Muttaqi: Mistreatment of Migrants Harms Kabul-Islamabad Relations

Amid the intensified deportation of Afghan migrants from Pakistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign minister of the Islamic Emirate, met with Obaidur Rahman Nizamani, acting ambassador of Pakistan in Kabul.

In this meeting, Muttaqi described the mistreatment of Afghan migrants as alarming and damaging to the relations between the two countries.

Zia Ahmad Takal, head of public relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “The Foreign Minister, expressing his regret over the forced deportation of Afghan migrants and the inappropriate conduct of certain Pakistani institutions, called the current mistreatment provocative and detrimental to bilateral relations, and demanded that the situation be rectified.”

Meanwhile, several political analysts said that Pakistan is using the migrant issue as a tool to exert political pressure on the caretaker government and that sustained dialogue between Kabul and Islamabad could provide a solution to the crisis.

Abdul Sadiq Hamidzoy, a political analyst, said: “This action by Pakistan increases hatred, and it is neither in Pakistan’s interest, nor Afghanistan’s, nor that of the migrants who face numerous challenges upon their return.”

Najib-ur-Rahman Shumal, another political analyst, stated: “Under various pretexts, Pakistan’s military regime has pressured Afghan migrants and expelled tens of thousands of them through beatings, imprisonment, humiliation, and insults. These actions have sparked international reactions and drawn criticism from the global community.”

On the other hand, some Afghan migrants residing in Pakistan complain about their living conditions and report facing mounting pressure and restrictions.

Atiqullah Mansour, an Afghan migrant in Pakistan, said: “Some children and youth have been unable to complete their education, and Afghans who have conducted business in Pakistan for years are now unable to transfer their transactions and economic activities in this short period.”

Shabana, another Afghan migrant in Pakistan, said: “Pakistan has made a final decision to send Afghan migrants back to Afghanistan, regardless of whether they hold ACC or PoR cards. Although there is a slight easing in the attitude of the Pakistani police, it remains a major challenge for migrants to transfer their assets and business dealings in such a short time.”

This comes as, since the beginning of April, Pakistan has escalated the deportation process of Afghan migrants. According to local officials in Nangarhar, approximately 40,000 Afghan migrants have been forcibly deported from Pakistan in the past 16 days.

Muttaqi: Mistreatment of Migrants Harms Kabul-Islamabad Relations
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‘We Have No Homes’: Afghan Migrants Face Harsh Reality After Deportation

 

Several migrants deported through the Torkham crossing say they not only have no homes to live in, but they also do not own any land on which to build one.

With the increasing wave of returning Afghan migrants from neighboring countries—particularly Pakistan—many repatriated families are facing a serious challenge: the lack of shelter.

Several migrants deported through the Torkham crossing say they not only have no homes to live in, but they also do not own any land on which to build one. They are urgently calling on the caretaker government to address their plight.

Bakhtiar, a deported migrant from Pakistan, said: “All our harvests and cattle were lost. These problems began when they raided us. My son, Biyarzada, was also arrested, and even those who were at home were taken away.”

Mohammad Nabi, another deported migrant from Pakistan, said: “We ask that job opportunities be created for us. We have no homes, no land. All our belongings are left outside. There are no jobs, and no one has created employment for us. But our most urgent need is shelter.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Urban Development reports that dozens of residential townships have been established across the country for returning migrants.

Kamal Afghan, the spokesperson for the ministry, said that so far, 60 townships have been prepared nationwide for deported migrants.

“The Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, which leads the Permanent Housing Committee, has so far prepared 60 residential townships across the country for forcibly deported migrants, and our provincial teams are still working on developing additional townships,” the spokesperson stated.

At the same time, the World Food Programme (WFP), in a report, noted the increase in deportations of Afghan migrants from Pakistan, predicting that 1.6 million people will be returned from Pakistan and some from Iran in the near future.

The agency said that the suspension of US humanitarian aid and the increase in returns have worsened Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis.

According to WFP’s report: “Pakistan and Iran have increased efforts to repatriate undocumented Afghan nationals, with over 2.7 million returned since August 2021. The return of Afghan nationals has intensified in 2025, with thousands being deported or choosing to return due to Pakistan’s crackdown on undocumented refugees, putting pressure on host communities and services, particularly in border provinces.”

