resolve individual cases.”

Holidaymakers falling victim to flight scams lose nearly £3,000 on average, and there has also been a big jump in frauds related to caravan stays, according to a bank’s analysis of customer data.

The volume of scams linked to holiday bookings has increased by a (33%) third over the past year, Lloyds Bank said.

The figures were based on analysis of scams reported to Lloyds.

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The average amount lost to a flight scam was £2,955, with victims of package holiday scams losing £2,342 on average. Victims of hotel-related scams lost £1,231 typically.

And with many people opting for UK-based staycations over the past year, Lloyds said scams linked to people booking short stays in caravans has more than doubled (a 108% increase) over the past 12 months. The average amount lost was £374.

Many scams start with false adverts on search engines or social media, Lloyds said.

Victims often click on a link taking them to a website and believe they are dealing with a legitimate company.

Some fraudsters lurk on real accommodation listing sites, convincing victims to transfer cash directly rather than through the official platform.

Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at Lloyds Bank, said: “Now that most pandemic restrictions have come to an end, many of us will be looking forward to a more traditional summer holiday this year.

“But with demand soaring and prices rising fast, would-be holidaymakers can’t afford to let their guard down when hunting for the best deals.

“Scammers are ready to cash in on any last-minute surge in bookings, so it’s vital that consumers know how to stay safe.

“Book directly with trusted sites or travel agents, avoid following links on social media, and always pay by card for the greatest protection. Remember, if it looks too good to be true, it almost certainly is.”

Here are some tips from Lloyds Bank to avoid holiday scams this summer:

– Fraudsters put adverts for fake holidays on social media and the internet. They can also send an offer by email or text pretending to be from a real company. Often, a deal will look much cheaper than those you can find elsewhere.

– Make sure the deal is genuine. Consider booking a holiday with a company that is Abta or Atol protected.

– Take your time to make sure an offer is genuine before you choose to buy.

– Protect how you pay. Credit cards, for example, give people additional consumer protections if something goes wrong.

– If someone wants you to pay direct to a bank account or by wire transfer, it may be a sign of a possible scam.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch airline KLM cancelled 47 flights scheduled for this weekend to and from Amsterdam to improve working conditions for its staff, the airline said in a statement, having earlier scrapped dozens of flights scheduled for Friday.

KLM ground staff at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport last Saturday went on an unannounced strike demanding higher pay and better working conditions, causing delays, cancellations and overall chaos at Europe's third busiest airport.

"The flight schedule will be optimized on a day to day basis this weekend. More cancellations are not foreseen for now, but might still follow," KLM's statement read.

On Thursday, Schiphol had asked airlines to consider scrapping flights, as it feared its terminals would overcrowd again during the weekend.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Charlotte Van Campenhout;Editing by Marine Strauss, Elaine Hardcastle)

By   Simon Echewofun Sunday

RwandAir is celebrating four years of flying between Kigali and Abuja, having launched services in April 2018, by flying to Abuja on April 27, 2022. 

In a statement yesterday, the airline said RwandAir’ s first flight between the two destinations departed Kigali for Abuja on 27 April 2018, on one of the carrier’s Boeing 737-800s. 

In the four years of operating the route, RwandAir has flown over 47,000 customers to and from Abuja. 

Nigeria’s Country Manager Muhamud Wayiga in the statement said: “Nigeria is a hugely important market for RwandAir so we are very happy to be celebrating four highly successful years of flying to Abuja, the country’s second city.

“Our flights have kept pace with customer demand, continue to offer fantastic connectivity to destinations across Africa and have strengthened business opportunities between Rwandans and Nigerians who have greatly benefited from the visa-free policy,” he noted.

From its hub at the heart of Africa at Kigali International Airport, RwandAir has one of the youngest fleets on the African continent with twelve aircraft including two wide-body Airbus A330s.

RwandAir currently serves 28 destinations across East, Central, West and Southern Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. immigration system would come under intense pressure if the end of a fast-track deportation policy triggers a surge of as many as 18,000 migrants at the southern border, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday. 

