U.S. Official: Taliban Have ‘Relatively’ Cooperated in Counterterrorism

Sebastian Gorka added that there are groups in Afghanistan that pose a threat to the current ruling authority as well.

Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the U.S. President and a senior member of the National Security Council on counterterrorism affairs, has said that the “Taliban” have cooperated with the United States in the fight against terrorism.

Sebastian Gorka added that there are groups in Afghanistan that pose a threat to the current ruling authority as well.

He stated: “Cooperative counterterrorism partners, because there are certain threat groups in their country, Muslim threat groups that threaten them as well, and so we’re working together. We don’t have a complete overlap in threats, but not bad. The biggest concern is, of course, and you understand this, is with the surrender of Kabul under Biden, it’s very hard to see everything we need to see happening in that region.”

The senior U.S. official also spoke of some progress, particularly regarding U.S. citizens who, according to him, are detained in Afghanistan.

Sebastian Gorka emphasized that after August 2021, the United States lost its full oversight over the situation in Afghanistan.

He added: “With regards to Afghanistan, some very promising things I can’t give full details about are in motion right now, especially when it comes to US citizens who are being detained in Afghanistan. My greatest concern, and the Taliban, this sounds strange coming out of my mouth, but the Taliban have been moderately cooperative counter-terrorism partners, because there are certain threat groups.”

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump once again criticized the manner of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

At a press conference in the White House, Trump said that Biden left behind a large amount of U.S. military equipment in Afghanistan.

“We gave a lot of it away to Afghanistan, but relatively small compared to the overall, but I think it was the most embarrassing day and period in the history of our country that they allowed those 13 wonderful people, but it’s really hundreds of people were killed,” Trump said.

The Islamic Emirate has not yet commented on this matter, though it has previously rejected the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

This is the first time since Donald Trump assumed the U.S. presidency that a senior American official has made such remarks about the Islamic Emirate.

U.S. Official: Taliban Have ‘Relatively’ Cooperated in Counterterrorism
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Peace Changed the Village Where War Changed Me

Joao Silva

Reporting from Deh-e Kuchay, Afghanistan

The New York Times

Aug. 21, 2025, 8:58 a.m. ET

Fifteen years after a combat photographer lost his legs to a land mine, he returned to the place in Afghanistan where it happened.

The village elder was out in his pasture, as he is every morning, crouched low in waist-high alfalfa. He ran his sickle through the thickets, and he and his grandsons gathered the plants into heaping bundles, lugging them on their backs to the two cows sheltered behind the walls of the family’s homestead.

The last time I was in this small farming community in southern Afghanistan, these simple tasks were impossible. The village was a front line in an interminable war. Buried beneath the earth was an endless arsenal of explosive devices, the Taliban’s weapon of choice against American forces.

“We were afraid of being killed, of explosions, and of bullets,” the elder, Haji Muhammed Zarif, 58, told me recently, his weathered features deepening as he squinted into the early sun.

One of those explosions he remembers distinctly. On Oct. 23, 2010, U.S. soldiers were searching Mr. Zarif’s apricot fields when a blast rang out in a nearby compound. A small cloud of smoke rose into the sky as he watched from a safe distance. Minutes later, a helicopter landed, and Mr. Zarif could see soldiers carrying someone toward it.

That distant figure, I told Mr. Zarif, had been me. While working as a photographer for The New York Times, I stepped on a land mine and lost both of my legs.

From the moment I picked up a camera again, I had wanted to return to this village, Deh-e Kuchay, in the fertile Arghandab Valley. That became possible after the war ended in 2021. And now, more than 30 years since my first visit to Afghanistan and nearly 15 years after my injury, I was allowed back, seeing the country as I had never seen it before: at peace.

I was here in search of closure, but not the emotional kind. I had unfinished journalistic business. My time in Afghanistan had ended abruptly. I had missed the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban takeover, and I was sad that I had not seen the story through. But now I would pick it back up in a new chapter.

I had no idea what life would now be like under the Taliban, and was open to whatever I would see. I harbored no anger toward the Taliban. My legs had been lost to an act of violence, but I did not take it personally. The mine was buried for whoever came along first. I had not been surprised, after the war had killed or maimed so many, that I was next.

