The President of Uzbekistan called for the resumption of regular dialogue between the SCO and Afghanistan.
Member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), in the final declaration of the Bishkek summit, said that forming an inclusive government with broad participation of Afghanistan’s ethnic and political groups is the only way to achieve lasting peace in the country.
TASS news agency, citing the declaration, reported that SCO member states emphasized their support for the establishment of an independent, neutral, peaceful Afghanistan free from terrorism, war and drugs.
TASS wrote: “The member states reiterate that the formation of an inclusive government with broad participation of representatives of all ethnic and political groups in Afghan society is the only way to achieve lasting peace.”
At the summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that peace and stability in Afghanistan are linked to the shared goal of regional countries to have a peaceful and secure Eurasia.
The President of Uzbekistan called for the resumption of regular dialogue between the SCO and Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister also said that Islamabad wants a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif added: “Pakistan wants a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan. But there should be no ambiguity: as long as terrorists use Afghan soil to shed the blood of innocent Pakistani citizens and citizens of other countries, lasting peace will remain beyond our reach.”
Meanwhile, as the SCO summit was underway, the Islamic Emirate’s spokesman told TOLOnews that Afghanistan’s participation in regional meetings is essential for safeguarding the interests of regional countries.
Zabihullah Mujahid emphasized that Afghanistan should participate in such meetings as a responsible party and assume its responsibilities regarding the decisions made.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said: “Regional meetings are held for the interests of the region, which include regional security, economic development and social solidarity. Afghanistan is part of all three. If Afghanistan is absent from these meetings, we can say that the meetings cannot take an appropriate position on Afghanistan, secure commitments regarding Afghanistan, or preserve Afghanistan’s position. Afghanistan needs to participate in these meetings and, as a responsible party, fulfill its responsibilities regarding the decisions made.”
TASS also reported that following the SCO summit in Bishkek, an “SCO Plus” meeting is expected to be held with the participation of Afghanistan and several other countries.
SCO Leaders Stress Inclusive Government, Peace, Stability in Afghanistan
Watch: BBC’s Lyse Doucet reports on the biggest cross-border movement of people
The elderly grimace, hobbling on crutches, and wide-eyed children stare, cradling chickens carried from homes they were forced to leave behind.
“It feels good to be in my own country,” 35-year-old Nazia says, just minutes after she crosses from Pakistan, where she was born, into Afghanistan.
The Torkham crossing, known as “Zero Point”, is where one hard life ends and another begins.
“But I’ve never been to Afghanistan before and many people here don’t even have enough bread to eat,” Nazia sighs as she heads, two of her children in tow, toward registration counters festooned with white and black Taliban flags.
Nearly her entire family, eight sisters and their offspring, were deported to Afghanistan this year from Pakistan or Iran.
They are part of the biggest cross-border movement of people anywhere in the world.
Millions of Afghans have fled across the borders to Pakistan and Iran for decades – seeking refuge or employment – and the number escaping Afghanistan has continued to rise since the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
Most are now being forced to return as these two neighbours crack down on undocumented migrants. Nazia and her family were undocumented but the UN and human rights groups say the security sweep is reaching far beyond that group to include registered Afghans too. Even Pakistan now publicly says that Afghans with Proof of Registration cards are not exempt.
The expulsions show no sign of stopping.
The number forced to return this year from Pakistan and Iran has already reached another million, according to the UN’s Refugee Agency, the UNHCR.
“In a little under three years, we’ve seen six million people, a population that is itself the size of a small country, come back to Afghanistan,” observes Charlie Goodlake, spokesperson for the UNHCR in Afghanistan.
“We’ve never seen in recent history a return movement on this scale,” he underlines, standing in the baking heat in the tented village close to the border.
It’s a desolate landscape of tarpaulin and plastic shelters, many now tattered and torn, erected by the UN and other aid agencies to provide refuge for a few nights for a people arriving with nowhere to go.
Many returnees have not set foot in Afghanistan for decades; many like Nazia have never been here at all.