“There is no question that if in fact we reach that number, that is going to be an extraordinary strain on our system,” Mayorkas said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But we are preparing for it.”

His comments come as the administration prepares to end on May 23 a public health policy known as Title 42 that has allowed the speedy expulsion of asylum-seekers and other migrants since March 2020 over coronavirus concerns.

Some Democrats in the Senate and House, including those in close re-election races this fall, have joined with Republicans to call for the policy to be extended and for a detailed plan for how the Department of Homeland Security would deal with an anticipated influx of newcomers.

The department’s contingency plans contemplate a spike in arrivals, potentially as many as 18,000 per day -- a surge Mayorkas said would tax the agency despite efforts to be “ready for anything.”

“We’ve been planning since September of 2021 for the eventual end of Title 42,” Mayorkas said on “Fox News Sunday.” One of the pillars of that plan “is to work with our partners to the south and really ensure that they manage their respective borders, because the challenge of migration is not exclusive to the United States,” he said.

Mayorkas on April 26 released a six-part program for dealing with the expected border surge that includes 600 added U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel, work to mitigate crowding at Border Patrol stations and plans to utilize new migration agreements with Costa Rica and Panama. 

Mayorkas ruled out providing more comprehensive details on the effort, saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that risks aiding migrant-smuggling cartels.

“We have an adversary. We have the cartels that are exploiting vulnerable immigrants for profit,” Mayorkas said. “And I’m not going to provide them a blueprint of what we are doing.”

Many progressive lawmakers and Democratic leaders have praised the decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wind down the policy, saying the Trump administration used it not to address the Covid-19 crisis but to keep migrants out. The Title 42 policy has allowed immigration officials to expel more than 1.7 million migrants from the U.S., according to the American Immigration Council.

Nevertheless, a federal judge’s ruling last week has left the administration’s decision to end it on May 23 in doubt. A judge in Louisiana issued a restraining order that temporarily keeps the Biden administration from winding it down.

Mayorkas has stressed that the end of Title 42 would not leave DHS powerless to remove migrants. He says they would be subject to standard procedures that can allow individuals to be placed in removal proceedings. He also says the administration is boosting its ability to process new arrivals and evaluate asylum requests.

KEY POINTS

• China’s capital Beijing tightened Covid restrictions on Sunday as it battled an outbreak.
• Shanghai’s outbreak, which began in March, has been China’s worst since the early months of the pandemic in 2020.
• The outbreak in China’s most populous city and the risk of a spread in Beijing are testing the government’s zero-Covid approach.

Major luxury goods mall Beijing SKP said Friday it would close — with no reopening date specified — after the city confirmed three Covid cases in an apartment community nearby. Kevin Frayer | Getty Images News | Getty Images

China’s capital Beijing tightened Covid restrictions on Sunday as it battled an outbreak, while Shanghai let some of its 25 million residents venture out for light and air after reporting a second day of zero infections outside of quarantine areas.

Shanghai’s outbreak, which began in March, has been China’s worst since the early months of the pandemic in 2020. Hundreds of thousands have been infected and the city has forbidden residents from leaving their homes, to great public anger.

The outbreak in China’s most populous city and the risk of a spread in Beijing are testing the government’s zero-Covid approach in a year when Xi Jinping is expected to secure an unprecedented third term as president.

Beijing, with dozens of daily infections in an outbreak now in its 10th day, has not locked down. More than 300 locally transmitted cases have been logged since April 22.

But on Sunday the capital tightened social distancing rules and launched a fresh round of mass testing in its most populous and worst-hit district.

The city of 22 million has in the past week conducted mass testing in most of its 16 districts, suspended all entertainment venues and banned restaurant dining.

Beijing begins mass Covid testing as city looks to avoid Shanghai-like lockdowns

“The impact of all this on us is too great - 20,000 yuan ($3,000) in a day gone, just like that!” said Jia, a manager at a normally popular burger restaurant in the east of Beijing.

