Afghan Hazara refugees live in fear of being deported by Pakistan

By Caroline Davies
Pakistan correspondent
BBC News
5th December 2023
Reuters A worker from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), along with police officers, speaks to a resident while checking identity cards, during a door-to-door search and verification drive for undocumented Afghan nationals, in an Afghan camp on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan, November 21, 2023.Reuters
Police have been searching for undocumented Afghan nationals across Pakistan

In the shaky mobile phone footage, women’s voices can be heard panicking. The camera moves in and out of focus, positioned through a crack in a door frame.

Across the yard, Pakistani police are outside a property, looking for undocumented foreigners. The officers flip through papers as several men sit expectantly inside.

Then the video cuts out.

Across Pakistan, unannounced arrivals of police are becoming increasingly common in a crackdown on hundreds of thousands of foreigners who do not have the right documents to stay.

The vast majority affected are Afghans, who now face the threat of deportation.

EPA Afghan refugee women and children sit at a registration centre after arriving from Pakistan near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, 28 November 2023EPA
Some 400,000 people have crossed from Pakistan to Afghanistan in the last two months

Many have reason to be fearful of returning to their country, after the Taliban seized power in 2021.

They include journalists and human rights activists, members of the LGBT community, contractors who worked for US-led forces or the Afghan military, and women and girls who can no longer receive an education in their country.

But the raid in the footage the BBC was sent by the family who filmed it, was targeting an area in Pakistan known for a particular ethnic group – the Hazara. Predominantly Shia Muslims, they have long been persecuted by Sunni extremists.

Members of these two branches of Islam share many beliefs but differ on many other aspects of religion – and the sectarian divide has torn communities apart over the years. Out of fear of persecution in Afghanistan, many Hazaras decided to cross the border to Pakistan.

“Life under the Taliban felt like a prison, they didn’t see us as Muslim, they called us infidels. We never felt safe with them,” Shakeba, a 17-year-old Hazara from Afghanistan, told the BBC. She arrived in Pakistan in early 2022.

Shakeba
Shakeba spoke to the BBC on condition that we protect her identity

Shakeba has seen police raids on her neighbourhood but so far they haven’t been to her house.

She’s terrified that she or her family will be picked up if they leave its four walls – they’ve been in hiding for the last three weeks.

“Our faces look different. Even if we wear Pakistani clothes, we are easily identifiable. They identify us and shout ‘Afghani, Afghani!’.”

Hazaras are of ethnically Mongolian and Central Asian descent; their features differentiate them from much of Pakistan and Afghanistan’s populations.

Like other Afghans in this article, Shakeba’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

Afghans make up almost all of the estimated 1.7 million foreigners that Pakistan says have no right to live in the country.

Its move to expel undocumented foreigners came after tensions soared following a spike in cross-border attacks. Islamabad blames them on Afghanistan-based militants, a claim the Taliban government in Kabul denies.

In the last two months, more than 400,000 people have crossed from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

A highly uncertain future awaits them – some are staying in camps, others have set off across the country to start life again, often taking little with them as winter approaches.

EPA An Afghan refugee has himself wrapped in a quilt against the cold at a tent camp after returning from neighbouring Pakistan, at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Toorkham, Afghanistan, 18 November 2023EPA
Some Afghans are staying in tents since returning – others have gone overland to try to rebuild their lives

Many new arrivals from Afghanistan since 2021 have faced long delays securing any form of formal documentation in Pakistan, including those with refugee claims. This left them with two main options when the new policy was announced – leave and take their chances back home in Afghanistan or stay and risk the knock on the door from the police.

For Shakeba, there was no hesitation.

“It wasn’t a decision,” she says. She and her family arrived in Pakistan after they received multiple threats to their lives, she says. “I said to my family, we will stay here until they force us to go back. It is not a place for Hazaras, it is better to be here and pray for our luck.”

Fida Ali, another Hazara, said: “Of course there is radicalism in Pakistan, but Afghanistan is on a completely different level.”

A former teacher, he arrived in Pakistan just over two years ago, soon after the Taliban seized power as foreign forces evacuated. “When the internationally supported government collapsed, so did many of the institutions we were working for. The second reason for leaving is that as a minority, we were a number one target.”

The fear of return

For Hazaras, Pakistan has not always felt like the safer alternative to its neighbour, but when the Taliban retook power many joined huge numbers of Afghans who fled over the border.