“I left 45 years ago during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and most of my brothers were born in Pakistan,” explains Sarwar, who arrived a few days earlier with seven brothers and their families in a convoy of 40 people and the jumble of their worldly goods packed into a lumbering Pakistani lorry.
“We spent a long time there, so of course I felt heartbroken when they forced us out of our home,” he says.
“But, despite all that pain, I am also happy because I am finally free of harassment by Pakistan’s police.”
Every family we met told us they had experienced prejudice and harassment by authorities in Pakistan.
The Pakistan government has not responded to the BBC’s questions, but a foreign ministry spokesman told a briefing in Islamabad on Sunday that “the Government of Pakistan undertakes the necessary measures to prevent any instance of harassment or maltreatment of Afghan nationals in Pakistan. If such incidents have taken place, they are sporadic and are dealt with fully in accordance with the law”.
Both Pakistan and Iran say it’s past time for Afghans to go home, accusing some of posing a security risk, and others of being a financial burden.
The expulsions from Pakistan and alleged abuse intensified after a major escalation in fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan last October. In February, Human Rights Watch highlighted “door-to-door raids, late-night home searches and arrests without warrants”.
In Iran, which claimed last year to host more than four million undocumented Afghans, the mass deportations were accelerated after its 12-day war with Israel and the US in June 2025.
The New York based Centre for Human Rights in Iran accused the authorities of using the post-war climate to “cast suspicion on Afghan migrants – accusing them of espionage and branding them as potential spies for Israel”.
The UN’s refugee agency continues to underscore the humanitarian principle that any return should be “voluntary, safe and dignified”.
But in Torkham, Sarwar’s sister-in-law Zarina laments the precarious future they face: “We have no resources to start a business or earn a living, and we don’t even own a tent to live in”.
Zarina, 40, is among the million Afghan who have returned this year alone
Inside the barren transit tent, which provides little escape from scorching 41C heat, Zarina sits alongside an anxious huddle of women and their children.
Are they worried about the future for women and girls in a country where the Taliban has barred women from much of public life, including secondary school and university?
Forty-year-old Zarina turns to make a sweeping gesture with her arm: “Look at them, they’re all girls. Of course I’m worried.”
Some returnees are not just worried; they’re terrified.
“I don’t leave this house,” a former Afghan security guard, first deported from Iran and then Pakistan, nervously tells us when we meet him far from the border in what he hopes is a safe house.
“We are all living in fear including my wife and children who are also afraid to go outside.”
He dismisses the Taliban government’s amnesty, announced days after their return to power which declared that former government officials, security personnel and civil servants would not face retaliation and were encouraged to return to work.
“I have no trust in their amnesty because many of my colleagues have been killed.” He says his case had been registered with the UN but was deported before he could be transferred to a safer country.
Financial hardship magnifies the pain. The steep cuts in foreign aid worldwide are especially sharp in Afghanistan where the Taliban are still stuck in sanctions linked to terrorism and human rights.
Pakistan confirmed on Sunday that 16,000 vulnerable Afghans have now been granted, on humanitarian grounds, a temporary exemption from being deported – a decision welcomed by the UN.
But sources estimate that the number of Afghans in Pakistan at risk of serious harm, including women and girls who would be denied education, could be as high as 250,000.
Zarina says she is worried about the future of the girls who cannot attend secondary school and university in Taliban-run Afghanistan
At the graceful foreign ministry compound in Kabul, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi tries to put on a brave face.
“There’s no doubt that we need some help,” he admits. “There is pressure due to their return but in the long run, it will benefit them as well as Afghanistan.”
In the first years after the Taliban swept to power in 2021, some of their ministers made light of humanitarian issues, saying God would provide.
The UN now estimates that 21.9 million people, nearly half the country, need assistance this year to survive. The UN’s children agency, UNICEF, said last week that one million children faced “life-threatening” malnutrition.
“No country in the world could handle this kind of crisis on its own,” UNHCR spokesperson Goodlake assesses, while acknowledging Taliban government efforts to help returnees as they arrive.
But, he adds, “We also know that many of the restrictions and edicts they put in place, particularly on women and girls, don’t help us elicit international support”.
