Iran’s social workers say authorities deport Afghan migrants without verifying legal status, citing cases of mistaken identity, family separation, and alleged abuse during mass expulsions.
The head of Iran’s Association of Social Workers, Hassan Mousavi Chelik, says officials have failed to distinguish between “legal” and “illegal” Afghan migrants during recent mass deportations.
He cited the case of an Iranian child mistakenly deported as an Afghan, whose identity was confirmed only after fingerprinting at the Iranian consulate, leading to his return.
Mousavi said some families were expelled because one member lacked residency papers, and in other cases, fathers were deported while their children remained in Iran.
Tehran governor Mohammad Sadeq Motamedian said that in the past 100 days, more than one million Afghans have been deported, including 400,000 from Tehran province.
Reports suggest some deportations involved violence, including a July case where an Afghan family alleged that Baqer Rezaei died under torture by Iranian officials at a Zabol detention camp.
Rights advocates warn that such practices risk separating families, violating human rights, and further straining relations between Iran and Afghanistan.
International monitoring has been urged to ensure deportations are conducted lawfully and humanely, with safeguards for vulnerable groups, especially children.
Iran Criticized for Expelling Migrants Holding Legal Residency Documents
In an interview with National Television, he called for the handover of Afghanistan’s embassy in Washington to the caretaker government.
On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Islamic Emirate’s return to power in the country, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson for the caretaker government, spoke about direct talks with the United States.
In an interview with National Television, he called for the handover of Afghanistan’s embassy in Washington to the caretaker government.
Mujahid said: “We have periodic contacts with the United States. As you saw some time ago, an American representative came to Kabul, and likewise, when our representatives travel to Qatar or elsewhere, they meet with American officials. We have requested official recognition from them and have also raised the issue of transferring the Afghan embassy in the United States to us. Although we have not received a positive response, the people of Afghanistan want their rights.”
Continuing his remarks, Mujahid referred to Russia’s recognition of the Islamic Emirate and called on other countries to also recognize the caretaker government of Afghanistan.
The spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate added: “Afghanistan has no problems with any country and seeks good relations with all nations. Russia understood Afghanistan’s intentions, took the initiative in this regard, and took advantage of the opportunity. We call on other countries to take such courageous steps and establish relations with Afghanistan.”
Some political analysts also commented on the future of U.S.-Islamic Emirate relations.
Najib-ur-Rahman Shamal, a political analyst, said: “Closer relations between Afghanistan and the United States could help resolve many challenges, provided that such changes do not go against the religious values of the Afghan people or the national interests of our country.”
The Islamic Emirate’s call for recognition by the United States comes as, apart from a few prisoner exchanges between Kabul and Washington, the U.S. has so far taken no official position regarding Afghanistan.
Mujahid: We Asked US to Hand Over Afghan Embassy to Islamic Emirate
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have “weaponized” the legal and judicial system to oppress women and girls in what amounts to “crimes against humanity,” the independent U.N. investigator on human rights in the country said.
Richard Bennett said in a report to the U.N. General Assembly circulated Wednesday that after seizing power in 2021 the Taliban suspended the 2004 constitution and laws protecting the rights of women and girls. These include a landmark law that criminalized 22 forms of violence against women, including rape and child and forced marriage.
The Taliban dismissed all judges under the previous U.S.-backed government, including approximately 270 women, replacing them with men who share their extreme Islamic views, lack legal training and hand down decisions based on edicts issued by the Taliban, he said.
In addition, he noted that the Taliban have assumed full control over law enforcement and investigative agencies, systematically purging Afghans who worked for the previous government.
Bennett, who was appointed by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, focused on access to justice and protection for women and girls in his report. He said he held meetings, focus-group discussions and one-on-one interviews with more that 110 Afghans inside and outside the country. He did so remotely because the Taliban have refused to grant him a visa to travel to Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, their crackdown on women and girls has been widely reported and globally denounced.
Taliban leaders have barred education for women and girls beyond sixth grade, banned most employment, and prohibited women from many public spaces, including parks, gyms and hairdressers. New laws ban women’s voices and bare faces outside the home.
The Taliban remain isolated from the West because of their restrictions on women and girls and have only been recognized by Russia.
Bennett said the Taliban did not respond to an advance copy of the report and a request for information about their efforts to ensure access to justice and protection for women and girls.