Getty Images People walk past a shrine in GhazniGetty Images
The Hazara people traditionally live in the mountainous central belt of Afghanistan

“Yes, Hazaras face persecution in Pakistan but many feel that they are being brought back to the slaughter house if they return to Afghanistan,” says Jalila Haider, a lawyer and human rights activist.

She is a Pakistani Hazara and has been offering legal aid to many who have been arrested and threatened with deportation in the last few weeks. She explains that there is a significant lack of trust between the Hazaras and the Taliban because of recent history.

Shakeba says this led to a real fear.

“We were scared of the Taliban, that they might kill us like they did before,” she told the BBC.

When the Taliban were last in power from 1996-2001, Hazara fighters fought against them. Hazaras were killed in their thousands by the Taliban, according to Human Rights Watch who accuse the Taliban of carrying out massacres at Mazar-i-Sharif in August 1998, Yakaolang in 2001 and Robak in May 2000, not distinguishing between combatants and civilians.

A Taliban spokesperson said this was not true, and that these deaths were part of armed conflict, with casualties on both sides.

Amnesty International says it has documented instances of torture and executions of Hazaras since the Taliban returned to power. The Taliban government denies these accusations too. Hazaras are also regularly the target of militant groups such as so-called Islamic State.

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said the Pakistan policy of deporting so many Afghans in the run-up to winter is “an attempt to put pressure on the young Islamic government in Kabul”.

“We welcome Afghan refugees of all ethnicities including Hazara to return to their country. And we assure them that their life, property and honour is protected and they can lead a normal life in Afghanistan,” he told the BBC.

Fida Ali
Fida Ali says Hazaras are accused by the Taliban of supporting the US and its allies in Afghanistan

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has promised that at-risk individuals will not be sent back.

“The database of such individuals is with the Ministry of Interior,” he told Arab News in a recent interview.

How such individuals are identified is unclear and the ministry did not respond to a BBC request for comment. No list has been made public. Pakistan’s Commissioner for Afghan refugees Abbas Khan has also said any suggestion Hazaras were harassed by police was “fabricated”.

But Ms Haider says she has seen many people go into hiding.

“In towns, I have seen many of the shops and businesses run by Hazaras and other Afghans closed because they are afraid. I fear it will create another human tragedy. How will they eat?

“There is no mercy for the Hazaras. There is a very low chance they can get jobs or opportunities in Afghanistan. They face the challenges many other Afghans face, but more intense because of their ethnic group.”

Under the previous Afghan government, Hazaras found new opportunities.

In 2004, they were formally recognised as citizens. Many took more prominent positions in civil society, government and the military.

“There is no doubt that within the last two decades, the Hazara people were supportive of the process,” Fida Ali says of the government the Taliban unseated.

“Now that means we are accused of supporting the allies. It is another factor that means we face extreme danger.”

Baqir and family
Baqir and his family have been in Pakistan for two years – he says they can’t go back

All the Hazaras the BBC spoke to show the same frustration, fear and hopelessness.

Baqir, who worked with the military and government in Afghanistan, is laying low with his family. They arrived in Pakistan about two years ago and he says returning would be “like playing with my life”.

“We can’t go back to our own country, maybe death will be awaiting us there; and here no-one hears our voice – we are totally lost!”

With no documents, no certainty and no recognition as refugees, all say they can only wait and hope.

“We really don’t know where to go or what to do,” Shakeba says. “We have lost everything. The dreams I have for my life are all gone.”

Afghan Hazara refugees live in fear of being deported by Pakistan
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India Says Afghan Embassy, Consulates ‘Functioning’

Meanwhile, political analysts believe that the resumption of Afghan embassy’s activities will improve the relations between Kabul and Delhi.

Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said that the Afghan embassy in New Delhi and the consulates in Mumbai and Hyderabad are functioning.

Bagchi made the remarks to reporters in a weekly press briefing.

However, he said that India’s position on the “recognition of the entity has not changed.”

“I guess the Afghan diplomats who are here continue to provide services for the Afghan nationals,” he said.

Meanwhile, political analysts believe that the resumption of Afghan embassy’s activities will improve the relations between Kabul and Delhi.

“For us, it is a positive [step], I see it as a positive move. The reopening of the embassies is also a lobby for the Islamic Emirate. It both benefits the nation and the government,” said Sultan Mohammad Sultani, political analyst.