“Our boss is stressing out about this too,” Jia said, asking to be identified only by his surname. “We have three branches in Shanghai. They’ve all been shut and losing cash for a month. And now this.”

Beijing’s sprawling Universal Studios theme park closed on Sunday, while in the highly visited Badaling section of the Great Wall, visitors were told to show proof of negative Covid test results before entering.

Chaoyang district, accounting for the biggest share of infections in Beijing’s outbreak, launched an additional round of mass testing, with public health workers knocking on doors to remind residents to get tested.

“I do the PCR test everyday and I know I am not sick,” said a Chaoyang resident surnamed Ma, whose local health app on her mobile phone had marked her profile as abnormal.

“I feel caged, like I am sick. These restrictions are too excessive,” said Ma, who works in finance.

Anger in Shanghai

Shanghai’s citywide lockdown since early April has upended the daily lives of its residents, sparking worries about food and concern about being taken to crowded quarantine centres should they catch the virus.

Extreme measures taken to seal up residential compounds, including fencing up entrances of buildings, have prompted outrage.

Resident in a so-called containment building looking out of their balconies on April 24, 2022 in Shanghai, China as the city battles its worst Covid outbreak since the start of the pandemic. CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Some residents have turned to social media to vent their frustration, some clanged pots and pans outside their windows, and others clashed with public health workers.

The song “Do you hear the people sing?” from the musical Les Miserables has become a popular protest anthem. On Saturday, an online video of a Chinese orchestra playing the song, with the musicians performing from their respective homes, went viral with nearly 19,000 shares before it was blocked.

While much of the city remains in lockdown, Shanghai officials, striking a confident tone, said on Sunday that curbs on some areas would be eased after the city reined in Covid transmission risks at the community level, excluding cases in quarantine centres.

Six of its 16 districts attained zero-Covid status, meaning three consecutive days with no new daily increases in infections, senior city government official Gu Honghui told a virtual news conference.

Public transport will be allowed to resume in five districts, but residents must remain in their districts as they visit supermarkets, pharmacies and hospitals, a health official told the news conference.

Why China shows no sign of backing away from its ‘zero-Covid’ strategy

Social media posts showed the streets of Fengxian, one of the six districts, filled with pedestrians and choked with scooters and bicycles. Reuters could not independently verify the videos.

But despite the fall in transmissions, Shanghai will launch a new round of citywide PCR and antigen tests from Sunday until May 7.

Excluding imported cases arriving from outside the mainland, China reported 8,256 new local cases for Saturday, down from 10,703 a day before. Beijing accounted for 59 of the infections, while Shanghai saw 7,872 new cases and all of the nation’s 38 fatalities.

By Henry Ojelu

In order to establish the assertion that Epe is the new Lagos, co-founder and Head of Strategy & Growth, Dukiya Investments, Mr Bayo Lawal, has affirmed that the city is, without doubt, an environment waiting to be tapped by various investors with the enormous scale of development which is gradually turning the city into Dubai in Nigeria.

Lawal said this at the dinner event marking the firm’s celebration of their one year anniversary that was recently held at Raddison Blu, Victoria Island, adding, “a lot of people are going to Epe because it has been opened up with many infrastructures, in such a way that all the roads that link Epe to other towns like Ijebu, Eleko, Lagos island and others have been done, meaning people can go in and out of it without hindrance.”

“Having in mind that wherever there is infrastructure in real estate, that is where development is and Epe happened to have affordable properties, where people can invest. Also, some of the ideas that government intends to implement are looking impossible in some already developed areas; they therefore, bring them to Epe because the environment is still a ‘virgin’ place.”

He further expressed that a lot of organisations are now going towards the area, the likes of Berger with their cashew plants and other companies going there to set up facilities that can bring future into Lagos or Nigeria in extension.

Speaking on the firm’s contribution to the country, Lawal asserted that “Dukiya has contributed immensely to the development of real estate in Nigeria because when you look at the property owners in Nigeria with Dukiya as an extension, you will see that we have created room for over 200 people to be landlords in Lagos and that may have been impossible if Dukiya investment hasn’t come into the market.