Muttaqi reiterates his government’s line that matters like girl’s education are “internal issues” for Afghans to resolve.
The severe restrictions on the lives of girls and women is one of the major issues in the Taliban’s international relationships and that has cost them. Five years on, only one country, Russia, has formally recognised their rule.
But when asked about this, Muttaqi points to the deepening diplomatic and economic ties with neighbours such as China and India, as well as Central Asian states.
As for Kabul’s relative isolation from western nations, he asks, “those who didn’t have relationships with us over the past five years, what have they achieved?”
He answers his own question: “Nothing.”
We heard that word – “nothing” – from every family we met at Zero Point, but in a much different sense.
All were embarking on the hardest of homecomings, beginning all over again – with almost nothing.
‘I’ve never been to Afghanistan’: Six million deportees forced to start over under the Taliban
He also stressed that Washington’s demands from the Islamic Emirate indicate that the United States has recognized the Islamic Emirate.
Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar, head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society and a former senior member of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s political office in Doha, said in a debate with TOLOnews that the United States committed 3,000 violations even after the Doha Agreement.
He also stressed that Washington’s demands from the Islamic Emirate indicate that the United States has recognized the Islamic Emirate.
Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar, head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, said: “Even now, if you look at it, they have recognized us. When they sat with us, made commitments and told us how to observe a ceasefire and how to act, all of this means that this is a government.”
Delawar said one of the reasons for the failure of the intra-Afghan talks was that members of the former government were not serious about the negotiations. He added that the withdrawal of foreign forces demonstrates that Afghans will not surrender to any country and that no country can impose itself on Afghanistan by force.
Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar said: “The need for negotiations ended when the occupation ended. Afghanistan wants diplomatic, trade and humanitarian negotiations with the entire world.”
He added that there are parties that do not want Afghanistan to prosper or have a unified government, and that this is why they have not recognized the Islamic Emirate.
Speaking about the recent clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Delawar also stressed that Islamabad is making a mistake by taking such actions.
The head of the Afghan Red Crescent Society said: “There are many countries that want Afghanistan to remain under their political, military and economic influence.”
In another part of his remarks, Sheikh Shahabuddin Delawar said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is committed to ensuring women’s rights and that women and girls have been granted their rights in various areas.
Delawar: US Committed 3,000 Violations After Doha Agreement
They are also demanding the prosecution of US soldiers allegedly involved in the killing of Afghan civilians in Afghanistan.
People affected by US military operations in Afghanistan’s southern provinces are calling for compensation.
They are also demanding the prosecution of US soldiers allegedly involved in the killing of Afghan civilians in Afghanistan.
Haji Din Mohammad, 75, says US forces killed 14 members of his family, including his wife, daughters, sons, brother and sister-in-law, in Lakani village of Panjwayi district in Kandahar 18 years ago.
Haji Din Mohammad told TOLOnews: “They killed 14 members of my family in the bombing. Three of them were my daughters, as well as my wife, two sons, my brother and sister-in-law. My nephews and nieces were also among them.”
Villagers from Haji Din Mohammad’s area also say foreign forces killed civilians in Kandahar’s western districts and targeted gatherings during celebrations and mourning ceremonies.
In addition to calling for the prosecution of foreign forces allegedly involved in the killing of Afghans, they are demanding compensation for affected families.
Mohammad Zarif, a resident of Panjwayi district in Kandahar, said: “We call on the international community to ensure that these individuals are prosecuted and that affected families are compensated.”
Foreign forces also caused significant human and financial losses in Uruzgan and Helmand, in addition to Kandahar, bombing markets and villages and damaging major roads.
Gul Mohammad, a resident of Sangin district in Helmand, said: “Nothing has been left intact. Neither the roads nor the houses remain intact.”
Gulalai, a resident of Uruzgan, said: “Water tanks, guesthouses and mosques have been destroyed.”
Officials say several areas, including Panjwayi and Maiwand districts in Kandahar, Sangin district in Helmand, and areas around Tirin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan, were among those most severely affected by foreign military operations, which caused significant casualties among residents.