“It would be better for the Islamic Emirate to have good diplomatic relations with all of the countries. The countries which are concerned about Afghanistan should meet their wishes through diplomatic paths,” said Amanullah Hotaki, a political analyst.

Earlier, the acting Consul General of Afghanistan in Mumbai, Sayed Mohammad Ibrahimkhil, said in a video that he and the Consul General of Afghanistan in Hyderabad, Zakia Wardak, have taken the responsibility for the consulate services of Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi based on requests of the Indian government.

India Says Afghan Embassy, Consulates ‘Functioning’
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Amnesty Intl Calls for Probe of War Crimes in Afghanistan

The Islamic Emirate has also asked the ICC to investigate the war crimes of other countries committed in Afghanistan.

Amnesty International called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prioritize and accelerate the delivery of justice for victims of crimes committed by the Taliban, as well as by other actors in Afghanistan.

In part of the declaration of Amnesty International, it stated that the delivery of justice for the victims of war crimes should be accelerated.

The statement said:  “The International Criminal Court (ICC) must prioritize and accelerate the delivery of justice for victims of crimes committed by the Taliban, as well as by other actors in Afghanistan before the 2021 takeover.”

“We demand that the International Criminal Court should prioritize the issue of dealing with war crimes in Afghanistan and provide information regarding the investigation that they started a year ago, where this investigation has reached,” said Zaman Sultani, South Asia researcher of Amnesty International.

The Islamic Emirate has also asked the ICC to investigate the war crimes of other countries committed in Afghanistan.

“The crimes committed by the occupying countries in Afghanistan are the responsibility of the powerful countries. This international organization cannot hold them accountable, so we have no hope from this organization, but if it is seen that they are neutral, we will speak about it,” Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Military analysts have different views about the demand of Amnesty International.

“If the court wants to cover all these crimes and bring the perpetrators to court, they should start from the United States, but unfortunately, America is a country that does not hand over its own person to a foreign and international court,” said Salim Paigir, a military and  political analyst.

Earlier, the Guardian newspaper reported on the war crimes of British soldiers in Afghanistan and said that at least 80 Afghan citizens were killed during the mission of British special forces in Helmand between 2010 and 2013, and only one British soldier killed 35 Afghan citizens during his six-month stay in Helmand.

Amnesty Intl Calls for Probe of War Crimes in Afghanistan
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Taliban causing ‘irreversible damage’ to whole education system in Afghanistan

The Taliban is causing “irreversible damage” to Afghanistan’s education system through the reintroduction of corporal punishment, curriculum changes and the use of unqualified teachers to replace women, most of whom have been barred from schools, Human Rights Watch has warned.

After taking power in 2021, the Taliban banned girls from secondary schools. A new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), published on Wednesday, warns that boys’ education has also suffered under the Taliban, although this has gone largely unreported.

HRW said the ban on female teachers had left a gap that had been filled by unqualified men and had reduced the range of subjects being taught.

Sahar Fetrat, assistant women’s rights researcher at HRW, said: “The Taliban are causing irreversible damage to the Afghan education system for boys as well as girls. By harming the whole school system in the country, they risk creating a lost generation deprived of a quality education.”

A group of school girls raise their hands with school books on their laps
Taliban could be convinced to open girls’ schools, says Afghanistan ex-education minister

The report said subjects such as the arts, sports and civics had been removed from the curriculum in many schools.

A document obtained by HRW, which it could not verify, proposed some of the changes that had occurred in schools. The document described the previous Afghan curriculum as using “un-Islamic and non-Afghan standards that resemble western standards”.

It complained that the curriculum encouraged western values and dress, promoted democracy, covered other faiths and taught pupils about non-Muslim writers, including Shakespeare.

HRW said there had been an increase in corporal punishment in schools since the Taliban took power. Boys are beaten and slapped, and have their feet whipped for having a mobile phone or not complying with new rigid rules on haircuts or clothing, which must be traditionally Afghan.

Zaman A, a pupil from Herat province quoted in the HRW report, said: “The Taliban’s strict rules are suffocating. Currently, as a student, wearing anything colourful is treated like a sin.

“Wearing shirts or T-shirts, ties or suits are all treated like crimes,” he said. “Every day, there are several cases where boys get punished during morning assembly or in classrooms for some of these reasons.”