“Also, looking at the development of real estate in Nigeria, we are a structured organisation to the core, we have an organisation that runs whether the leaders are available or not, it is not a one-man system, and that has also helped the real estate organisation in Nigeria because many organisations used this system also to help their business and now we have many of them now.”

“We have created a system that allows people to visit their lands at will, also for people to get allocated instantly, a system that allows them to get their receipts after payment, so with all these, we have created a lot of easy platforms that have made housing more accessible in Nigeria,” he added.

The twin issues of Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustment and Conditions of Service for the aviation agencies are currently raging as they have been brought back to the front-burner as the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) said it stands firmly by the decision of workers not to accept continuing shifting of the goal post by government agencies on these issues.

The aviation workers’ union in its 2022 May Day speech by the National President of NUATE, Ben Nnabue on Sunday, disclosed that this week had been set out for major decisions and subsequent decisive actions that would bring these issues to a foreclosure.

Apart from the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) which has since implemented new conditions of service for its workers, all other agencies in the aviation industry have continued to delay the implementation of workers’ rights.

Aviation workers under the aegis of the National Union of Air Transport Employees and Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN) have protested against the poor condition of service of workers of the various aviation agencies, which have been going on for seven years.

Also, the Association of Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) have called for an expeditious review of the condition of service of workers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET).

The Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) has also called for the implementation of the negotiated conditions of service of all the agencies’ workers under the Ministry of Aviation, which it said had lingered for nine years.

The NUATE president stated that workers are equally unsatisfied with ongoing discussions around the big question of airports concession, stressing that the workers are unclear as to the government’s actual response to the demands of aviation unions on labour issues and many lapses in the concession programme.

According to the union, in the coming weeks, important decisions would be made to chart a clear path towards ameliorating already stated demands of workers.

By Jessica Mudditt19th April 2022

A micronation isn't a real country by definition, yet sometimes these mock states take on a life of their own and come surprisingly close.
In a Sydney suburb in 1981, a teenage George Cruickshank and his two friends painted a border line in his backyard and declared the 10-sq-metre patch the provisional territory of the Empire of Atlantium. After being crowned Emperor George II, Cruickshank issued a unilateral declaration of independence from the Commonwealth of Australia. The trio hoisted a flag and the micronation of Atlantium officially came into being.

Atlantium is one of more than a hundred micronations across the world. A micronation is a self-proclaimed sovereign state that lacks a legal basis for its existence. As a consequence, micronations are not recognised by established nation states, but that does not deter them from assuming the ceremony, pomp and even governance structures of them.

Imitation is not necessarily a form of flattery, however. Micronation founders like Cruickshank seek to challenge the notion of a nation state by proving how artificial a construct they really are.

"The idea of a sovereign nation state having complete authority over its citizens within defined borders is only a fairly recent development, and it led to all of the horrors of the 20th Century," says Cruickshank.

While the interest of Atlantium’s other co-founders eventually waned, Cruickshank became increasingly absorbed by the affairs of his micronation. He issued stamps, minted coins and banknotes, appointed diplomatic representatives and designed a series of flags and insignia. He also adopted a decimal calendar system which divides the year into 10 months.

In 2008, he bought an 80-hectare rural property about 350km (217 miles) from Sydney, which became Atlantium’s administrative capital. The emperor spends most of his weekends at Concordia in the Province of Aurora, where he drafts policy statements and exchanges letters with other micronation leaders and Atlantium’s "unaccredited diplomatic representatives" in the United States, Singapore and Switzerland. Atlantium’s national anthem takes its name from the province. The Auroran Hymn is the excerpt of a soaring symphony by 19th Century composer, Camille Saint Saens.

Atlantium has a cabin, that functions as Government House, and a post office (Credit: Jessica Mudditt)

Atlantium supports the right to unrestricted international freedom of movement, so it doesn't issue visas to visitors like myself who come to stay at the capital, which is listed on Airbnb as "the smallest country in Australia".