The Taliban defend their approach to justice by claiming they are implementing Islamic sharia law, but Islamic scholars and others have said their interpretation is unparalleled in other Muslim-majority countries and does not adhere to Islamic teachings. They say protecting the legal rights of women is a priority.
Bennett said, however, that women have virtually no rights.
“Today, there are no women judges or prosecutors and no officially registered female lawyers, leaving women and girls with fewer safe channels to report abuse or seek redress,” he wrote. “Coupled with a lack of female officials in the police and other institutions, the result is widespread underreporting of violence and discrimination against women and girls.”
Bennett said access to justice for girls “is further undermined by the dismantling of key legal safeguards and institutions protecting the rights of children,” including juvenile courts and juvenile rehabilitation centers.
The Taliban requirement that a woman must be accompanied by a male relative also creates barriers to filing complaints and attending court proceedings, he said, and disproportionately affects widows, women who are the heads of their households, the displaced and disabled.
“Women who engage with the Taliban court system — whether as victims seeking redress, to resolve family issues, to obtain official documents or as alleged offenders — face a hostile environment,” Bennett said. “Courts often reject complaints made by women and are especially reluctant to accept cases relating to divorce, child custody and gender-based violence.”
Facing these obstacles, Bennett said, women increasingly turn to traditional and informal justice mechanisms, including formal jirgas and shuras — community councils of elders — and informal mediation by religious leaders, community elders or family. But these are all male-dominated and raise “serious concerns about the rights of women and girls,” he said.
He said international forums offer the best hope for justice. He pointed to the International Criminal Court’s request on Jan. 23 for arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders accused of crimes against humanity for persecution “on gender grounds.” And he urged all countries to support efforts to bring Afghanistan before the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest tribunal, for violating the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Afghanistan’s Taliban have ‘weaponized’ the judicial system to oppress women, UN expert says
Meanwhile, the UN Women stated in a report that women and girls make up nearly half of the migrants deported from neighboring countries.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has warned that Afghanistan is facing one of the largest waves of forced deportations of migrants from neighboring countries, with 1.5 million individuals deported and returned to the country in this calendar year alone.
The organization, referring to Pakistan’s decision to continue deporting Afghan migrants, added that without international support, Afghanistan will face a serious crisis.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, said: “International Organization for Migration is urgently calling for international support as Afghanistan faces one of the largest return movements in recent history. Since September 2023, more than 4 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan, with over 1.5 million returning in 2025 alone.”
Meanwhile, the UN Women stated in a report that women and girls make up nearly half of the migrants deported from neighboring countries.
The UN agency added that deported women and girls face threats such as poverty, early marriage, violence, and unprecedented restrictions upon their return to Afghanistan.
The UN Deputy Spokesperson added: “Women and girls represent 1/3 of returnees from Iran so far in 2025 and about half of all returnees from Pakistan. The report voiced that, like all women and girls in Afghanistan, returnee women and girls face increased risks of poverty, early marriage, violence, exploitation and unprecedented restrictions on their rights, movements and freedoms.”
In response to the UN’s concerns about the situation of deported women, the caretaker government said that all the rights of these and other women in Afghanistan are being protected and dismissed the concerns as unfounded.
Hamdullah Fitrat, Deputy Spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, said: “The Islamic Emirate has prevented any form of forced marriage and Bad Dadan (“giving away a daughter,” which typically involves settling a dispute between families or tribes by marrying off a girl from one family to a man from the other.), Women are given inheritance rights, their voices are heard, their cases are processed in courts, and especially the complaints section of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue has addressed thousands of women’s complaints.”
Tafsir Siyahposh, a women’s rights activist, said: “Today we all witness that unfortunately, the opportunities that were available to women returning from abroad are not available in Afghanistan. But we are still trying to persuade the Islamic Emirate government to consider the rights and freedoms of women.”
Concerns over the consequences of mass deportation of Afghan migrants from neighboring countries come at a time when forced deportations from Iran and Pakistan continue intensively.
The issue of women’s education and employment, which has been a major point of criticism from the international community, remains unresolved.
IOM Warns of Crisis as 1.5 Million Afghans Deported in 2025
HOUSTON (AP) — The brother of an Afghan refugee who helped U.S. forces defuse bombs during the war in Afghanistan expressed frustration Thursday that it took more than three months for the Texas man accused of fatally shooting his sibling over a parking dispute to be indicted in the case.