HRW also said boys were coming under increasing pressure to work instead of going to school as Afghanistan grapples with drought, conflict and a crippling economic crisis. More than 28 million Afghans are in need of urgent assistance, with 6 million people at emergency levels of food insecurity – one step away from famine.

The rights group said boys were struggling with anxiety and depression because of the pressure to support their families.

While progress was made in education under the previous Afghan government, the Taliban swiftly banned girls from school after taking power in 2021. Last year it banned women from higher education, including from medical degrees, which will affect the future number of female healthcare workers.

Last week a report by ACAPS, a non-profit organisation that supports aid workers with analysis of humanitarian situations, reported that the Taliban’s promises to ease curbs on women and lift restrictions on access to education had been merely symbolic, used in negotiations with international partners but in effect unimplemented.

Fetrat said: “The Taliban’s impact on the education system is harming children today and will haunt Afghanistan’s future. An immediate and effective international response is desperately needed to address Afghanistan’s education crisis.”

Taliban causing ‘irreversible damage’ to whole education system in Afghanistan
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Inside the remote army base where hero Afghans are housed after being welcomed to the UK

Holly Bancroft

Social Affairs Correspondent

The Independent (UK)
1 Dec 2023
The Ministry of Defence has transferred more than 1,100 Afghans to Garats Hay under a secretive mission codenamed Operation Lazurite
Inside Operation Lazurite: Look inside the army base being used to welcome Afghans to the UK

Arriving in the darkness, the packed coach passes through the imposing metal fence and pulls up on a remote and silent army base. Shuffled off the coach one by one, the group of men, women and children are taken to a large hall, before being handed, among other items, a tube of toothpaste.

One woman is 38 weeks pregnant, desperate for a safe place to bring her child into the world. Others have been waiting more than a year to find sanctuary.

Finally, they are in the UK.

“Now we feel like we are home,” one Afghan father, who spent a year in a hotel in Pakistan waiting for relocation to the UK, told The Independent. “We are feeling better and out of pressure. We have been waiting for this moment, thinking of the day when we would arrive in the UK, and fortunately we are here now.”

This man is one of more than 1,000 Afghans staying temporarily at MoD Garats Hay in Leicestershire because of their years of service alongside the British armed forces in the war against the Taliban.

All, like him, have been eligible to come to the UK for months – sometimes years – but have only been brought to Britain in recent weeks as part of a secretive Ministry of Defence operation, codenamed Operation Lazurite.

On 28 September, word went out to B Company, 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment, that they had 72 hours to mobilise Garats Hay – a base in the countryside 12 minutes drive from Loughborough – to welcome hundreds of Afghan families.

MoD Garats Hay is based on the old Beaumanor estate, which was requisitioned by the War Office in 1939 and used as a radio intercept station. After the war, it was used by the Royal Signals until 1998.

In the 2000s, the remote army base, which is surrounded by a high metal fence, was used as a sixth-form college to train students who wanted to join the army before it was then turned into a Covid isolation facility during the pandemic. Most recently, it had been used as a training and conference centre.

As Garats Hay had been in recent use, it is in a very different condition compared to military sites that have been offered to the Home Office to house asylum seekers.

The site is being used, along with Swynnerton camp in Staffordshire, to temporarily house families before they are moved into service accommodation homes. Some are first moved into flats on other barracks for six weeks while they are matched with a more permanent property.

When The Independent visited Garats Hay last week, there were 175 Afghans on site, comprising 40 families. Some 1,100 people have been processed through the base and there are 61 service men and women on site in a 24-hour operation.

Meanwhile, there were around 100 Afghans based at Swynnerton, an old Second World War training camp. In total, 126 service personnel have been deployed at seven locations across the country.

Afghans arriving from Pakistan are met off the plane by officials who get them on to coaches to Garats Hay, usually in the early hours of the morning. They disembark from the coaches in groups before being taken to the lecture hall for processing, where they are given a translated briefing pack and a box full of essentials such as toothpaste, baby food and snacks.

Those who are being moved on within a few hours to more permanent homes are put in a room that has been turned into a transit lounge, which has been fitted with pool and air hockey tables and mattresses.

Those who are staying at Garats Hay for a bit longer are sorted out with rooms in the five former student accommodation blocks. The MoD aims – but doesn’t always succeed – to get people through the site within two days. The longest one family had been at the base for was three weeks and two days when The Independent visited.