On that long-ago autumn day, I had been on a patrol with a platoon from Task Force 1-66 of the U.S. Army’s Fourth Infantry Division, documenting mine-removal operations with a Times correspondent, Carlotta Gall. It was the height of the American presence in southern Afghanistan, months into President Barack Obama’s troop “surge” aimed at turning around the faltering war effort.

Setting out from their combat outpost, the soldiers intuitively fell into single-file formation. As they approached an abandoned Taliban checkpoint, a prime location for roadside bombs, the patrol was ordered to halt. Three soldiers then pushed forward, sweeping the road ahead.

Two of them — Sgt. Brian Maxwell, who handled the sniffer dog, and Sgt. Anton Waterman, who provided security — continued on to a destroyed compound. They stepped inside, and I followed eagerly in tow, determined to keep my camera close to the action.

I don’t recall hearing an explosion, but there was a metallic click of sorts, followed by an immeasurable electric shock that ripped through my lower body, overpowering all my senses. I collapsed into a rising cloud of smoke and dust.

“Guys, I need help!” I remember saying. As I lay in the dirt, I instinctively tried to take pictures of my shredded legs but failed. I managed to shutter three frames of the soldiers I was with — they suffered concussions but were otherwise uninjured — before the pain took hold, forcing me to drop the camera.

Within seconds, I was being carried to the relative safety of the nearby road. I asked for a cigarette. When Carlotta materialized at my side, I used the satellite phone she was carrying to call my wife, Vivian, back home in South Africa. I figured that it would be better for her to hear the news from me rather than from an editor in New York. Part of me also wanted to hear her voice one more time, just in case.

I asked for another cigarette, but my request was declined as medics worked frantically to keep me alive. My memory fades as I was loaded into the medevac helicopter.

I returned to Deh-e Kuchay in May, I first met Mr. Zarif, the village elder, outside a small police outpost. He said he had thought that the person who was hit by the explosion that day in 2010 had died. “But today, I’m happy to hear that the person was you, and that you are alive,” he said, his eyes burrowing into mine.

He told me how much had changed now that the country was free of war.

“In the past, we were only living. We couldn’t enjoy our lives,” Mr. Zarif said. “But now, since there is security, we enjoy every moment of life, and have come to realize that we are truly alive.”

He took me to the exact location where I had lost my legs, but I did not recognize what I was staring at. The compound was gone. In its place stood a pomegranate orchard in flower, the petals glowing blood red in the afternoon sunlight. It gave me some comfort to see that life now grew from what had been a place of destruction.

Map located Deh-d Kuchay and the Arghandab River near Kandahar in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan.

Behind us, the checkpoint that the soldiers of the Fourth Infantry Division had once warily approached was again controlled by the Taliban. A flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban call their government, mocked 20 years of a futile war that killed more than 160,000 Afghans and over 6,000 Americans. A policeman sat on a plastic chair, his rifle resting on his lap, as he kept an eye on the village’s somnambulant traffic.

The checkpoint commander, Muttaqi Saheb, 43, and his crew took refuge under a mulberry tree, a rest area where tea is drunk and prayers are recited. Mildly curious, he listened to my story and asked how I was feeling now.

“I am good. Strong,” I said, and he nodded in appreciation. I had spent about 19 months recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. My injuries meant that I would never photograph combat again, but I eventually resumed my work, even if I must now allow the action to come to me instead of rushing toward it.

As tea was served, Mr. Saheb and I talked about the war.

“The United States, with all its resources and air and ground forces, could not establish security in Afghanistan,” he said. “But the Taliban, who had nothing except motorcycles and Kalashnikovs, were able to take over the entire country in a short period of time and provide security.”

Deh-e Kuchay is once again a hive of rural activity as its residents carve a living from the land. Its roughly 250 families are served by two small stores on opposite ends of the village. One doubles as a motorcycle repair shop, fixing punctures and the like.

The village school is filled with the sound of children’s laughter. Young men play cricket on an open ground that once served as a landing pad for American helicopters.

Signs of the occupation are slowly disappearing. The old U.S. base in the village is gone, but blast walls still line part of a road. Where houses for American soldiers once stood, workers were laying foundations for new homes that will be occupied by villagers.

I sought out Haji Muhammed Jan, 67, a farmer Carlotta and I had met on the day before my injury.