Families Seek Compensation for Losses in US Military Operations
In Doha, four major issues were on the table: the withdrawal of foreign forces, counterterrorism guarantees, the start of intra-Afghan talks, and a ceasefire.
Five years ago, the last U.S. soldier left Afghanistan, bringing Washington’s nearly two-decade military presence in the country to an end. But the withdrawal did not begin solely on the battlefield.
The path to withdrawal went through the negotiating table in Doha, where, after months of talks, the United States and the Islamic Emirate signed an agreement that set a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Direct talks between the United States and the Islamic Emirate in Doha became public in 2018, but Abbas Stanikzai said contacts between the two sides had been underway even before then.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a senior member of the Islamic Emirate’s negotiating team at the Doha talks, told TOLOnews on August 23, 2023: “We began negotiations with the Americans in 2007, and from 2007 until 2021, when the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan took place, I was responsible for all negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”
In Doha, four major issues were on the table: the withdrawal of foreign forces, counterterrorism guarantees, the start of intra-Afghan talks, and a ceasefire.
The process was suspended several times, but eventually, after 18 months of talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, representing the United States, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, representing the Islamic Emirate, signed the “Doha Agreement” on February 29, 2020.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and former head of the Islamic Emirate’s political office in Doha, said: “It is a positive step for the world and the mujahid people, and I congratulate everyone. The Islamic Emirate is committed to implementing this agreement with the United States.”
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “The steps that the Taliban must take are to fulfill the commitments they made under this agreement so that the ground can be paved for lasting peace in Afghanistan.”
Under the agreement, the United States agreed to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan over a 14-month period. The number of U.S. troops was also expected to be reduced to 8,600 within the first 135 days.
Alongside the withdrawal of forces, the Islamic Emirate also made commitments to the United States, including preventing Afghan soil from being used to threaten the United States and its allies. For Washington, the agreement made one thing clear: the end of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan was approaching.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on February 29, 2020: “Now, after all these years, it’s time to go and bring our people back home. We want to bring our people back home. And again, especially in Afghanistan, it’s been a long journey. It’s been a very long journey. It’s been a difficult journey for everybody.”
Following the agreement, intra-Afghan talks were expected to begin, aimed at reaching a political settlement and a permanent ceasefire.
However, as foreign forces continued to withdraw from Afghanistan, the war also continued. Islamic Emirate forces captured more territory, provinces fell one after another, and eventually the Islamic Emirate took control of the country.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, said on August 16, 2021: “We reached a situation in which no one expected Afghanistan to come under our control in this way.”
Even then, thousands of U.S. troops remained at Kabul airport to evacuate American citizens and eligible Afghans. Finally, on the night of August 30, 2021, the last U.S. soldier left Afghanistan, bringing America’s two-decade military presence in the country to an end.
Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie, then commander of U.S. Central Command, said on August 30, 2021: “I’m here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third-country nationals, and vulnerable Afghans.”
Five years after that withdrawal, the Doha Agreement remains one of the most significant links in the chain of events that took Afghanistan from the U.S. military presence into a new chapter under the rule of the Islamic Emirate—an agreement that promised peace, but whose most significant practical outcome was the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Five Years On: How the Doha Agreement Led to the U.S. Withdrawal
The Trump administration has deported thousands of immigrants to countries where they have no ties. Dozens were on the latest flight, to the Central African Republic.
A deportation plane carrying about 70 foreign nationals, one of an increasing number of flights that have sent thousands of immigrants to countries where they have no ties, left for the Central African Republic on Friday, according to advocacy organizations.
On board was a 24-year-old Afghan whose father, brother and sister worked alongside U.S. forces, said AfghanEvac, a U.S.-based group that assists Afghan allies, the American Civil Liberties Union and a person familiar with the operation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Deporting relatives of Afghans who aided the U.S. military during its 20-year campaign in Afghanistan breaks a longstanding American commitment to protect wartime allies. Thousands of Afghans fled with their families after the Taliban overthrew the U.S.-backed government in Kabul five years ago.
Under the Biden administration, many received special visas or asylum. Immigration judges granted others “withholding of removal,” which allows noncitizens not granted asylum to remain in the United States because they would face grave danger if returned to their country.