On-site is an old library which has been cleared out to make a prayer area, as well as an adjoining room transformed into a makeshift multi-faith space.Families have their food provided at the former school canteen

Families get canteen food provided during their stay, with a children’s menu for youngsters. A tuck shop is opened three times a week, providing raisins, digestive biscuits, Colgate toothpaste, infant milk, baby shampoo and other essentials.

Around 20 interpreters have been brought onto the site to live alongside the Afghan families to make sure they can communicate any issues to the army personnel. An army medic has also set up a GP clinic on-site three times a week for anyone who gets ill.

The medical team have already seen one case of malaria, a number of people with dengue fever and others with scabies, with protocols in place to try to halt any spread of infection.

The most challenging case so far was when one woman arrived at 38 weeks pregnant, having downplayed how far along she was out of desperation to finally leave the hotels in Pakistan.

The Afghan family had been trapped in Islamabad waiting on relocation for eight months. They were connected to the local NHS maternity services on their arrival and a baby daughter was delivered safely in the nearby hospital.

Although there is lots of open space on site for children to play, travelling outside the base is limited to prearranged taxis or car trips organised through the MoD personnel. These are mainly reserved for medical appointments, with a large whiteboard at the entrance mapping the timings of each journey.

One Afghan refugee had told The Independent previously that they were “just staring at the walls” with “nothing to do” and spoke of problems trying to access help.

But a father who we met on the site visit said he was happy that he was finally in the UK with his family, and no longer in the hotels in Islamabad.

Over 3,000 Afghans have been left in limbo in Islamabad since November 2022, after Rishi Sunak pressed to end the use of hotels in the UK and the MoD stopped flights here.

The stalemate was broken at the end of September when the Pakistani government announced that they would expel any undocumented refugees in the country, and the UK’s policy of inaction faced a court challenge.

The Afghan father said: “I arrived at the hotel in Islamabad on 9 November 2022. And we came here on 21 November 2023. It has been one year and 11 days that we have been there. It was a long time.”

He said his children were enjoying being able to freely move around on the base, and explained that he had spent the past year providing free English lessons to Afghans in the Pakistani hotels because the families did not have access to any education.

“I was teaching five classes per day in my hotel without any salary,” he said. “If you do nothing then you think too much in your mind, so I was teaching to ease pressure on myself.

“If I get to my permanent home, I would like to do teaching for a salary and I will proudly do it.”

After Garats Hay, families will be moved on into MoD-owned service homes, depending on the size of the group. Around 700 service homes are available within the MoD estate for families that need 2-3 bedrooms, but those who are travelling alone or in bigger families may have to wait longer for private rented accommodation.

Councils in North Yorkshire, Wiltshire, and Oxfordshire have met the MoD to discuss how the families can be helped into homes within their areas. Those waiting longer for housing are moved into barracks around the county, for an estimated six weeks. At these sites, counsellors help them set up bank accounts and apply for universal credit and housing benefit, although DWP officials have come to Garats Hay to start registering families at the base who will be waiting a bit longer.

One charity is in discussions with the site manager about visiting to provide English lessons for any families who stay at Garats Hay for a longer period. The local community has also responded to news of the Afghans’ arrival by delivering boxes of toys and clothes for the children.

While over 1,000 Afghans eligible for UK resettlement under the MoD’s Arap scheme have been processed through Garats Hay already, there are some 4,000 more who are waiting for relocation in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Armed forces minister James Heappey told The Independent that they were “working at the best speed we can to get people here”.

A few hundred Afghans who are eligible for relocation to the UK under Home Office and Foreign Office schemes are also stuck in Pakistan. Though some of these have been brought to Britain, the MoD is not responsible for their relocation. The Home Office did not comment on how the rest would be brought to the UK.

Inside the remote army base where hero Afghans are housed after being welcomed to the UK
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China Hopes Kabul Further Responds to Intl Expectations

Tolo  News

6 Dec 2023

But he also stressed the importance of building an open and inclusive political structure in Afghanistan.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said that China hopes Afghanistan will further respond to the expectations of the international community.

In response to a question about the appointment of Bilal Karimi as the Islamic Emirate’s ambassador in Beijing and whether China will formally recognize the Islamic Emirate, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said: “As a long-standing friendly neighbor of Afghanistan, China believes that Afghanistan should not be excluded from the international community.”

But he also stressed the importance of building an open and inclusive political structure in Afghanistan.

Sayed Jawad Sijadi, a political analyst, said that the international community is pressing their demands on the interim Afghan government.