He has expanded the pomegranate orchard where we had gathered all those years ago. He said he was happy that peace had returned, but he complained that life remained difficult, that the economy was not good. Huge cuts in international aid, crippling sanctions related to the Taliban’s harsh restrictions on women and girls, and a postwar ban on opium cultivation have led to hardship for many Afghans.

“Since our young people don’t have jobs or employment, the rate of theft has increased,” Mr. Jan said. “Anything that can be sold, they steal and take away.”

As the morning sun cleared the horizon, we sat on a ground covering at the edge of Mr. Jan’s field, breaking bread and sipping tea, while he reminisced about the war, including the day when U.S. troops kicked down the gate to his orchard. He fondly recalled a soldier named Nick, a man he described as skinny but very strong. It had taken all of Mr. Jan’s strength to defeat the soldier in arm wrestling, he said.

A neighboring farmer with manic eyes and wild hair made a sudden appearance. He held a bouquet of roses and other flowers. The news of a foreigner’s presence in the village had spread fast. Foreign journalists working in Afghanistan face reporting restrictions, and I had been drawing a crowd when I stopped to take photographs.

“In the past, we were planting I.E.D.’s for you,” the man, Sher Ahmad, 50, said as he handed me the flowers, sitting down unceremoniously and joining us. “Now we give you flowers.”

It took me a while to process his remark. In Pashtun culture, giving flowers can be a gesture of love, respect and a sense of security. I wondered if the roses were a peace offering.

I soon learned that Mr. Ahmad’s brother was a prominent Taliban combatant and, according to the school’s principal, Mawlawi Hafizullah, had planted many bombs targeting American forces.

The fighter, who goes by the nom de guerre Sardar Agha, is well known and admired in the community. He financed an opulent mosque with a towering minaret that dwarfs the surrounding mud structures. Mr. Ahmad said that Sardar Agha had told him to “welcome the journalist properly.”

Through an intermediary, I asked Sardar Agha if he would meet with me, and initial indications were positive. But as much as I would have reveled in the chance to sit and talk, in the end he refused.

I was disappointed but not surprised, because somewhere in the recesses of my mind I knew it was a long shot. It left me to wonder whether Sardar also wants to put the war behind him, or whether he was counseled not to meet me.

As we left the village and the sky dawned in subdued hues, I felt content to have walked on that ground again, even if through the aid of prostheses, and to have come this far, even if Afghanistan itself has so far to go.

Joao Silva is a Times photographer based in South Africa.

Peace Changed the Village Where War Changed Me
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Humanitarian Crisis: Afghan Refugees with Legal Papers Forced to Live in Islamabad Parks

By Fidel Rahmati
Khaama Press

Afghan refugees with legal documents, expelled from homes in Islamabad, now live in public parks without food, shelter, or medical care, creating a growing humanitarian crisis.

Afghan refugees with legal documents who were evicted from their homes in Islamabad are now spending nights in a city park, struggling with hunger, heat, and cold.

According to a Reuters report on Wednesday, August 20, the displaced families said they face scorching heat during the day and rain and cold at night, with little access to food or medical care.

The United Nations has warned that Pakistan has begun expelling even documented refugees before the September 1 deadline, a move that could force more than one million Afghans to leave.

Dozens of police officers have been deployed around the park. Refugees claim officers have repeatedly threatened them with removal, though police have denied these allegations.

Meanwhile, the UN reports that nearly 700,000 Afghans have also been deported from Iran, marking the largest refugee return crisis since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan.

These developments have sparked growing concern among humanitarian organizations, who warn that the mass expulsions are leaving vulnerable families without shelter, food, or protection.

With Afghanistan still facing economic collapse and insecurity, aid groups stress that Pakistan and Iran must uphold international obligations and ensure the treatment of Afghan refugees is humane and lawful.

Humanitarian Crisis: Afghan Refugees with Legal Papers Forced to Live in Islamabad Parks
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Don Brown Appointed as U.S. Chargé d’Affaires for Afghanistan

By Fidel Rahmati

Don Brown, a career diplomat and former deputy chief of mission, has been appointed U.S. Chargé d’Affaires for Afghanistan, succeeding Karen Decker after her dedicated service.

The United States Embassy for Afghanistan, now operating from Doha, announced the appointment of Don Brown as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim on Thursday, August 21. The embassy confirmed the transition in a statement posted on its official X account, writing: “We bid farewell to Chargé d’Affaires Karen Decker, thanking her for her years of dedicated service and leadership to the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan. Join us in welcoming Don Brown as our new Chargé d’Affaires (CDA), ad interim; CDA Brown has served as Deputy Chief of Mission since November 2023.”