But under its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has sought to strip hundreds of thousands of people of their protected statuses. Last July, following a Supreme Court ruling that stayed a district court decision while an appeal plays out, the administration began signing accords with third countries to accept deportees.
About 19,000 people have been sent to Mexico even though they have no ties to the country. Overall, 23,000 have been sent to countries they are not originally from, according to Human Rights First and Refugees International, groups that track third-country deportation flights.
Friday’s flight was the third since June to the Central African Republic, a country enduring its own civil war, according to Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights.
“Sending people who won protection in immigration court to a conflict zone is a callous and deliberate strategy by this administration to force people to abandon their claims and rights,” said Sarah Mehta, deputy director of immigration policy and government affairs at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Khalil, the 24-year-old deported on Friday, was granted withholding of removal last year by an immigration judge who found his fear of persecution credible, according to his lawyer, Alma David.
Several members of Khalil’s family assisted the U.S. military, according to his lawyer and family. A brother, who lives in New York, served as a database administrator for the Afghan National Army, which collaborated with the U.S. mission. Another brother, a pilot trained by the United States, was killed fighting the Taliban in 2020.
After Kabul fell in August 2021, the family fled to Pakistan, and the Taliban raided their house in search of them, according to interviews with two brothers who now live in the United States.
Khalil, identified by his first name at the request of his lawyer out of concern for his safety, traveled to the United States in the hopes of joining his brothers in 2024. He was detained after crossing the border and applied for asylum.
Marine Col. Zachary Schmidt, who supervised Khalil’s brother Najib during the U.S. military campaign, testified at Khalil’s asylum hearing. He told the judge that he had seen texts and handwritten letters from the Taliban to Khalil’s brother, threatening the family because of work he performed in support of the U.S. mission.
“I firmly believe that if this young man is forced to return to Afghanistan he will be killed,” he said of Khalil in an interview. “The United States made a commitment to protect the people who helped us, and that includes their families.”
Najib, the brother, said in an interview that he had left Afghanistan in 2014 and applied for a special status granted to Afghans who assisted the United States as well as petitioned for asylum. (He has since obtained a green card.)
“We paid the price of serving the U.S. government; my brother was killed,” he said. “Now the situation with Khalil is very, very unfair. He could get killed immediately” if forced to return to Afghanistan.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the deportation of relatives of Afghan allies.
In a statement, the department said, “For operational security and the safety of our personnel, we would never disclose information about our deportation flights. We are applying the law as written. If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them.”
Among those deported Friday were about 20 Afghan nationals, according to advocacy organizations and a person familiar with the operation. Another 10 were Iranians. Others were from Nepal, Nicaragua and other countries.
“Iranians who can’t go back to a war zone and Afghans who fear deportation to the Taliban are going to be essentially under house arrest, in an unstable country,” said Ms. Mehta of the A.C.L.U. “This is not immigration policy; it’s cruelty.”
The first third-country flight departed for South Sudan in July 2025.
“We’ve seen a dramatic escalation in third country deportations to countries in Africa,” said Savi Arvey, director of policy, refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First.
Friday’s flight took off from the Dallas area, according to Human Rights First. It was scheduled to make stops in Senegal and Sierra Leone before landing in the Central African capital of Bangui.
The Trump administration has increasingly relied on third-country agreements with impoverished, troubled countries to deport nationals whose countries refuse to accept them, or whom a judge has found would be in peril if repatriated.
Many of the countries, such as the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of The Congo, appear on State Department advisories warning against travel there.
“These countries are not committed to providing these men and women any protection or long-term status,” said Ms. David, Khalil’s lawyer. “These people are going to end up back in the very country where a judge has determined they are more likely than not to face severe harm.”
Until then, the deportees are often confined in ramshackle housing, according to advocates, and they receive no legal status, work authorization or legal support.
Relative of Afghans Who Helped U.S. Military Is Deported to Africa
The United Nations says funding cuts to humanitarian operations in Afghanistan have forced the closure of more than 100 health centers, leaving millions of children with reduced access to lifesaving nutrition and medical care.
