Taliban tortured and threatened Afghans expelled from Pakistan and Iran, UN report says
The Taliban have tortured and threatened Afghans forcibly returned from Iran and Pakistan because of their identity or personal history, a U.N. report said Thursday.
Pakistan and Iran are expelling millions of Afghans who they say are living in their countries illegally. Afghan authorities have urged nationals to return, pledging amnesty for anyone who left after the Taliban seized power in 2021.
But rights groups and the U.N. have repeatedly warned that some of those returning are at risk of persecution because of their gender, links to the former Western-backed administration or profession.
Thursday's report from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said some people have experienced serious human rights violations, while others have gone into hiding or relocated for fear of Taliban reprisal.
The violations include torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest, and threats to personal security at the hands of the Taliban, according to the report.
A former government official told the U.N. mission that, after his return to Afghanistan in 2023, he was detained and severely tortured with sticks and cables. He was waterboarded and subjected to a mock execution.
A non-binary person said they were beaten severely, including with the back of a gun.
Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said nobody should be sent back to a country where they faced the risk of persecution on account of their identity or personal history. This was even more pronounced for Afghan women and girls, who were subjected to a range of measures 'amounting to persecution based on their gender alone,' he added.
The Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on Afghan girls and women, cutting off education beyond sixth grade, most employment and access to many public spaces.
Responding to the report, Taliban authorities denied mistreating Afghan returnees and rejected allegations of arrest, violence, intimidation or retaliation against people because of their identity or personal history.
Afghans returning from neighboring countries were provided with facilities related to documentation, transportation, resettlement, and other legal support, they said, while the Interior Ministry provides a 'warm welcome.'
They called on the U.N. mission to prevent forced deportations, adding the United Nations as a whole 'should not hesitate' in providing basic needs to refugees, such as food, medicine, shelter and education.
Afghans who left their homeland in the millions over the decades are either being pushed out in expulsion campaigns, like those in Iran and Pakistan, or face an uncertain future because of reduced support for refugees.
On Monday, thousands of Afghans in the U.S. lost protection from deportation after a federal appeals court refused to postpone U.S. President Donald Trump administration's decision to end their legal status.
Homeland Security officials said in their decision to end the Temporary Protected Status for Afghans that the situation in their home country was getting better. But groups helping Afghans with this status say the country is still extremely dangerous.
The Trump administration's January suspension of a refugee program has left thousands of Afghans stranded, particularly in Pakistan, and a travel ban on Afghans has further diminished their hopes of resettlement in the U.S.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Japan Today
13 hours ago
- Japan Today
Cambodia-Thailand conflict: Monks, dancers and volunteers offer respite as violence escalates
Thai Buddhist monks who fled clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers take shelter in Surin province, Thailand, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) By Jintamas Saksornchai, Sopheng Cheang, Anton L. Delgado and Grant Peck Long-festering tensions over border territory have escalated into armed conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, leading to dozens of deaths on both sides and displacing tens of thousands of people. Neither side is prepared to claim responsibility for the first volley on Thursday, and they each blame the other for the continuing skirmishes. While regional and international allies and organizations have called for a ceasefire, scant attempts at mediation had resulted in no peace talks as of early Sunday. It's a grim situation, but there is some light amid the darkness. On both sides of the border, some people are working around the destruction, intent on creating a safe space or finding normalcy. A temple in Thailand's northeastern province of Surin has something most of the country's 27,000 active Buddhist monasteries do not: a concrete bunker to shelter from bombs and shelling. The temple, which asked not to be identified by name because of safety concerns, is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Cambodia. The temple's abbot, Phut Analayo, said the decision to build a bunker was made shortly after a brief armed clash between Thai and Cambodian soldiers in May inflamed cross-border relations, culminating in the current fighting. Phut Analayo said donations paid for materials and equipment for the bunker, and the temple's monks and nearby villagers built it in four or five days. Construction was speedy because the bunker is made from large precast concrete drainage pipes a little over a meter (yard) in diameter, protected by mounds of earth, metal frames and sheeting. It's divided into two tubular rooms, each about four meters (yards) long, and wired with electricity. There's a kitchen with a kettle, an electric rice cooker and basic cookware. It's a tight fit, but because most of the nearby residents have fled to safer areas, there is enough space for the temple's six monks and the dozen or so villagers who sleep there every night. 