When Abdul Rahman Waziri, 31, was shot while getting his mail at his Houston apartment complex on April 27, police knew who the alleged shooter was as the man had identified himself to officers at the scene, according to authorities. Katia Trevon Bougere, 31, told officers “he and Waziri were arguing over parking,” police said.
“After consulting with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, the male was released and the investigation continued,” Houston police said in a statement a day after the shooting.
On June 17, police said the case would be referred to a grand jury. Bougere was indicted on Monday on a murder charge. Bougere was not arrested after his murder indictment but issued a summons to appear in court on Aug. 5.
Abdullah Khan, Waziri’s older brother, said he and his family were upset that months had passed without any developments in the case.
“It was heartbreaking … it was really hopeless. I couldn’t imagine if someone is killing someone senselessly. And then the person walking free for months and months. It’s just terrible,” Khan, 36, told The Associated Press during a phone interview.
Waziri and his brother had worked for the Afghan National Mine Reduction Group, a highly trained unit that cleared improvised explosive devices and mines for U.S. Army Special Forces and Afghan commandos.
A group of Green Berets who had worked with the National Mine Reduction Group had sent a letter in May to Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare asking for action in the case. A Change.org petition by the 1208 Foundation that asked for the alleged shooter to be charged has received more than 86,000 signatures. The foundation provides aid to Afghans who worked with U.S. Special Forces to clear explosives.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the case.
“As the case is pending, it’s not our office’s policy to discuss facts related to the investigation,” spokesperson Courtney Fischer said in an email.
Court records did not list an attorney for Bougere. He did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
Omar Khawaja, an attorney for Waziri’s family, said Bougere has claimed that he shot Waziri in self-defense.
Waziri “was known as a gentle giant … not someone who is going to lose his cool over a dispute in a parking lot,” Khawaja said.
Khan said his brother had parked his car in front of the mailboxes at his apartment complex and was getting his mail when he was confronted by Bougere.
A witness who saw the physical confrontation between Waziri and Bougere indicated Waziri was not the aggressor and had raised his hands and told Bougere, “Don’t shoot,” Khan said.
Khan had worked with the National Mine Reduction Group from 2008 until coming to the U.S. in 2020. Waziri worked for the unit from 2016 until U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Khan settled in Tampa, Florida. Waziri lived with his brother before coming to Houston about two years ago. Khan said his brother had planned to return to Tampa with his wife and two daughters after his apartment lease in Houston had ended.
“When he came and we were feeling safe, we were like, ’Oh, thank God. We got out of Afghanistan and no more gunfire, no more bombs.’ But unfortunately for my brother, it happened to him,” Khan said.
Texas man indicted for fatally shooting Afghan refugee who had helped US troops defuse bombs
UN experts told the Security Council ISIS-K is recruiting online and drawing foreign fighters to Afghanistan, calling it the “most serious threat” to U.S., Europe, and regional stability.
UN experts have warned that Afghanistan is again becoming a hub for foreign terrorists, posing new dangers to both regional stability and global security.
In a report to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, July 30, the experts said ISIS-K is actively using online platforms to recruit and radicalize extremists.
They described ISIS-K as the “most serious threat” to Europe and the United States, citing its expanding network and capacity to inspire attacks abroad.
The report linked a number of recent terror plots to either the Gaza-Israel conflict or individuals radicalized through ISIS propaganda.
Experts also warned that the growing return of foreign fighters to Afghanistan and Central Asia is intended to destabilize the region and widen ISIS-K’s influence.
ISIS-K has even issued warnings of possible attacks on Americans, highlighting its ambition to extend violence beyond Afghanistan’s borders.
U.S. officials caution that since the Taliban’s takeover, Afghanistan risks reverting into a safe haven for ISIS, a “serious and growing threat” to international security.
UN Experts Warn ISIS-K Growth in Afghanistan Threatens Global Security
The total cost of the project has risen from $2.8 billion to $5 billion due to changes in extraction technologies and methods.
The contracting company for the Mes Aynak copper project in Logar province has announced efforts to begin practical operations on the project this year.
According to company officials, the delay in launching the project has been primarily due to insecurity and the presence of archaeological remains. The company says it has so far invested over $430 million in the mine.
It further states that 400 Afghan workers are currently employed in the project, and once extraction begins, around 4,000 job opportunities will be created.