Melissa Fleming, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, said in a post on X on Saturday that the closures come as Afghanistan faces a worsening child malnutrition crisis. She warned that 3.7 million children across the country are suffering from acute malnutrition, including around one million children with severe, life-threatening forms of the condition.
Fleming said the shutdown of health facilities has made it significantly harder for children with acute malnutrition to receive essential treatment, therapeutic food and other critical nutrition services.
The closures follow months of growing warnings from UN agencies that humanitarian funding for Afghanistan has fallen sharply, forcing aid organizations to scale back health, nutrition and emergency assistance programs across the country.
Millions of Afghans, particularly children, pregnant women and displaced families, remain dependent on humanitarian aid for access to basic healthcare and food assistance after years of conflict, economic collapse and recurring natural disasters.
UN agencies have repeatedly warned that without additional international funding, more health and nutrition services could be suspended, putting vulnerable communities at greater risk of disease, hunger and preventable deaths.
Humanitarian organizations have urged donors to increase funding, saying Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises despite declining global financial support.
UN Says More Than 100 Health Centers Shut in Afghanistan
The discussion will take place following meetings between the European Commission and representatives of the Islamic Emirate.
The European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights is scheduled to discuss the return of Afghan refugees and asylum seekers from the European Union to Afghanistan on Thursday, September 3.
According to the European Parliament’s official agenda, the discussion will take place following meetings between the European Commission and representatives designated by the Islamic Emirate, and against the backdrop of the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
The European Parliament said its Human Rights Subcommittee will discuss on Thursday the return of refugees and asylum seekers from the EU to Afghanistan, following meetings between the European Commission and Taliban-appointed representatives and amid concerns over the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
Abdul Raziq Adil, a migrant rights activist, said: “Europe’s decisions are driven less by improvements in living and security conditions in Afghanistan than by domestic crises, pressure from conservative parties and growing fatigue in host societies over migration. While Europe seeks to contain the political and economic costs through deportations, such measures directly contradict the fundamental values of the European Union.”
Earlier, on June 23, 2026, an Islamic Emirate delegation met for the first time in Brussels with representatives of the European Commission and 15 EU member states.
The technical-level meeting focused primarily on the return and readmission of Afghan citizens who do not have the right to remain in the European Union. The European Commission and Sweden co-chaired the meeting.
Mohammad Jamal Muslim, a migrant rights activist, said: “Migration has become a global issue. Members of the European Parliament should not merely make statements; they should remain committed to their international obligations to protect human rights and the rights of migrants.”
Mohammad Khan Talebi Mohammadzai, another migrant rights activist, said: “European countries should continue their engagement with Islamic Emirate officials to help provide housing and employment opportunities for deported asylum seekers.”
According to figures published by Eurostat, 14,270 Afghan citizens were ordered to leave EU countries during the first nine months of 2025, while 340 Afghan citizens were returned to Afghanistan.
European Parliament to Discuss Return of Afghan Refugees to Afghanistan
Muttaqi also called on the United States to reconsider its position toward the Islamic Emirate in light of Afghanistan’s current circumstances.
Five years after the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Kabul says it is willing to open a new chapter in relations with Washington.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, told Japan’s Kyodo News that Kabul is seeking to normalize relations with the United States and that the two sides can engage on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirate, said: “We are seeking to normalize relations with the United States. The two sides can engage on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests. Recognition is an issue for the next stage.”
Dawood Shiraz, a political analyst, said: “Establishing relations between the United States and Afghanistan is not impossible, because the United States needs us and needs this land. The United States has lost something, and keeping Afghanistan isolated is harmful to them. Establishing these relations also has particular benefits for us.”
Muttaqi also called on the United States to reconsider its position toward the Islamic Emirate in light of Afghanistan’s current circumstances.
In another part of his remarks, the foreign minister described relations between Afghanistan and Japan as historic and close and called for the resumption of operations at the Afghan Embassy in Tokyo.