Juma Khan Pouya, a migrant rights activist, emphasized: “Providing services such as psychological counseling, financial assistance, transport, and other basic services and facilities is the responsibility of international organizations—particularly humanitarian aid agencies—and these must be made available to Afghan migrants.”

In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent announced that from April 1st to 7th of this year, a total of 1,825 families—comprising 12,775 individuals—returned to the country through the Torkham and Spin Boldak crossings.

‘We Have No Homes’: Afghan Migrants Face Harsh Reality After Deportation
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Trump Will End Temporary Protections for Afghans and Cameroonians

The New York Times

More than 10,000 people will be put on track for deportation in May and June as a result of the Department of Homeland Security’s action.

The Trump administration will end temporary protections for more than 10,000 people from Afghanistan and Cameroon, putting them on track for deportation in May and June, Department of Homeland Security officials said on Friday.

Many of the Afghans affected by the decision had been allowed into the United States after the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from their country in 2021. Now, the Trump administration could send them back to a country under Taliban rule.

The Afghans and Cameroonians had been living in the United States legally under Temporary Protected Status, which is meant to shield migrants from being returned to countries facing conflict or natural disasters. People who have the protected status are also allowed to work in the United States.

The Trump administration has targeted T.P.S. as part of its broad crackdown on immigration. Trump officials say the program is being used improperly, to allow people to stay in the United States indefinitely. Already this year, the administration has tried to cut off Venezuelans from T.P.S. and shortened the time that Haitians can have the protections.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of Global Refuge, a refugee resettlement organization, said sending immigrants back to Afghanistan was “unconscionable.”

“For Afghan women and girls, ending these humanitarian protections means ending access to opportunity, freedom, and safety,” Ms. Vignarajah said. “Forcing them back to Taliban rule, where they face systemic oppression and gender-based violence, would be an utterly unconscionable stain on our nation’s reputation.”

The effort could face legal challenges. Earlier this month, Judge Edward M. Chen, a federal court judge in San Francisco, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending T.P.S. for Venezuelans.

In his decision, Mr. Chen said the Trump administration’s efforts threatened to “inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.”

Lawyers in the lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision on Venezuela said they would be examining the latest move by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary.

“We will closely examine the terminations to determine whether the government complied with the T.P.S. statute in determining Afghanistan and Cameroon are now safe to accept returns of their nationals as required by the T.P.S. statute,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, who runs the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at U.C.L.A. and is an attorney in the case challenging the Trump administration decision to end T.P.S. for Venezuelans.

The Biden administration first protected migrants from Afghanistan in 2022, following the collapse of the government there and the takeover by the Taliban. In 2023, they extended those protections, saying that there was a “serious threat posed by ongoing armed conflict; lack of access to food, clean water and health care; and destroyed infrastructure, internal displacement and economic instability.”

The Biden administration also extended protections for people from Cameroon in 2023, citing continued conflict in the country. Ms. Noem terminated it earlier this week.

Gustavo Torres, the executive director of Casa de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy organization, said in a statement that Cameroonian nationals were unable to return and reside safely in their country because of an armed conflict. “The ongoing violence, human rights violations, and humanitarian crises in Cameroon continue to place its citizens at severe risk,” he said.

More than 9,000 Afghans and 3,000 Cameroonians had T.P.S. as of late last year, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Julia Gelatt, an immigration expert at the Migration Policy Institute, said the move would have far-reaching effects in the Afghan community.

“Revoking T.P.S. for Afghans would be a stark reversal in the country’s treatment of Afghan allies who fought and worked alongside the U.S. government. Most Afghans in the U.S. have strong asylum cases based on their U.S. affiliation. This is even more true for Afghan women,” she said. “Revoking their T.P.S. will push thousands of Afghans into our backlogged asylum system — if they can find a lawyer with capacity to support their application.”

Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy.

Trump Will End Temporary Protections for Afghans and Cameroonians
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Pakistan Repeats Terrorism Claims Amid Strained Ties with Afghanistan

He said that efforts to improve relations are ongoing, but security concerns and the presence of terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan remain major challenges.

As tensions rise between Kabul and Islamabad, Shafqat Ali Khan, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has emphasized that terrorism continues to be the main obstacle in the relationship between the two countries.