“The formation of an inclusive government, considering the realities in Afghanistan, recognition of the rights of and freedom of the people of Afghanistan are the demands of the international community of the Taliban. It doesn’t look like the international community will let it fall short on these demands,” he said.
The Chinese FM spokesman hopes Afghanistan will “adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, firmly combat all forms of terrorist forces, develop friendly relations with other countries, especially with its neighbors, and integrate itself into the world community.”
“We believe that diplomatic recognition of the Afghan government will come naturally as the concerns of various parties are effectively addressed,” he said.

The Islamic Emirate said that its government is inclusive but stressed it wants to improve relations with the international community.

“The matters that are being mentioned should be mentioned through legal paths, so practical steps are taken for them. We want good relations with all countries and we will provide the grounds for it gradually,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, Islamic Emirate’s spokesman.

Last week, the former deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, Bilal Karimi, presented his credentials to the Director-General of the Protocol Department of the Foreign Ministry of China, Hong Lei.

China Hopes Kabul Further Responds to Intl Expectations
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Islamic Emirate Never Sought to Harm Other Countries: Deputy PM

Hanafi also highlighted the increased security in the country as well as efforts to counter narcotics.

The Deputy Prime Minister for Administrative Affairs, Abdul Salam Hanafi, said that the Islamic Emirate never sought to damage other countries, and urged the neighboring countries to be politically neutral towards Afghanistan.

Speaking at a gathering in the Academy of Science of Afghanistan, the Deputy PM said the Islamic Emirate wants to have good relations with all countries and that the foreigners should also not interfere in internal affairs of the country.

“We never seek the construction of our [country] through the destruction of our neighbors. We want both Afghanistan and neighbors to be built up. We have the same hope from our neighbors,” he said.

Hanafi said that the Islamic Emirate does not want to be a member of any of the “coalitions,” referring to Afghanistan’s history and neutrality in World Wars I and II.

“All Afghans are respected in our country. For the Afghans who are abroad due to some concerns, the Islamic Emirate’s message is to return to their country because there is no threat to them,” he said.

The acting Minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs, Noor Mohammad Saqib, told the gathering that research should be continued in various sectors in a bid to pave the way for development in the country.

Abdul Baqi Haqqani, head of the National Examination Authority, said that Afghanistan needs experienced and academic people.

“There is a need for our youth to go out of the country and learn good experiences there and use it in Afghanistan,” he said.

Hanafi also highlighted the increased security in the country as well as efforts to counter narcotics.

Islamic Emirate Never Sought to Harm Other Countries: Deputy PM
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West to Kick Off Visits to Region to Discuss Afghanistan

However, some political analysts believe that the visit of the US special envoy for Afghanistan is important considering the current circumstances.

Thomas West, US Special Representative, said that he has started travels to Pakistan, UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia from December 5-15.

“Look forward to meeting with key partners to discuss shared security interests, refugee protection and resettlement, humanitarian needs, human rights, and economic issues,” West said.

Political analyst Torek Farhadi said the West may ask for financial support for the UN operations in Afghanistan.

“Thomas West may seek financial support in the Gulf countries for the UN agencies,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that Afghanistan wants to improve its relations with the international community.

“Afghanistan itself wants to extend its relations with the countries. And the agenda of the visit of the Americans and its purpose belongs to them,” he said.

However, some political analysts believe that the visit of the US special envoy for Afghanistan is important considering the current circumstances.

“If the US special envoy for Afghanistan is visiting Pakistan, I hope he should come to Afghanistan also. The concerns and propaganda should be shared with the government of Afghanistan,” said Hameedullah Hotak, political analyst.

“Thomas West’s visit is for the interest of the US. It is the Afghan refugees who are suffering from the problems in Iran and Pakistan. I hope the Afghan nation has a plan for consensus and unity in consultation with the current government,” said Zalmai Afghanyar, political analyst.

This comes as Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s Special Representative on Afghanistan, wrote on X that in a meeting with Julieta Valls Noyes, US Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, they discussed issues concerning Afghan refugees and their resettlement.

West to Kick Off Visits to Region to Discuss Afghanistan
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Taliban’s abusive education policies harm boys as well as girls in Afghanistan, rights group says

BY RAHIM FAIEZ
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban’s “abusive” educational policies are harming boys as well as girls in Afghanistan, according to a Human Rights Watch report published Wednesday.