According to the US Embassy statement, Brown, a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, formally assumed the role in July 2025. Since November 2023, he has served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan. Prior to this appointment, he specialized in counterterrorism, political-military affairs, and disrupting transnational crime and illicit finance.

The statement also pointed out that his extensive diplomatic service includes international postings in Baghdad, Berlin, Gaborone, New Delhi, Jeddah, Kampala, and Lima, with roles ranging from political and economic counselor to deputy director in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). In Washington, Brown also served as foreign policy advisor to Marine Corps Forces Central Command (MARCENT) and worked in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs on threat finance and sanctions.

Brown began his career in diplomacy in 1997 after ten years as a U.S. Air Force officer. A native of Pasadena, California, he graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1987. He has studied Spanish and Arabic and currently resides in Doha, Qatar, with his wife and mother-in-law.

Meanwhile, his predecessor, Karen Decker, had served as U.S. Chargé d’Affaires for Afghanistan since 2021, following the withdrawal of American forces from Kabul. Decker’s tenure was marked by navigating complex political realities and ensuring continued U.S. engagement with Afghanistan civil society under difficult circumstances.

Brown’s appointment comes at a time when the U.S. seeks to maintain diplomatic presence and humanitarian engagement with Afghanistan despite the absence of an embassy in Kabul. His background in counterterrorism, political-military strategy, and regional diplomacy is expected to play a key role in shaping U.S. policy in the region moving forward.

Don Brown Appointed as U.S. Chargé d’Affaires for Afghanistan
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Afghanistan Afghan, Pakistani Diplomats Urge Resolution of Bilateral Tensions

The Islamic Emirate’s ambassador in Islamabad, emphasized the Emirate’s balanced and economy-focused foreign policy.

The Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad held an online discussion reviewing four years of the Islamic Emirate’s rule in Afghanistan.

Speaking at the event, Sardar Ahmad Shakib, the Islamic Emirate’s ambassador in Islamabad, emphasized the Emirate’s balanced and economy-focused foreign policy.

Sardar Ahmad Shakib said: ” In foreign relations, the Islamic Emirate continues to pursue a balanced policy with an emphasis on economic-oriented diplomacy. Afghanistan today is neither dependent on one bloc nor in conflict with another one, but rather seeks relations with all countries on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests.”

Meanwhile, Mansoor Ahmad Khan, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Kabul, stated that tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan still persist and must be resolved.

He said: “Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship has, you know, continued to show an interesting pattern. There has been a state-to-state friction that has existed for last five, six decades between Pakistan and Afghanistan, whether it was 1980s, state-to-state friction was there, whether it was 1990s, whether it was 2001 to 2021 US and NATO presence. And even after Taliban assuming the reins of the state.”

Political analyst Najib Rahman Shamal also said: “The Pakistani government should reconsider its approach toward Afghanistan, taking into account Afghanistan’s circumstances and the Islamic Emirate’s past four years of rule, in order to ensure peace in the region.”

One of the main issues straining relations has been Islamabad’s repeated claims about Afghan soil being used against Pakistan, an issue that, over the past four years, has frequently led to verbal disputes and even armed clashes between the two sides.

Afghanistan Afghan, Pakistani Diplomats Urge Resolution of Bilateral Tensions
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UN, China, Pakistan Voice Concern Over Terrorist Presence in Afghanistan

The Chinese envoy further urged regional countries to make use of existing initiatives, such as SCO, to strengthen regional counterterrorism efforts.

Although the Islamic Emirate has repeatedly denied the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s representative to the UN Security Council, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, once again claimed that TTP, ISIS, and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) are operating from Afghan soil.

Speaking at the same UN Security Council meeting on “Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts – Security Council meeting,” China’s representative also called on the Islamic Emirate to take action to eliminate terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

The Chinese envoy further urged regional countries to make use of existing initiatives, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), to strengthen regional counterterrorism efforts.

At the meeting, Vladimir Voronkov, UN Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism, also claimed that ISIS-K poses a growing threat from Afghanistan to Central Asian countries.