In a press briefing, he said that efforts to improve relations are ongoing, but security concerns and the presence of terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan remain major challenges.

Shafqat Ali Khan told reporters: “We have been reiterating that it remains an important bilateral relationship for Pakistan, we are neighbors bound by layers of history, culture, language. We have been trying to improve relations but the major roadblock, of course, remains the security situation and the sanctuaries enjoyed by terrorists. Recently, the Special Representative’s visit to Kabul was very successful.”

Previously, Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s former special envoy for Afghanistan, had described the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as the primary obstacle in bilateral relations during a session in Islamabad, emphasizing that this issue must be resolved. He warned that if not addressed, all agreements between the two countries could be canceled.

Gul Mohammaddin Mohammadi, a political analyst, said regarding the relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan: “These two countries are neighbors. They need to solve their problems through dialogue and avoid creating further hardship for the people living on both sides of the Durand Line.”

Janat Faheem Chakari, another analyst, said: “TTP is not an Afghan phenomenon. It originated within Pakistan. The Pakistani government should listen to its own people, who want a government based on Islamic Sharia.”

In addition to Pakistan’s repeated claims about Afghan territory being used against it, the forced deportation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan is also a major issue that has further strained relations between Kabul and Islamabad.

Pakistan Repeats Terrorism Claims Amid Strained Ties with Afghanistan
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Trump officials end ‘temporary protected status’ for Afghans, Cameroonians

Al Jazeera
Published On 12 Apr 2025

More than 14,600 Afghans and 7,900 Cameroonians are legally in the US under the programme which grants temporary safety from conflict and instability.

On Friday, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the decision, which will affect approximately 14,600 Afghans and 7,900 Cameroonians.

Those individuals were able to live in the US under a designation called “temporary protected status” or TPS.

The US government typically offers TPS to individuals already in the US for whom it may be unsafe to return, at least in the short term, due to conflict, natural disaster or other circumstances.

But the Trump administration has attempted to sever TPS protections for multiple nationalities since taking office in January, as part of a broader crackdown on immigration, both legal and otherwise.

In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that conditions in Afghanistan and Cameroon no longer met the criteria for TPS.

But critics point out that fighting has raged in Cameroon between the government and separatists since 2017.

Refugee groups quickly condemned the move. Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the president of the nonprofit Global Refuge, called the revocation of the TPS for Afghans “a morally indefensible betrayal”. She warned they could face persecution if returned to Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan today is still reeling from Taliban rule, economic collapse, and humanitarian disaster,” she said in a statement. “Nothing about that reality has changed.”

While the US evacuated more than 82,000 Afghans to the US, the vast majority were granted temporary “parole” or other legal statuses based on their direct work with the US government.

Still, the end of TPS would still affect a significant portion of that total group. Their TPS status will end in May.

Veterans groups and politicians on both sides of the political spectrum have called for more legal avenues for Afghans to seek safety in the US, particularly if they worked alongside US troops or the US-backed government.

Meanwhile, US lawmakers earlier this month urged the Trump administration to extend the status for Cameroonians, who face civilian attacks in their home country. They are now set to lose that protection in June.

“The country’s worsening security situation, combined with its ongoing humanitarian cries and human rights abuses, makes return impossible for Cameroonian nationals,” the lawmakers wrote.

Cameroon has seen clashes between Anglophone separatists and Francophone security forces that have resulted in extrajudicial killings, attacks on civilians and widespread displacement.

The Trump administration has moved to close several avenues to temporarily stay in the US, arguing it was “restoring the rule of law”.

But many of the moves target immigration categories established under Trump’s predecessor and political rival, former President Joe Biden.

Trump has also sought to pursue a campaign of “mass deportation” during his second term. Removing legal protections from immigrants allows the government to potentially remove them from the country.

This is not the first time Trump has targeted TPS, though. During his first term, from 2017 to 2021, he tried to end most TPS enrollment but was thwarted by federal courts.

During his second term, Trump reembarked on a similar push. In February, he sought to strip nearly 300,000 Venezuelans of their TPS.

But in late March, a US district judge blocked his attempt, saying that his government’s characterisation of the migrants as criminals “smacks of racism”.

Trump has also moved to nix the humanitarian parole programme that granted legal status to more than 500,000 Haitians, Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans under Biden.