'When we need to use the bathroom, we have to wait to make sure if things are quiet. If it's quiet out there, we will go out,' Phut Analayo said. He said his temple has ceased religious activities for now but that the remaining monks stayed out of concern for the monastery and the people it serves. 'If I leave, the people who rely on us will lose their spirit," he said. 'I'm scared too, but I'll just stay here for now, when I can.' Thai monasteries frequently serve as sanctuaries for stray dogs, and the more than 10 living at the temple are seemingly unbothered by the crisis. "If I leave them behind, how will they live? What will they eat? So I have to stay to take care of them. Every life loves their lives all the same,' Phut Analayo said. Learning ballroom dancing is how some senior citizens in northeastern Thailand usually spend their leisure hours, but the latest border conflict has motivated them to try to help some of the thousands of people displaced by the fighting. About a dozen members of the Ballroom Dance for Health of the Elderly of Surin Province club went Saturday to a shelter housing about 1,000 evacuees, where they handed out clothes, toiletries, blankets and pillows. Retired civil servant Chadaporn Duchanee, the ballroom teacher, initiated the project. On Friday, she gathered with friends at her home to fill small yellow plastic bowls with toiletries and other goods to give to the evacuees. The 62-year-old posted on Facebook about the donation she made on Thursday, and her pupils proved happy to participate, too. 'We want to help, said Chadaporn. 'Everyone left in a hurry, without bringing their belongings, just trying to escape the line of fire, so they fled empty handed,' Prapha Sanpote, a 75-year-old member of Chadaporn's donation team, said she hopes the conflict is resolved quickly. 'Our people couldn't go home. They have to leave home, and it's not just the home they had to leave,' he said. 'It's their belongings, their cattle, or their pet dogs, because they left without anything. How will those animals live? Everything is affected.' It looks just like your typical roadside stall found commonly all over Southeast Asia, but this one seems exceptionally well-provisioned. Also, it's not selling anything, even though there are boxes of bottled water, plastic bags filled with fruit and vegetables and the occasional packet of instant noodles. It is there to solicit donations of food and other essentials to give to evacuees escaping fighting along the border. It also gives handouts to members of the armed forces headed in the other direction, toward the front lines. This pop-up operation is at the border of Siem Reap, home to Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple complex, and Oddar Meanchey province, which is an active combat zone. It's a one-stop shop on a key road that convoys of police and military vehicles roar along with sirens blaring. Chhar Sin, a 28-year-old self-described youth volunteer, mans the stall, which is located in her home Srey Snam district. 'We're used to seeing people bustling around, we're not surprised by that,' she said, between handing out parcels to eager hands. But even here, 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the border with Thailand, she senses people don't feel safe, as the streets seem emptier than usual. She and other volunteers, are spending the weekend collecting supplies from ordinary Cambodians to dole out to the less fortunate. Families drive by on tractors to donate vegetables, while others swing by on motorbikes carrying bananas, dragon fruit and rambutans. 'For today and tomorrow, we are standing here waiting to give gifts to the people who are displaced from war zones and are seeking safety,' Chhar Sin said Saturday. 'We will provide them with food because they have nothing, and some of them come with only a few clothes and a hat.' When she woke up Saturday morning, Kim Muny, made the decision not to open her convenience store, but instead cook rice for members of the Cambodian military and fleeing civilians. 'Cambodians have a kind heart. When we heard that soldiers and displaced people needed help, we decided to help with an open heart,' said the 45-year-old after donating parcels of rice wrapped in banana leaves at the stall. 