The Islamic Emirate, however, has maintained that ISIS has been suppressed in Afghanistan and that no country currently faces any threat from Afghan soil.

UN, China, Pakistan Voice Concern Over Terrorist Presence in Afghanistan
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Lawmakers announce legislation to restore office for Afghan relocation

Military Times

Aug 20, 2025

Lawmakers introduced new legislation Tuesday that would reinstate a previously dissolved U.S. government office that led relocation efforts for Afghan allies and refugees.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif. — along with several other lawmakers — announced the Enduring Welcome Act, which would legally codify the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, or CARE. The Trump administration closed the office just last month.

“We will not turn our backs on the brave Afghans who risked everything to protect our service members,” said Kamlager-Dove in a press release. “Their courage helped save American lives, and now it is our duty to protect theirs.”

Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Dina Titus, D-Nev. and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, assisted with the bill.

CARE handled planning and logistics for the relocation of Afghans who qualified for Special Immigrant Visas, Immigrant Visas and the United States Refugee Assistant Program, or USRAP.

Special Immigrant Visas are granted to Afghans who were employed by the U.S. government, often assisting the U.S. during the war in Afghanistan.

Operation Enduring Welcome, a program instituted by the Biden administration and implemented by CARE, helps to relocate Afghan nationals who are endangered because of their affiliation with the U.S. government. The program is set to end Sept. 30.

The new legislation reinstitutes the CARE office within the U.S. State Department for five years and awards it the authority to assist with voluntary departure requests from Afghans; help coordinating with other agencies on security vetting, facilitating relocation and helping reunite families — including those of U.S. service members; and assisting with medical care.

It also tasks CARE with keeping a database that tracks all Afghan relocation cases.

“A bipartisan introduction here demonstrates that Congress and the administration don’t agree on this,” VanDiver told Military Times. “The administration is actually still working through what their policy is gonna be… It seems like they should have figured that out before they stopped a bunch of things, but they didn’t.”

That’s why the legislation is important, he said.

The Enduring Welcome Act isn’t the only current legislation aimed at honoring the United States’ commitment to its Afghan allies.

Congressman Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, introduced the Afghan Adjustment Act on Aug. 5.

The legislation would create a pathway for Afghans in the United States to obtain lawful permanent residence status.

Both proposed laws likely face a long path toward approval, but VanDiver said he expects a Senate introduction for the Enduring Welcome Act soon.

In May, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced the end of temporary protected status, or TPS, for Afghanistan, stating that the region’s “improved security” meant individuals could move back without fear for their safety.

TPS, which was instituted during the Biden administration to protect Afghans from being deported back to their home nation after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, ended July 14.

The end of TPS affects 9,000 people, including their authorization to work, according to the International Rescue Committee, an organization that helps provide humanitarian relief.

Advocates and U.S. service members openly disagreed with Noem and DHS’s evaluation of safety in the region when the announcement was made.

“Afghanistan remains under the control of the Taliban,” VanDiver said in a statement at the time. “There are still assassinations, arbitrary arrests and ongoing human rights abuses, especially against women and ethnic minorities.”

Afghan relocation efforts stopped completely when President Trump suspended USRAP on Jan. 20.

The same day, Trump issued an executive order that halted travel for individuals with Special Immigrant Visas.

“There has not been a single relocation flight for Afghans since Jan. 20, 2025,” VanDiver said.

AfghanEvac estimates that 150,000 to 250,000 Afghans are currently attempting to immigrate to the U.S.

The ban also affects U.S. service members.

Military personnel with family members currently in Afghanistan told Military Times in February that they feared for their kin, who were actively being hunted by the Taliban because of their affiliation with the U.S. government.

Roughly 200 family members of U.S. troops are caught in resettlement purgatory, AfghanEvac stated.

Trump promised at a White House event on July 30 that U.S. officials would help Afghan allies relocate to the U.S., while casting doubt on the motives of some in the immigration pipeline.

“We know the good ones, and we know the ones that maybe aren’t so good,” Trump said in response to a question about Afghan refugees. “We’re going to take care of those people, the ones that did a job [for us], the ones that were told certain things.”

Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.