On Thursday, however, a federal judge blocked Trump from ending the programme, which would have stripped nearly half a million people of their legal status.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
Trump officials end ‘temporary protected status’ for Afghans, Cameroonians
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Thousands of Afghans in the U.S. at Risk of Deportation After Losing Legal Protection

 

WASHINGTON, April 11 — In a move raising deep concern among Afghan communities in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has officially ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for citizens of Afghanistan, leaving thousands at risk of deportation in the coming weeks.

The decision, announced by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, concludes the protection previously granted to approximately 14,600 Afghan nationals who have lived in the U.S. under TPS since 2022. The protection had been extended due to the ongoing conflict, economic instability, and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

TPS is a legal provision that allows individuals from countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to live and work temporarily in the U.S. without fear of removal. The Biden administration had last renewed Afghanistan’s TPS designation in September 2023, citing unsafe conditions for return. That designation was set to expire in May 2025.

Secretary Noem’s announcement, however, asserts that Afghanistan no longer meets the statutory requirements for continued designation under the TPS program. The department plans to issue a formal notice explaining the rationale behind the decision in the coming days.

The development has alarmed human rights groups, refugee advocates, and Afghan American communities, who argue that the situation in Afghanistan remains dire. The country continues to face widespread poverty, food insecurity, restrictions on women’s rights, and political repression under Taliban rule.

“Ending TPS for Afghans is not only premature but deeply troubling,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President of Global Refuge. “Conditions in Afghanistan have not improved—they remain dangerous and unstable. This decision risks returning vulnerable individuals to a place where their safety and freedoms cannot be guaranteed.”

Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, more than 80,000 Afghans have been evacuated, many through emergency parole programs. Some have since adjusted their status through asylum or Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), but a large number remain under TPS as their only legal protection from deportation.

Advocacy groups have also expressed concern over recent reports of Afghan parolees receiving notices to leave the country within days after their parole was revoked. DHS has acknowledged using its discretionary authority in some cases but has not clarified how many Afghans are affected.

The removal of TPS for Afghans comes as part of a broader rollback of humanitarian immigration protections by the Trump administration, which took office earlier this year. The administration has framed the move as part of efforts to “restore the rule of law,” though critics say it targets vulnerable populations and undermines U.S. commitments to its wartime allies.

Legal challenges to the decision are possible. Earlier this year, a federal judge blocked the administration’s attempt to end TPS for Venezuelans, citing a lack of evidence and potential political bias.

For now, Afghan families under TPS are left in legal limbo, uncertain about their future in a country many have come to call home.

Thousands of Afghans in the U.S. at Risk of Deportation After Losing Legal Protection
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Mansoor: No Secret Annexes in the Doha Agreement

He said that removing the names of Islamic Emirate officials from the UN blacklist was part of the agreement’s next stages, which have yet to be implemented.

The acting minister of water and energy has said that the Doha Agreement between the United States and the Islamic Emirate contains no secret annexes.

Abdul Latif Mansoor said that removing the names of Islamic Emirate officials from the UN blacklist was part of the agreement’s next stages, which have yet to be implemented.

“The bounties have been lifted — there’s no doubt about that. They [the US] said it’s under their authority, as they had imposed them. But the blacklist was imposed by the United Nations. Since there are many member states involved, full consensus is required to remove the names. So now, Alhamdulillah, the Islamic Emirate remains committed to everything that was agreed upon in the Doha Agreement. The world should also honor its commitments and lift these lists,” he said.

Referring to the Doha peace process, Mansoor said that intra-Afghan talks were part of the agreement’s next phase, but due to the lack of unity among the previous Afghan government’s negotiating team, those talks yielded no results.

He continued: “The team that came from Afghanistan for the intra-Afghan negotiations consisted of individuals from various parties and with differing views. Even the former government was formed based on political compromise. So when discussions took place, no quick consensus could be reached. They would often disagree among themselves.”

Mansoor also noted that the main pillars of the Doha Agreement were: the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, the start of intra-Afghan dialogue, a permanent ceasefire, and a guarantee that Afghan soil would not be used against the United States.

This comes as both the Islamic Emirate and the United States have previously accused each other of violating parts of the agreement.