The Taliban have been globally condemned for banning girls and women from secondary school and university, but the rights group says there has been less attention to the deep harm inflicted on boys’ education.

The departure of qualified teachers including women, regressive curriculum changes and the increase in corporal punishment have led to greater fear of going to school and falling attendance.

“The Taliban are causing irreversible damage to the Afghan education system for boys as well as girls,” said Sahar Fetrat, who wrote the report. “By harming the whole school system in the country, they risk creating a lost generation deprived of a quality education.”

Taliban government spokesmen were not available for comment on the report. The Taliban are prioritizing Islamic knowledge over basic literacy and numeracy with their shift toward madrassas, or religious schools.

The Taliban have barred women from most areas of public life and work and stopped girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade as part of harsh measures they imposed after taking power in 2021.

According to the U.N. children’s agency, more than 1 million girls are affected by the ban, though it estimates 5 million were out of school before the Taliban takeover due to a lack of facilities and other reasons.

The ban remains the Taliban’s biggest obstacle to gaining recognition as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. But they have defied the backlash and gone further, excluding women and girls from higher educationpublic spaces like parks and most jobs.

The new report suggests that concerned governments and U.N. agencies should urge the Taliban to end their discriminatory ban on girls’ and women’s education and to stop violating boys’ rights to safe and quality education. That includes by rehiring all women teachers, reforming the curriculum in line with international human rights standards and ending corporal punishment.

“The Taliban’s impact on the education system is harming children today and will haunt Afghanistan’s future,” Fetrat said. “An immediate and effective international response is desperately needed to address Afghanistan’s education crisis.”

 

Taliban’s abusive education policies harm boys as well as girls in Afghanistan, rights group says
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Afghans Banned From 16 Provinces In Iran As Forced Exodus Continues

By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

During the past few months, the rate of Afghans deported from Iran has steadily increased despite efforts by Afghanistan's Taliban-run government to persuade Tehran to give the Afghans more time. (file photo)

During the past few months, the rate of Afghans deported from Iran has steadily increased despite efforts by Afghanistan’s Taliban-run government to persuade Tehran to give the Afghans more time. (file photo)

Iran has banned millions of Afghan refugees and migrants in the country from living in, traveling to, or seeking employment in just over half of the country’s 31 provinces.

On December 3, Hamzeh Soleimani, the director-general of citizenship and foreign nationals affairs of the western Kermanshah Province, confirmed the ban was in place in 16 provinces nationwide.

“Numerous construction projects, greenhouses and livestock farms underwent inspection under the plan. [This led] to the arrest and expulsion of Afghan workers from the province,” he said.

Iranian media have identified 15 of the 16 provinces, including Kermanshah, East Azarbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, Kurdistan, Hamedan, Gilan, Mazandaran, Sistan-Baluchistan, Ilam, Lorestan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kahgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, and Hormozgan.

In October, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi reiterated that Tehran would deport all “illegal” migrants, most of whom are Afghan nationals who fled war, persecution, and poverty.

Tehran estimates that more than 5 million Afghans currently live in the country. Iranian officials now want to deport at least half of them because they do not have the documents to remain in the country.

During the past few months, the rate of Afghans deported from Iran has steadily increased despite efforts by Afghanistan’s Taliban-run government to persuade Tehran to give the Afghans more time before embarking on a mass expulsion campaign like Pakistan.

Islamabad is currently deporting thousands of impoverished Afghans daily as part of its campaign to expel more than 1.7 million “undocumented foreigners.”

In Iran, Afghans say their life is becoming more complicated with each passing day.

“The situation of Afghan refugees across Iran is very worrying,” Sharif Mateen, an Afghan refugee, told RFE/RL’s Azadi Radio.

“Police are arresting everyone irrespective of whether they have documents or not. They are then taken to repatriation camps,” he added.

Thousands Of Desperate Afghans Make Risky Journeys Into Iran To Find Work

Iran has hosted millions of Afghans for more than four decades, but Tehran has often complained of the lack of international aid for hosting them.

More than 70 percent of the 3.6 million Afghans who left their country after the Taliban seized back power in August 2021 fled to Iran.

Data show most are educated, middle-class Afghans who served in the fallen pro-Western Afghan republic’s security forces or civil bureaucracy.

Afghans Banned From 16 Provinces In Iran As Forced Exodus Continues
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