The off-grid, 0.75-sq-km (0.29-sq-mile) property consists of bushland and a cabin that functions as Government House. An adjoining post office sells currency, stamps and postcards, the latter of which can be slotted into a red post box. A 4m-high (13ft) pyramid flanked by two guardian sphinxes faces the Capitaline Column, which is topped with the national symbol of a wedge-tailed eagle. Near its southern border with Australia, kangaroos nibble at shrubs lining Lake De Hollanda.

Atlantium’s territory is twice the size of the Vatican and its 3,000 "citizens" come from 100 countries, although most have never set foot on it.

Atlantium meets the four criteria of a state as defined by Montevideo Convention of 1933, says Cruickshank. It has a permanent population (if you count its 3,000 remote citizens, that is, otherwise Cruickshank is there every weekend), a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with the other states. To date, though, other nations have been less willing to interact with Atlantium, and it is still some way from ever being recognised as a nation.

"A micronation founder may say that it satisfies the definition in international law of being a state," says Harry Hobbs, a lecturer at the University of Sydney and the co-author of a new book called Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty. "The problem is that it lacks a lawful basis to exercise sovereignty over a territory."

Cruickshank isn’t bothered by the lack of recognition.

"Atlantium isn’t striving for legal recognition as a sovereign state. It is intended to make people question the existence of traditional nation states," says Cruickshank when we meet at Atlantium’s Sydney Representative Office (which is the drawing room of his apartment).

Game of thrones

When Queen Carolyn of Ladonia ascended the throne in 2011, Emperor Cruickshank reached out with a message of congratulations.

Ladonia was facing a constitutional crisis because we had no queen, and the queen's heirs did not respond to our attempts to contact them – Queen Carolyn

"George was quick to extend a hand of friendship and invited me to attend a micronations conference in London," she says.

Ladonia was founded in 1996 following a protracted legal dispute between local authorities in Sweden over a set of sculptures built by the late Lars Vilks. Its first queen had reigned for 14 years when she abruptly ceased performing duties. At the time, Carolyn Shelby was serving as a cabinet minister.

"Ladonia was facing a constitutional crisis because we had no queen, and the queen's heirs did not respond to our attempts to contact them," she explains from her Chicago residence.

With the queen abdicating in absentia, elections were held to find a new one. Ladonia’s constitution stipulates that it will never be ruled by a king.

"Historically, women have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to being rulers, so Ladonia’s founders wanted to reverse that trend," says Queen Carolyn. "It was also thought that ensuring the throne is occupied by a woman serves as a peaceful and stabilising force for the monarchy."

Queen Carolyn is the second queen of Ladonia, whose constitution stipulates that it will never be ruled by a king (Credit: Jonatan Jacobson/Mikronationer)

Queen Carolyn travelled to the micronation’s remote capital of Nimis in Sweden for the coronation ceremony. Nimis is a series of wooden sculptures in a nature reserve which is only accessible by foot, covering an area of just 1 sq km (0.39 sq miles). Nonetheless, thousands of people make the pilgrimage every year.

Queen Carolyn's 26-year-old daughter, Crown Princess Greta, lives in Montreal and is next in line for the throne.

"I became queen when she was 16 and at the time she thought it was stupid, but it's growing on her. She has attended a couple of state events on my behalf."

Blurred lines

Ladonia currently has 27,000 registered citizens, the bulk of whom are from Sweden, the United States and Russia. Its citizenship application page underscores that the citizenship certificate cannot be used for travel or to gain work rights. It is "a gesture of support for the freedom of expression and the arts, the ideals which are the foundations of this micronation".

"People love Ladonia because it is a system of government that they chose," says Queen Ladonia. "It's not an accident of birth. We share a vision for the world that we want to build together."

Discussions are regularly held about buying land for Ladonia’s citizens to live on.

"It’s a question of money. Land near Ladonia is inordinately expensive. Our citizens want us to buy land in Spain or Italy. But we must buy land in a country that isn't going to swoop in and crush us."

Part of her role is ensuring that Ladonia's community doesn’t provoke the ire of authorities and threaten its very existence.