Aziz Maarij, an international relations analyst, said: “Japan is a manufacturing and industrial country and has good relations with both the Eastern and Western blocs. It has always provided unconditional assistance to Afghanistan and has had no political agenda or intention to interfere in Afghanistan.”
Regarding relations with Moscow, Muttaqi said that the military and technical cooperation agreement with Russia is intended for the repair and maintenance of Russian-made weapons and is not directed against any particular country.
Akhtar Rasekh, a political analyst, said: “The closer we get to Moscow, the more Western intelligence interference, carried out through Pakistan’s intelligence services, will materialize in Afghanistan, once again exposing Afghanistan to proxy wars driven by the agendas of the West and Pakistan’s ISI.”
Russia is so far the only country to have formally recognized the Islamic Emirate, while Kabul is also seeking to expand engagement with the United States, Japan, and other countries.
FM: Islamic Emirate Seeks to Normalize Relations With US
The fifth anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan falls as the nation’s citizens face a starkly different picture than when they first arrived in America, with the Trump administration employing numerous tactics to deport Afghans and halt the arrival of new refugees.
Since President Trump returned to office, he has drastically curtailed the pathways for Afghans to arrive in the U.S., even curbing immigration processing for several countries following a fatal attack on National Guardsmen carried out by an Afghan national.
Under the second Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has moved to strip temporary protected status (TPS) for Afghans, ending protections that kept more than 8,000 people from being deported. The administration has also begun the process of reviewing and revoking some special immigrant visas (SIVs) given to Afghans who worked alongside the U.S. in military and government efforts as interpreters, special operations partners and local embassy staff.
And the White House as one of its earliest moves also suspended refugee processing except for white South Africans, cutting off hopes of many Afghans of reaching the U.S.
“As we take stock of whether the U.S. has lived up to its obligations and promises to the Afghans who worked and served alongside American military personnel and partners, often at great personal risk, the answer is a resounding no,” Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project said on a recent call with reporters.
“The Trump administration has closed virtually all pathways for Afghans to receive visas or enter the U.S., even as there are over 5 million Afghans currently displaced all over the world.”
For Afghans and their advocates — a group that includes many veterans who served in the country — things have gone from bad to worse.
Twenty years of U.S. involvement in the county came to an end over two weeks of chaos at Hamid Karzai International Airport, with throngs of people crowded outside in the hopes of being boarded onto a limited number of flights slated to take allies to safety. More than 80,000 were evacuated through Operation Allies Welcome.
Despite the two decades of nation-building, the Taliban now control the country, and women — who had been free to attend school and pursue careers — are now shut off from most aspects of public life.
And Afghans who did make it to the U.S. live in a precarious state. Even those who gained an SIV or who have a green card have received letters warning them the basis for that status has been revoked.
“Five years ago, this was a crisis. Everything was on fire, nobody had a plan, and the failures were failures of capacity. That is not what this is anymore,” Shawn VanDiver, president and founder of #AfghanEvac, told reporters.
“Today it is not a crisis. It is a deliberate choice, grounded in policy this government has not had the courage to verbalize or brief.”
The Trump administration has shut off virtually every possible pathway for Afghans to reach the U.S. while taking a number of steps to enable deportations of those currently here.
Afghanistan is among the countries on Trump’s travel ban, which bars citizens from a number of countries from getting tourist visas. A second expanded travel ban stripped the narrow exceptions that had allowed for processing of Afghan SIVs, effectively ending the program.
Afghanistan was also on the list of 75 countries for which Trump suspended immigration visas, also cutting off routes for those seeking to join family in the U.S. While a judge last weekend vacated the policy, the State Department on Tuesday paused immigrant visa appointments worldwide to carry out “in-depth training” for consular officers, arguing they need to screen out foreign applicants at risk of taking advantage of U.S. public assistance.
And for those within the U.S., their standing is shakier than ever.
Getting an SIV is a lengthy process, one that requires “chief of mission” approval, in which high-ranking State Department officials sign off on an applicant’s proof of employment. But the Trump administration has been reviewing the basis for those SIVs — a process that began under former President Biden, but which NPR found has been escalating under Trump.