Mansoor: No Secret Annexes in the Doha Agreement
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UK Envoy: UN Proposal on Afghanistan Ready for Discussion

He added that the proposal emphasizes strengthening relations with Afghanistan and ensuring the country’s security.

The chargé d’affaires of the British Embassy for Afghanistan, Robert Chatterton Dickson, informed the acting minister of refugees that a proposal regarding Afghanistan has been prepared by the United Nations.

In a meeting with Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, acting minister of refugees and repatriation, the British envoy said a UN proposal concerning Afghanistan has been finalized and will soon be shared with the Islamic Emirate.

He added that the proposal emphasizes strengthening relations with Afghanistan and ensuring the country’s security, and that the UK has played a significant role in its preparation.

Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Refugees, also said:” Mr. Dickson expressed his satisfaction during the meeting that a proposal concerning Afghanistan has been prepared at the United Nations and is set to be shared with Islamic Emirate officials in the near future. He stated that the proposal includes strengthening relations with Afghanistan, ensuring security, and other positive elements. The United Kingdom has played an important role in drafting this document.”

Political analyst Ahmad Khan Andar said: “Countries like the UK, which were involved in the war in Afghanistan and contributed to its political and economic instability, should make greater efforts—not just for their own interests, but to avoid neglecting the Afghan people.”

During the meeting, Mawlawi Abdul Kabir reiterated the Islamic Emirate’s commitment to building positive relations with European countries, especially the United Kingdom, based on mutual respect.

At the same time, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai also met with the UK’s chargé d’affaires and emphasized the importance of strengthening relations between Kabul and London. He thanked the UK for its continued support and expressed hope that cooperation would persist.

Former diplomat Aziz Maarij said: “If the UK takes the initiative to engage with Afghanistan and improve relations, it could encourage other Western and European countries to do the same, which would benefit Afghanistan by helping it gain recognition and emerge from international isolation.”

Although the UK has not formally recognized the Islamic Emirate, its representatives who have met with Emirate officials have stressed the importance of continuing engagement with the interim government.

UK Envoy: UN Proposal on Afghanistan Ready for Discussion
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Liberal candidate co-authored inquiry submission suggesting Hazaras not persecuted for ethnicity in Afghanistan

The Liberal candidate for Bruce co-authored a parliamentary submission suggesting the Hazara community in Afghanistan was not persecuted on the basis of its ethnicity, contradicting the Australian government and drawing rebuke from international human rights groups.

Zahid Safi co-authored a submission to a 2021 parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s involvement in the Afghanistan war, which incorrectly cited a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report to allege Hazara “warlords” had “cut the breasts of women” and watched “live delivery of pregnant women” during the early 1990s. The 2005 HRW report does not mention these acts.

The allegations led members of the Hazara community, which has a significant presence in the electorate of Bruce, to lodge their own dissenting submissions to the inquiry, alleging the claims relied on “racist tropes” and sought to erase the “well-documented persecution of an entire ethnic group”.

Safi did not directly comment on those allegations when contacted by Guardian Australia, instead stating he was “a staunch advocate for freedom of religion or belief for all individuals worldwide”.

“As someone who fled the country because of war, I know everyone under the Taliban suffered, and my advocacy for human rights is shaped by those experiences,” Safi said.

The Senate submission co-authored by Safi said, in reference to conflict in Afghanistan, “that victims of war are not based on ethnicity”.

“The victims of war are targeted based on ideology,” the joint submission said. “This means, whoever opposes the Taliban and their ideology, is perceived as the Taliban’s enemy. Therefore, their perceived animosity is not based on ethnic division.”

A 2022 briefing paper on Afghanistan, prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, states the Hazara community are an ethnic group that represents an estimated 10-20% of the country’s population. It states the Hazara face “a high risk of harassment and violence (…) on the basis of their ethnicity and sectarian affiliation”.

The department notes the Hazara community has been historically persecuted, noting it was subjected to “the worst single recorded massacre in the country’s recent history” in August 1998, when the Taliban, a predominantly Pashtun organisation, “massacred at least 2,000 Hazaras”.

The submission co-authored by Safi also expressed frustration that other ethnic groups from Afghanistan had allegedly been “sidelined” by the Australian government and media, due to an alleged prioritisation of the Hazara community.