'We know our soldiers don't have time to cook, so we will do it for them.' Alone in a mostly evacuated pagoda, Tho Thoross began a Buddhist chant to express gratitude for all that is good in life. The 38-year-old Tho Thoross is one of the last monks in the city of Samrong, the provincial capital of Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province, which is on the front line of the cross-border fighting. Most civilians have fled the town, spooked by the sounds of artillery and what they suspect was a Thai military drone hovering above them. All but seven of the 40 monks at the monastery have left. As chief monk of Wat Prasat Samrong Thom, Tho Thoross ordered more than a dozen of the temple's novices — young monks in training — to evacuate to displacement camps farther from the border with Thailand, which is 40 kilometers (25 miles) away. The temple is the largest in the town of Samrong, as well as the oldest, dating back over a century. Its distance from the border does not keep it protected from artillery and aerial attacks, but it nonetheless is considered a relatively safe place. Most Cambodians and Thais are Buddhists. Nine monks from other temples that felt more insecure are also staying at Wat Prasat Samrong Thom. In the Buddhist tradition, temples are community centers and almost always places of sanctuary, and on Thursday, several displaced villagers stopped by briefly on their way to a government-arranged safety zone. Tho Thoross provided them with food. He said the latest fighting is '10 times bigger' than prolonged clashes over similar issues in 2008 and 2011, when the clashes were confined to certain areas. 'But today, the fighting is happening everywhere along the border.' said Tho Thoross, who has lived in Oddar Meanchey for nearly three decades. 'As a Buddhist monk living in a province bordering Thailand, I would like to call on both sides to work together to find a solution that is a win-win solution for all,' he declared Saturday. Sopheng Cheang and Delgado reported from Samrong, Cambodia; Peck reported from Bangkok. Associated Press video journalist Tian Macleod Ji in Surin, Thailand contributed to this report. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
20 hours ago
- Japan Today
Trump says Japan will invest $550 billion in US at his direction. It may not be a sure thing
A staff member distributes an extra edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporting that President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with Japan on Tuesday, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Tokyo. The headline reads "U.S., a 15% tax on goods imported from Japan." (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) By JOSH BOAK and MARI YAMAGUCHI President Donald Trump is bragging that Japan has given him, as part of a new trade framework, $550 billion to invest in the United States. It's an astonishing figure, but still subject to negotiation and perhaps not the sure thing he's portraying. "Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit," Trump said Thursday. 'They put up, as you could call it, seed money. Let's call it seed money.' He said 90% of any profits from the money invested would go to the U.S. even if Japan had put up the funds. 'It's not a loan or anything, it's a signing bonus,' the Republican president said, on the trade framework that lowered his threatened tariff from 25% to 15%, including on autos. A White House official said the terms are being negotiated and nothing has been formalized in writing. The official, who insisted on anonymity to detail the terms of the talks, suggested the goal was for the $550 billion fund to make investments at Trump's direction. The sum is significant: It would represent more than 10% of Japan's entire gross domestic product. The Japan External Trade Organization estimates that direct investment into the U.S. economy topped $780 billion in 2023. It is unclear the degree to which the $550 billion could represent new investment or flow into existing investment plans. What the trade framework announced Tuesday has achieved is a major talking point for the Trump administration. The president has claimed to have brought trillions of dollars in new investment into the U.S., though the impact of those commitments have yet to appear in the economic data for jobs, construction spending or manufacturing output. The framework also enabled Trump to say other countries are agreeing to have their goods taxed, even if some of the cost of those taxes are ultimately passed along to U.S. consumers. On the $550 billion, Japan's Cabinet Office said it involves the credit facility of state-affiliated financial institutions, such as Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Further details would be decided based on the progress of the investment deals. Japanese trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa, upon returning to Japan, did not discuss the terms of the $550 billion investment. Akazawa said he believes a written joint statement is necessary, at least on working levels, to avoid differences. He is not thinking about a legally binding trade pact. The U.S. apparently released its version of the deal while Japanese officials were on their return flight home. 