Deng Guoping, a representative of MCC (Metallurgical Corporation of China), said: “The company has already invested more than US$430 million, but had not any income. Being suffering loss of the minerals and facing the challenges of huge increasement of the investment because of the protection of the cultural heritage, so how could the company get benefit from that? This point reminds the company of the importance to pay more attention on telling the truth.”
The total cost of the project has risen from $2.8 billion to $5 billion due to changes in extraction technologies and methods.
MCC states that the road leading to the Mes Aynak mine is nearing completion, and efforts to launch practical operations have entered a new phase.
According to the company, power supply through the Bagh Dara hydropower project is also being planned, and serious efforts are underway to commence copper extraction this year.
Deng Guoping added: “Now, the project is just very close to the start point of a new area, and the company is ready to start the construction in this year if the follow-up procedures with the government go smoothly.”
The project was awarded to China’s MCC under a 30-year contract; however, nearly 17 years later, it has yet to reach the extraction phase.
Company officials cite security challenges, archaeological remains, landmines, and lack of infrastructure as key reasons for the delay.
However, some experts criticize the contractor’s performance, arguing that significant progress could have been made over the past 17 years.
Abdul Ghafar Nezami, an economic expert, said: “This contract has been in place for about 17 years. Major issues that stall large-scale projects should be anticipated from the outset.”
Another expert, Abdul Basir Tahraki, said: “Work expected to be completed within four years unfortunately was not carried out. Political factors played a role. If China is serious about extraction, it must act decisively.”
The Mes Aynak project is more than just a mining venture, it offers a vision for economic growth, infrastructure development, technical capacity building, and the preservation of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.
According to geological studies, the mine contains over 12 million tons of high-grade copper ore.
Mes Aynak Copper Project Nears Launch After Years of Delays
Officials also reported that in the past year, six psychological therapy centers have provided care and mental health services to 2,383 patients.
The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) states that the international community’s failure to recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has had a negative impact on humanitarian aid to the country.
During a program highlighting their one-year achievements, ARCS officials called on the international community not to politicize aid and to increase assistance based on the actual needs within Afghanistan.
According to ARCS, over the past year, more than 4.69 million people across the country have received humanitarian support, including cash assistance, food, and non-food items.
Azizurrahman, Deputy Head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, said: “The Afghan Red Crescent Society, based on its seven fundamental principles, delivers humanitarian services in coordination with other national institutions. This work is completely independent of politics and should not be politicized.”
Officials also reported that in the past year, six psychological therapy centers have provided care and mental health services to 2,383 patients.
Ruhullah Abdussalam, ARCS Deputy for Operations, stated: “Over the past year, the Afghan Red Crescent Society has provided health services to 3.897 million people across the country.”
The ARCS is a non-budgetary organization currently operating in seven zones across Afghanistan with more than 3,000 employees.
According to its officials, the organization’s budget is funded through partnerships with international donors, domestic support, and contributions from other aid organizations.
Afghan Red Crescent Warns of Aid Decline Due to Political Non-Recognition
Trump said that individuals who faithfully fulfilled their assigned duties would be given attention and recognition.
Donald Trump, President of the United States, emphasized Washington’s loyalty to those who served alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan, responding to concerns over the risks Afghan allies face if returned.
Trump said that individuals who faithfully fulfilled their assigned duties would be given attention and recognition.
“We know the good ones and we know the ones that maybe aren’t so good. You know, some came over that aren’t so good. And we’re going to take care of those people, the ones that did a job, the ones that were told certain things,”He said.
In response, the Afghan Evac organization welcomed Trump’s statement in a press release, urging immediate attention to the fate of Afghan evacuees in Qatar and to the processing of over 15,000 pending family reunification cases.
Part of the statement reads: “Commit to the immediate and streamlined processing of all outstanding family reunification cases—estimated to number over 15,000—through both the I-730 process and the DS-4317 refugee pathway. These cases represent spouses, children, and other close family members of Afghans who served alongside the United States or who have already been lawfully admitted. Continued delay in their reunification undermines our national values and places these families at unnecessary risk.”
The organization also called on the Trump administration to demonstrate that America remains strong by honoring its commitments and standing by its former allies in practice.
One Afghan with a pending U.S. immigration case, speaking anonymously, said: “We ask the U.S. President to end the long wait for those of us whose cases are in process, restart the reviews, and rescue us from this limbo in Pakistan.”