"We're poking fun at existing structures. If you take yourself too seriously, you start attracting negative attention from larger nations. No one wants separatists on their borders," she says.

Atlantium has a 4m-high (13ft) pyramid called Capitaline Column for ceremonial purposes (Credit: Jessica Mudditt)

Cruickshank has watched in dismay as some micronation founders take things too far. The Principality of Hutt River in Western Australia came into being in 1970 when Leonard Casley attempted to secede from Australia over a dispute over wheat production quotas. In 1977, Prince Leonard, as he came to be known, briefly declared war when he learned he was being pursued for unpaid tax debts.

Hutt River earned the title of the world’s longest-running micronation, but it ultimately wound up with a $3m-Australian-dollar (£1.7m/US$2.2m) tax bill. Calsey abdicated in favour of his son in 2017, and in 2020 he was forced to sell the property and dissolve the once successful tourist site to repay the debt.

"Prince Leonard was a canny guy, but he also had some strange ideas. He gave me some documents with numerological calculations and strange cabbalistic references that were basically designed to show that he's some sort of special person," says Cruickshank.

A similar misfortune befell Peter Fitzek, who contests the legitimacy of the German state and founded a micronation near Berlin called the Kingdom of Germany in 2013.

Like Calsey, ego seemed to get the better of Fitzek. "It's fairly clear that this guy believes his own publicity," says Cruickshank. "When you get into that sort of territory – when you're drinking your own Kool Aid – it gets a bit dangerous."

In 2017, Fitzek was sentenced to almost four years in prison for operating a bank without a license and embezzlement.

"The micronations who run into the most trouble are those which act as though they are in competition with another state," says the University of Sydney’s Harry Hobbs. "States don't want to give up jurisdiction over territory they perceive as theirs, or that they might want in the future."

Blurred lines

The line between fantasy and reality often becomes hazy. Queen Carolyn used to work in an IT role at the Chicago Tribune, where an editor playfully instructed her interns to stand when the "Queen" entered the room, and never to turn their backs on her.

I’m smart enough to know that I’m not an actual monarch with real power – George Cruickshank

"One day I walked into the newsroom and an intern stood up and was trying to get others to stand up too. Another time she brought something in my office: she handed it to me and then sort of bowed and backed out."

Up until then, Queen Carolyn had been unaware of what the editor had been telling people about her. She found the exchange with the intern amusing.

Atlantium has printed its own set of stamps (Credit: Jessica Mudditt)

Cruickshank describes Atlantium as a "sustained performance art project".

"I’m smart enough to know that I’m not an actual monarch with real power," he says. "But the more people that accept something as a fact, the more real it becomes. People treat me with deference at official events and I get letters addressing me as 'Your Imperial Majesty'. I can't be flippant in response."

There is also the potential for tragic misunderstandings, says Hobbs.

"There have been cases where people who are escaping desperate situations pay a fee to become a citizen, and then the micronation has to tell them it isn’t a real country. And the person says, 'What kind of a joke is this?' This is where it cuts into real life."

'The original nation'

Australia has been dubbed "the micronation capital of the world" because it has more than a dozen micronations. Some are playful, like Atlantium, while others were formed with a specific goal in mind. The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands was formed in 2004 in response to the Australian government’s refusal to recognise same-sex marriages. It gained significant media attention and was dissolved in 2017 when Australians voted in support of legalising gay marriage.

Hobbs regards the micronationalism as consistent with Australian culture, which "celebrates mocking authority".

"Australia's pretty secure in its sovereignty. It's a continent with a sparse population. The government sort of says, 'We don't really care, so long as you keep paying taxes and follow the road rules. '"

The Yidindji Tribal Nation is seeking a treaty with Australia's government and to rectify Australia's constitution making no mention of indigenous people. It has 200 citizens, over half of whom are indigenous. The land claimed lies in the state of Queensland and stretches 80 km (50 miles) out to sea.