For all those with tenuous statuses, TPS was the protection blocking them from being deported. The Trump administration has ended TPS for 13 out of 17 total countries, with the remaining four set to expire shortly.
“People who went through the steps to secure it really felt like it was a backstop for them,” Joseph Azam, board chair of the Afghan-American Foundation, told The Hill.
“And so, with that being gone, I think people feel like they’re walking a tightrope without a net, and that’s really scary.”
Laila Ayub, co-founder of the Afghan Network for Advocacy and Resources, said she and other immigration attorneys donating their time frequently have to deliver bad news.
“We find ourselves facing difficult conversations every day, explaining to our clients and our friends and family that there is little that we can do as attorneys,” she said on a call with reporters.
“There’s little that we can do when they’re facing, for example, delays with their green cards or asylum, and even less that we can do to help them reunite with their families without action from Congress and others,” she added.
“Every time that there’s a bit of good news — which we’re so grateful for the lawyers who are challenging many of these policies — we end up having a conversation where people in our community think this means that there’s now a pathway back open for their family to come here, and the reality is that that’s still not the case.”
VanDiver this week highlighted the case of one man, a 24-year-old known in court documents as K.Y., applying for asylum where an immigration judge granted them a withholding of removal to Afghanistan, determining he would be likely to face persecution there.
While in the past, such a determination meant someone would not be deported, the Trump administration has taken to removing migrants to third countries. This man is now facing removal to the Central African Republic, where the State Department warns that armed groups control much of the country and conflict breaks out regularly.
Inside Afghanistan, Azam said, people are losing hope, both of fleeing to the U.S. or adjusting to the new reality of life under the Taliban.
It’s been particularly hard for women.
“The people who I hear from that are most distressed and most kind of lacking in hope are still Afghan women,” Azam said, “especially when you know a lot of the public narrative in support of them is waning.”
He called it “a generational setback” as “the path Afghanistan’s on because of this policy is very different than what it was on five years ago where half its population now is erased from public life, erased from education, erased from certain careers, and also erased from the political discourse.”
There are also still many Afghans stuck in limbo across the globe — those who were able to flee to the country but unable to reach the U.S.
Some were ferried out on official flights or other privately arranged charters, while others escaped on their own.
“There are still about 260,000 Afghans stuck in roughly 90 countries — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar and so many more, waiting on a promise the United States made to them,” VanDiver said.
“And many Afghans who did make it here, including the ones our own government put on planes and flew to this country, are being harassed by ICE,” VanDiver continued, referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “That’s the story. Both halves of it. Stuck out there and hunted in here.”
Numerous legislative efforts to aid Afghans in the U.S. and abroad have stalled over the years, including a sweeping effort — the Afghan Adjustment Act — that would provide a pathway to citizenship for all Afghans who arrived under the Biden administration, triggering a fresh round of vetting. It would also smooth processing of Afghans who would qualify as refugees.
Under the Trump administration, the legislative vehicles have narrowed, focusing instead on seeking to protect TPS for Afghans, as well as shore up the SIV program.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a veteran who served in Afghanistan, is one of the co-sponsors of a bill that would protect TPS for Afghans through 2029.
“We had a good inflow of refugees from Afghanistan, and then this current administration pretty much shut it off. I think it’s wrong. We have a moral obligation to those we served with in Afghanistan, who served by our side, helping us out. We had a promise, and a promise made should be promises kept, absolutely,” Bacon said on a call with reporters.
He said he believed the bill could advance under a discharge petition to force a vote given that there is some GOP support, but he said that TPS should be a “fallback plan” until Congress could gain support for a bill to give that same population a pathway to citizenship.
“I think that the appropriate, the humanitarian, the merciful, the right policy is to find a pathway towards permanent status and citizenship down the road for people in this category — particularly Afghan TPS — is what we should be trying to do,” he said.
But action to do so seems further away than ever.
“All the work we did, like sleeping on the Capitol steps, all this energy and momentum, and all these different ways we tried to crack this nut for almost five years,” Azam said, “it wasn’t enough then, and it’s really not enough now.”
5 years after withdrawal, a grave picture for Afghans inside and outside the US
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