Meanwhile, criticism has intensified following Trump’s decision to terminate the “Enduring Welcome” program on September 30, which had been designed to facilitate the relocation of Afghan allies of U.S. forces.
U.S. Congressman Joe Morelle commented: “We made them a promise in exchange for their courage and their loyalty. Failing to honor that promise now sends a dangerous message to future allies that America cannot be trusted to stand by those who stand with us.”
Ali Reza Karimi, a migrant rights activist, said: “To build trust, the U.S. government must make the acceptance process transparent and publicly outline the criteria for selection.”
Previously, on his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order suspending refugee admissions. Earlier in June of this year, another executive order restricted visa issuance for citizens of 12 countries, including Afghanistan, a move that sparked widespread criticism.
Trump Pledges Support to Afghan Allies Amid Program Backlash
Some Afghans in Iran have been accused of espionage in the wake of the 12-day conflict with Israel.
Ali Ahmad’s eyes fill with tears as he lifts his shirt to show deep bruises across his back.
While he was detained, Iranian officers struck him and accused him of spying, he says. “They used hoses, water pipes and wooden boards to beat me. They treated us like animals.”
He was speaking to the BBC earlier this month at Islam Qala on the two countries’ border, before crossing back over to Afghanistan. His name has been changed to protect his identity.
Iran – which says it hosts more than four million undocumented Afghans who fled conflict in their homeland – has been stepping up deportations for months. In March those without papers were given a July deadline to depart voluntarily, but since a brief war with Israel in June, the authorities have forcibly returned hundreds of thousands of Afghans, alleging national security concerns.
Daily returns peaked at about 50,000 people in early July, according to the United Nations – often after arduous journeys.
Ali Ahmad says Iranian officials confiscated his money and phone and left him without “a single penny to travel back”. He’d lived in Iran for two and a half years.
‘Scapegoats’
Iran’s crackdown has coincided with widespread accusations linking Afghans to Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, including Iranian media reports that cite police sources claiming some individuals were arrested for espionage.
“We’re afraid to go anywhere, constantly worried that we might be labelled as spies,” one person, who wished to remain anonymous, told BBC News Afghan.
“You Afghans are spies”, “You work for Israel” or “You build drones in your homes”, are other frequent accusations, according to this individual.
Barnett Rubin, an expert on Afghanistan who served as senior adviser to the US Department of State, says Tehran may be “looking for scapegoats” for its shortcomings in the war against Israel.
“The Iranian government is very embarrassed by their security failures”, which show Iran “was very thoroughly penetrated by Israeli intelligence”, he says.
“So they had to find someone to blame.”
Critics also say the accusations of espionage are aimed at buying legitimacy for the government’s plan to deport undocumented Afghans.
The BBC attempted to contact the Iranian government but did not receive a response. The return of Afghan refugees “without tension and with respect for human rights… is a goal pursued at all levels”, the state-backed Islamic Republic News Agency said on 18 July.
‘Four days, like four years’
Abdullah Rezaee, whose name has also been changed, has a similar story to Ali Ahmad.
At the detention centre where he was held, about 15 Iranian officers physically harmed him and other deportees, Abdullah told the BBC at Islam Qala.
“Iranian police tore up my visa and passport and beat me severely. They accused me of being a spy.”
Abdullah says he’d only been in Iran two months before being detained, despite having a visa.
“They beat us with plastic batons and said: ‘You’re a spy, you’re ruining our country’.”
The four days he was detained “felt like four years”. He describes constant mistreatment, physical abuse and lack of food.
The online allegations of collaboration between Afghans and Israeli secret services started early in the war.
On 13 June, the day Israel attacked Iranian nuclear and military facilities, the government issued statements to the population, asking citizens to report suspicious activities such as unusual movements of vans, which might be transporting Israeli operatives’ weapons.
Then Telegram channels with large followings posted warning messages using similar wording to the government’s. But they added that the population should be vigilant of “alien citizens” – an expression mostly used to describe Afghans in Iran – driving vans in big cities.
The following day, a series of detentions of people allegedly connected to the Israeli attacks, including some Afghans, were reported.
On 16 June, news channels broadcast a video of Afghans being detained claiming that they had been carrying drones with them. It went viral. But the video was old, and portrayed migrants detained due to their undocumented status.
On 18 June, a Telegram group attributed to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps posted that 18 Afghans had been arrested in the city of Mashhad for building drones for Israel, according to the independent monitoring group Afghan Witness.