“Pashtuns have had the most casualties compared to others and this needs to be acknowledged by the Australian government as the 20 years’ war existed mostly in the Pashtun provinces,” the submission stated.

Thousands of Hazaras who fled Afghanistan after persecution from the Taliban in the 1990s settled in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, within the federal electorate of Bruce. The electorate is also home to other Afghan ethnic groups.

Safi said: “A full and fair reading of my submission makes clear that I advocated for every single living individual at risk from the national atrocity and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan under the Taliban.”

Guardian Australia has spoken to other co-authors of the report who stand by its claims.

Bruce is held by the incumbent Labor MP, Julian Hill. A margin of 6.6% at the 2022 election has been reduced to 5.3% after a redistribution.

The submission has been criticised by HRW’s Afghanistan researcher, Fereshta Abbasi, who accused the authors of misrepresenting a report by the organisation to imply brutal violence in Kabul between 1992 and 1995 was conducted exclusively by Hazaras.

“Among these atrocities were those carried out by ethnically Pashtun militia forces and ethnically Hazara militia forces against civilians of these respective ethnic groups, in tit-for-tat kidnappings, rapes and killings,” Abbasi said.

“Attributing them exclusively towards Hazaras is misleading. It is our finding that these attacks were in fact based on ethnicity – in that the victims were targeted because of their ethnicity.”

A dissenting submission made by members of the Hazara community, who asked for the Senate to withhold their names, said the submission co-authored by Safi had “the effect of amplifying racist tropes”.

“It highlights the actions of a few actors in a past civil war, drawing attention to ethnicity to imply the guilt of entire ethnic groups, or to imply that people who belong to ethnic groups other than Pashtun are violent in nature,” the dissenting submission said.

A separate dissenting report by two academics specialising in Afghanistan at La Trobe University and Deakin University, along with solicitors and PhD candidates, accused the submission of containing “a series of factually incorrect statements and racist prejudices”.

“Instead of acknowledging the historical and current persecution of the Hazaras, and the significant risks faced by Hazaras in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime; the authors deliberately blame the Hazaras for the general violence and human rights abuses that were perpetrated during several phases of the war in Afghanistan,” the academics and lawyers said.

Liberal candidate co-authored inquiry submission suggesting Hazaras not persecuted for ethnicity in Afghanistan
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Germany to expand deportation plan to Afghanistan under new Government

Khaama Press

Germany’s new government plans to expand deportations to Afghanistan, targeting rejected asylum seekers amid growing political pressure and migration concerns.

German media have reported that the country’s future government plans to resume deportation flights to Afghanistan and Syria as part of a tougher immigration policy targeting undocumented migrants and rejected asylum seekers.

According to Deutsche Welle on Thursday, April 10, the plan aims to return around 200,000 individuals who currently hold a “tolerated” (Duldung) immigration status. This marks a significant shift in Germany’s approach to managing migration challenges.

Among those most affected are Afghan migrants, who make up one of the largest asylum-seeking communities in Germany. The new policy reportedly includes accelerating the process of returning Afghan nationals to their home country.

Thorsten Frei, head of the Christian Democratic Union’s parliamentary group, told Bild newspaper: “We will carry out deportations and return flights to Afghanistan and Syria. The German people can count on this promise.”

Germany had halted deportations to Afghanistan after the Taliban took over in August 2021 due to human rights concerns. However, mounting domestic political pressure has pushed the government to reconsider its stance.

Over the past decade, tens of thousands of Afghans have sought asylum in Germany, fleeing war, insecurity, and threats from the Taliban. Many of them remain under “tolerated” status—lacking permanent residency but not deported due to safety concerns in their home country.

The first deportation flight to Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power occurred in August 2024, with 28 Afghan men convicted of criminal offenses returned to Kabul via a Qatar-mediated agreement. The flight was seen as a trial step toward broader deportation efforts.

The incoming government’s new deportation policy, expected to take effect after the February 2025 elections, is likely to extend beyond criminal offenders and include all rejected asylum seekers—raising concerns among migrant rights groups.

Germany’s renewed deportation policy highlights a growing tension between domestic political pressures and humanitarian obligations. As the government moves forward, the fate of thousands of vulnerable individuals remains uncertain, sparking debates over the balance between security and compassion.

 

Germany to expand deportation plan to Afghanistan under new Government
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