"The aim of the treaty is to settle the past," says Murrumu Walubara Yidindji, who was speaking in his capacity as minister for foreign affairs and trade. "We're saying, 'Look, you don't have to steal our stuff anymore. We'll settle the past and secure the future. '"

In 2014, the former press gallery journalist changed his name, surrendered his Australian passport and tore up his bank accounts, superannuation and healthcare documents. Members of the Yidinjyi government hand-delivered their treaty to the Australian government in 2017 – however Walubara is still awaiting a reply.

"The Australian government is very slow," he says. "While they catch up with us, we will continue to develop ourselves as a nation. We own the place, and we're not insecure about it."

Atlantium, founded by George Cruickshank, is one of many micronations in Australia (Credit: Jessica Mudditt)

Murrumu emphasises that Yidinjyi is not a micronation but "the original nation".

Hobbs agrees, saying, "I don't call it a micronation because there is a legitimate basis for their claim to sovereignty. Indigenous peoples have been on this land for 60,000 years."

Measuring success

No micronation has ever succeeded in becoming a country – but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily fail. Success depends on what a micronation set out to achieve.

The Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia was formed in west London in 1979 after the Greater London Council threatened 120 residents with formal eviction. Many had moved into the empty houses on Freston Road as squatters.

Frestonia had its own newspaper and Frestonian postage stamps were honoured by the postal service. The shadow chancellor of the exchequer, Sir Geoffrey Howe, published a letter of support. Frestonia even won a legal dispute over its claim not to be part of the UK for the purposes of a film screening. It succeeded in shielding the area from development and existed until 1983.

"It caused a political upheaval that forced the government to change its plans," says Hobbs.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Elgaland and Vargaland claims sovereignty over the areas between the borders of countries around the world. "It makes you think about the border regions rather than the territory itself," says Hobbs.

Even more left-of-centre is the Ambulatory Free States of Obsidia, which is a two-pound Obsidian rock carried around in an official state briefcase by its founder, Grand Marshal Yagjian. Formed in 2015, the micronation claims to be "located at the confluence of feminism and geography".

"The future of micronations is gloomy if the aim is to create a state, because that never works," says Hobbs. "However, the community aspect is bright. There will always be people who enjoy creating a community of like-minded individuals and engaging in diplomatic practices. There is the fun of designing a flag, creating a national anthem, and dressing up as a king, queen or emperor and signing non-aggression pacts."

Aviation workers under the aegis of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) have decried the effect of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, saying...

Aviation workers under the aegis of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) have decried the effect of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, saying it is responsible for the skyrocketing price of aviation fuel.

The workers are also set to take a decision on the raging controversy over the non-implementation of conditions of service and the consequential adjustment on new minimum wage.

The workers had in February threatened to shut down the airspace before the intervention of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity.

In his message to mark the 2022 Workers’ Day celebrations, National President of NUATE, Comrade Ben Nnabue, said the aviation recovery from COVID-19 pandemic was stymied by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

He spoke in response to the recent spike in air fares.

He said, “Against the background of negative travelers’ reaction to recent air fare increases, these multiple adversities have been exceedingly crippling, particularly for airlines. This has delayed the exit of our industry from recession.

“As expected, your union has been seriously challenged by the current pall surrounding the aviation industry. Notwithstanding, however, your Union has been proving equal to the task, even making notable strides to the bargain.”

Nnabue however lamented that some “big local airlines” continue to defy the law on free association and union membership, and assured that the union would not relent to ensure the needful was done in the airlines.

He also said the twin big issues of Minimum Wage Consequential Adjustment and Conditions of Service for the aviation Agencies are currently raging.

“We stand firmly by the decision of workers not to accept continuing shifting of the goal post by government agencies on these issues.

“Therefore, this week has been set out for major decisions and subsequent decisive actions that will bring these issues to a foreclosure.”

Speaking on the planned concession of airports, the NUATE President said the union is “unsatisfied with ongoing discussions” on the issue.

“We are unclear as to the government’s actual response to the demands of aviation unions on labour issues and many lapses in the concession program. In the coming weeks, important decisions will be made to chart a clear path towards ameliorating already stated demands of workers,” he added.