Lawmakers announce legislation to restore office for Afghan relocation
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China, Afghanistan hold talks on mining, Belt and Road participation

KABUL, Aug 20 (Reuters) – China told Afghanistan on Wednesday that Beijing was keen on exploring and mining minerals in Afghanistan and wanted Kabul to formally join its Belt and Road Initiative, the Afghan Taliban foreign ministry said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Kabul and held talks with Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, the ministry said in a statement, adding that both countries wanted to expand cooperation in a range of areas.
Beijing will continue to support the Afghan government to achieve long-term peace and stability, Wang told Muttaqi, according to a readout of the meeting released by China’s foreign ministry.
China was willing to deepen mutual political trust with Afghanistan and step up cooperation in areas including trade and agriculture, Wang said.
He called on Afghanistan to combat militant forces, adding that tighter security ties would provide a guarantee for bilateral economic cooperation.
“Mr. Wang Yi also mentioned that China intends to initiate practical mining activities this year,” the Afghan statement said.
In a separate meeting with the Afghan Taliban prime minister, Mohammad Hassan Akhund, Wang said “China will continue to uphold justice, oppose unilateral bullying, and engage in cooperation in various fields with Afghanistan”.
Wang urged Akhund’s government to take seriously Chinese concerns over “terrorist forces” and step up efforts to combat them, according to a readout of the meeting from Wang’s ministry.
China was the first country to appoint an ambassador to Afghanistan under the Taliban and has sought to develop its ties with the hardline Islamist group that took control of the war-torn country in 2021.
The impoverished country, rich in lithium, copper and iron deposits, could offer a wealth of mineral resources to boost Beijing’s supply chain security, analysts say.

Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar. Writing by Sudipto Ganguly. Editing by YP Rajesh and Mark Potter

China, Afghanistan hold talks on mining, Belt and Road participation
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‘Economic suicide’: Afghan expulsions spark labor crisis in Iran

Maryam Sinaiee

Iran International

Iran’s economy is reeling from an acute labor shortage following the mass deportation of undocumented Afghan migrants, with key industries such as construction and agriculture struggling to function.

For decades, Afghans have formed the backbone of Iran’s low-wage workforce, filling jobs few Iranians were willing to take.

Their sudden absence now threatens both growth and jobs.

Conservative economist Mohammad-Hossein Mesbah called the push to send Afghans home “economic suicide.”

“Abbasabad industrial town [south of Tehran] was almost entirely closed today,” he posted on X. “Why? Shortage of labor. Job ads everywhere … Not a single worker to be found.”

From open borders to expulsions

Before the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the Afghan population in Iran rarely exceeded two million, including about 780,000 with official refugee status. Under former President Ebrahim Raisi’s “open borders” policy, that number surged to more than seven million.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has since reversed course under public pressure.

Following Iran’s recent 12-day conflict with Israel, the government accelerated the deportation of undocumented Afghans, linking some expulsions to national security.

Officials say more than one million migrants have left in the past 100 days, though an estimated six million remain—four million without legal status.

The government has vowed to enforce labor laws, including fines of around $20 per day for undocumented workers, doubling for repeat offenses. Yet enforcement remains patchy in sectors long dependent on informal labor.

Iran has sent back more than a million Afghans to Afghanistan in the past few months
Iran has sent back more than a million Afghans to Afghanistan in the past few months

Afghans’ role in the Iranian workforce

According to the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, 433,000 registered Afghan workers were active as of June 2025—roughly 2 percent of the total labor force.

More than half worked in construction, while others were employed in industry (19 percent), agriculture (11 percent), and mining (less than 1 percent).

A Chamber of Commerce study noted that Afghans, once concentrated in unskilled jobs, had increasingly moved into skilled and technical roles.

Their disappearance is now raising alarms about productivity and output across the economy.

Industry and construction hit hardest

The owner of an industrial workshop in Boumehen, near Tehran, told Shargh newspaper that even legally employed Afghans have left in fear. “We still haven’t found replacements, and nobody responds to our job ads,” he said.

Construction has been hit hardest.

In 2024, estimates suggested that Afghans made up three-quarters of Iran’s 1.5 million construction workers, and nearly half of those in Tehran.

With deportations underway, projects have stalled, and labor costs have jumped by 30–50 percent. The spike is expected to push housing costs even further out of reach.

Rising costs for food and services

Agriculture has also been disrupted. Farmers report delays in harvesting summer fruits and other perishable produce, including pistachios and saffron—two of Iran’s top non-oil exports.

Higher labor costs threaten to drive up food prices at a time when inflation is already high.