'If we find differences of understanding, we may have to point them out and say 'that's not what we discussed,'' Akazawa said. The U.S. administration said the fund would be invested in critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, computer chips and shipbuilding, among other industries. It has said Japan will also buy 100 airplanes from Boeing and rice from U.S. farmers as part of the framework, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said would be evaluated every three months. 'And if the president is unhappy, then they will boomerang back to the 25% tariff rates, both on cars and the rest of their products. And I can tell you that I think at 25, especially in cars, the Japanese economy doesn't work,' Bessent told Fox News' 'The Ingraham Angle.' Akazawa denied that Bessent's quarterly review was part of the negotiations. 'In my past eight trips to the United States during which I held talks with the president and the ministers," Akazawa said. 'I have no recollection of discussing how we ensure the implementation of the latest agreement between Japan and the United States.' He said it would cause major disruptions to the economy and administrative processes if the rates first rise to 25% as scheduled on Aug. 1 and then drop to 15%. 'We definitely want to avoid that and I believe that is the understanding shared by the U.S. side,' he said. On buying U.S. rice, Japanese officials have said they have no plans to raise the current 770,000-ton 'minimum access' cap to import more from America. Agricultural Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Japan will decide whether to increase U.S. rice imports and that Japan is not committed to a fixed quota. Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has suggested that the Japanese agreement is putting pressure on other countries such as South Korea to strike deals with the U.S. Trump, who is traveling in Scotland, plans to meet on Sundayv with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss trade. 'Whatever Donald Trump wants to build, the Japanese will finance it for him,' Lutnick said Thursday on CNBC. 'Pretty amazing.' Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
Nobel panel head hails A-bomb survivors' stories as 'inspirational'
Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes on Friday hailed atomic bomb survivors' testimonies as an "inspirational" force for eliminating nuclear weapons, while urging Japan and other countries to take action against the threat they pose. "You really feel inspirational of how can you turn memory into a force for change and a force for peace," Frydnes said in an interview with Kyodo News in Tokyo, during his first visit to Japan. He was involved in awarding the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, Japan's leading group of atomic bomb survivors. Frydnes has visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- the two cities devastated by the U.S. atomic bombing in the final days of World War II -- and also met with atomic bomb survivors, including 83-year-old Nihon Hidankyo representative Toshiyuki Mimaki, and local activists working toward nuclear abolition. As time is running out to hear directly from atomic bomb survivors, who are called hibakusha in Japanese, Frydnes said, "Now we need to listen. Tomorrow, we need to act." The 40-year-old also said, "Telling stories across generations and across oceans matters," recalling how he learned about hibakusha and the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons as a child in Norway. While expressing hope that all governments, including Japan's, will do more to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, he acknowledged that the path is "filled with dilemmas." Drawing parallels with Norway, which, as a member of NATO, relies on nuclear deterrence for protection, Frydnes said, "In countries like ourselves, it starts with the people and the inhabitants." Japan, the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, advocates for a world free of nuclear weapons. However, it relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for deterrence and has not joined a U.N. treaty banning the weapons. Norway has also not signed the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 2021. "Even though it will be a long and challenging road ahead, we should not give up on the vision that the world should be free of nuclear weapons at some point, and (there will be) no more hibakusha," Frydnes said. Amid rising geopolitical instability, Frydnes noted that the "nuclear taboo," which survivors have been instrumental in establishing, is under threat. He described awarding the Nobel Peace Prize as both sounding an "alarm bell" and "honoring those who have done a tremendous job of establishing the taboo." Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, received the prestigious award for what the Nobel committee called "efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again." The United States dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and detonated a second one above Nagasaki three days later. Japan surrendered six days after the Nagasaki bombing, bringing an end to World War II. The attacks killed an estimated 214,000 people by the end of 1945, leaving numerous survivors grappling with long-term physical and mental health challenges. © KYODO