The following day, the provincial deputy security chief was quoted saying the arrest had “no connection to drone-making” or co-operation with Israel. “They were arrested solely for being in Iran illegally.”
But posts connecting the arrests to espionage had spread widely on social media platforms. A hashtag saying the “expulsion of Afghans is a national demand” was shared more than 200,000 times on X in the space of a month, peaking at more than 20,000 mentions on 2 July.
Anti-Afghan sentiment on Iranian social media is not new, but the difference this time is “the misinformation is not just coming from social media users but from Iranian-affiliated media”, according to an independent researcher at Afghan Witness.
From ‘serial killers’ to ‘spies’
More than 1.5 million Afghans have left Iran since January, according to the UN Refugee Agency. A spokesperson from the Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation told the BBC that more than 918,000 Afghans entered Afghanistan from Iran between 22 June – 22 July.
Some had been in Iran for generations.
Millions of Afghans have fled to Iran and Pakistan since the 1970s, with major waves during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and more recently in 2021, when the Taliban returned to power.
Experts warn Afghanistan lacks the capacity to absorb the growing number of nationals forcibly returned to a country under Taliban rule. The country is already struggling with a large influx of returnees from Pakistan, which is also forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghans to leave.
At first, Afghans were welcomed in Iran, says Dr Khadija Abbasi, who specialises in forced displacement at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. But anti-Afghan sentiment increased gradually, with state media portraying Afghan refugees as an “economic burden” to society, she says.
False narratives about Afghan migrants in Iran followed suit.
In the 1990s, a series of rapes and murders in Tehran was widely assumed, without evidence, to be the work of an Afghan, which led to a rise in hate crimes. It was later revealed that the killer was Iranian.
When an estimated two million Afghans migrated to Iran in the post-2021 wave, exaggerated posts on social media claimed more than 10 million Afghans were living in the country. Iran had been the only neighbour to allow refugees and migrants to enter at scale during that time.
Expulsion of Afghans from Iran, says Dr Abbasi, “might be one of the very rare topics that most Iranians” are in agreement with the government – although in July more than 1,300 Iranian and Afghan activists signed an open letter calling for an end to “inhumane” treatment of Afghan citizens in Iran.
Today, anti-Afghan sentiment is widespread. “It has become very dangerous,” she says, “so people will just try to stay at home.”
For huge numbers that is no longer an option. The border continues to swell with people.
For Abdullah the deportation has destroyed his plans.
“I lost everything,” he says.
By Babrak Ehsas, Yasin Rasouli, Rowan Ings, and Sucheera Maguire, with additional reporting by Soroush Pakzad
Iran drives out 1.5 million Afghans, with some branded spies for Israel
The United Nations says aid workers are still in a “race against time” to remove rubble and rebuild after the devastating earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan last month, killing at least 2,200 people and cutting off remote areas.
The 6.0-magnitude quake on Aug. 31 was shallow, destroying or causing extensive damage to low-rise buildings in the mountainous region. It hit late at night, and homes — mostly made of mud, wood, or rocks — collapsed instantly, becoming death traps.
Satellite data shows that about 40,500 truckloads of debris still needs to be cleared from affected areas in several provinces, the United Nations Development Program said Wednesday. Entire communities have been upended and families are sleeping in the open, it added.
The quake’s epicenter was in remote and rugged Kunar province, challenging rescue and relief efforts by the Taliban government and humanitarian groups. Authorities deployed helicopters or airdropped army commandos to evacuate survivors. Aid workers walked for hours on foot to reach isolated communities.
“This is a race against time,” said Devanand Ramiah, from the UNDP’s Crisis Bureau. “Debris removal and reconstruction operations must start safely and swiftly.”
People’s main demands were the reconstruction of houses and water supplies, according to a spokesman for a Taliban government committee tasked with helping survivors, Zia ur Rahman Speenghar.
People were getting assistance in cash, food, tents, beds, and other necessities, Speenghar said Thursday. Three new roads were under construction in the Dewagal Valley, and roads would be built to areas where there previously were none.
“Various countries and organizations have offered assistance in the construction of houses but that takes time. After the second round of assistance, work will begin on the third round, which is considering what kind of houses can be built here,” the spokesman said.
Afghanistan is facing a “perfect storm” of crises, including natural disasters like the recent earthquake, said Roza Otunbayeva, who leads the U.N. mission to the country.
Afghanistan Peace Campaign