Urban services are showing strain as well.

In Tehran, the deportation of hundreds of Afghan street cleaners employed by municipal contractors has left piles of garbage and recyclables in some neighborhoods. Overflowing trash has become a visible sign of how deeply the deportations are reshaping daily life.

Some contractors have lost up to 80 percent of their workforce, according to city official Naser Amani.

‘Economic suicide’: Afghan expulsions spark labor crisis in Iran
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Effort to Revive Afghan Relocations to US Garners Bipartisan Support

Afghan evacuees exit a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at NAS Sigonella

Afghan evacuees exit a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III at Naval Air Station Sigonella during Operation Allies Refuge Aug. 22, 2021. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel M. Young)

A program to relocate vulnerable Afghans, including allies who helped the U.S. during the war and families of American service members, that was dismantled by the Trump administration would be reestablished under a bipartisan bill introduced Tuesday.

The Enduring Welcome Act would revive the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, or CARE, which was established after the 2021 military withdrawal from Afghanistan to help resettle Afghans fleeing the Taliban and was shuttered by the State Department earlier this year.

“Honoring our commitments to our Afghan allies should never be a partisan issue, but a matter of moral responsibility, national honor and global credibility,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., said in a statement Tuesday about introducing the bill. “With this bipartisan bill, we are sending a clear and unified message: The United States keeps its promises.”n addition to Kamlager-Dove, the bill is sponsored by Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.; and Dina Titus, D-Nev. All four are members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and McCaul is its former chairman.

The bill is also co-sponsored by 12 other Democrats and three other Republicans.

The bill’s introduction comes during the four-year anniversary of the U.S. military evacuation of Afghanistan. After Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021, the military spent the next two weeks evacuating as many U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghan civilians as possible before the last American troops departed.

While thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort or whose lives were otherwise threatened by the Taliban were evacuated, thousands more were left behind. The Biden administration created CARE in 2022 to streamline continued relocation efforts.

Last year, Congress passed a law mandating that the State Department appoint a coordinator for Afghan relocation efforts, though the law did not require the entire CARE office.

Relocation efforts froze almost immediately after President Donald Trump took office in January as a result of several executive orders, including ones to halt refugee admissions and foreign aid programs.

Then, as part of a broader reorganization, the State Department announced in May it was scrapping CARE, and in July, the office’s leaders were part of the department’s mass firings. Despite those moves, the State Department has maintained that ongoing relocations will be handled by the department’s Afghan affairs office.

Last month, Trump also twice promised to protect Afghans who helped U.S. troops during the war.

“We’re going to take care of those people, the ones that did a job, the ones that were told certain things,” Trump told reporters last month.

But flights of Afghans awaiting relocation to the United States have not resumed. Additionally, the Trump administration is seeking to deport at least two Afghans who worked with the American military and fled to the U.S.

Bipartisan sponsorship of the bill introduced Tuesday represents one of the few times Republicans have gone on the record to oppose a Trump administration action and support a concrete effort to reverse that action.

Still, it’s unclear whether the bipartisan support will be enough to power the bill through Congress. A separate measure to strengthen legal protections for Afghans, known as the Afghan Adjustment Act, has stalled for years despite bipartisan support.

In addition to restoring the CARE program, the bill introduced Tuesday would solidify the office’s functions. That includes “addressing family reunification barriers, including cases involving United States active-duty service members and veterans,” according to the bill text.

#AfghanEvac, a coalition of organizations that help resettle Afghans, has estimated that more than 200 U.S. service members have family members stranded abroad awaiting relocation to the United States.

The bill would also require the State Department to create a database of Afghans in the relocation pipeline “to inform operations and ensure transparency,” the bill says.

Under the bill, the CARE office would sunset in five years, while the database would be permanent.

“Our Afghan allies fought and bled alongside U.S. troops, and in return they were promised our protection,” McCaul, who led an investigation of the withdrawal, said in a statement. “Yet as my Afghanistan report revealed, tens of thousands were abandoned during the chaotic withdrawal, left to face horrific violence and reprisal killings at the hands of the Taliban — all because they chose to help us. I’m proud to co-lead the Enduring Welcome Act to honor our promise, stand by those who stood by us, and telegraph a clear message of American strength and credibility throughout the world.”

Effort to Revive Afghan Relocations to US Garners Bipartisan Support
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