Nearly 450,000 Afghans Left Iran Since June 1: IOM
The influx comes as the country is already struggling to integrate streams of Afghans who have returned under pressure from traditional migrant and refugee hosts Pakistan and Iran since 2023.
The country is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises after decades of war.
This year alone, more than 1.4 million people have "returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan", the United Nations refugees agency UNHCR said.
In late May, Iran ordered undocumented Afghans to leave the country by July 6, potentially impacting four million people out of the around six million Afghans Tehran says live in the country.
Numbers of people crossing the border surged from mid-June, with some days seeing around 40,000 people crossing, UN agencies have said.
From June 1 to July 5, 449,218 Afghans returned from Iran, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration told AFP on Monday, bringing the total this year to 906,326.
Many people crossing reported pressure from authorities or arrest and deportation, as well as losing already limited finances in the rush to leave quickly.
Massive foreign aid cuts have impacted the response to the crisis, with the UN, international non-governmental groups and Taliban officials calling for more funding to support the returnees.
The UN has warned the influx could destabilise the country already grappling with entrenched poverty, unemployment and climate change-related shocks and urged nations not to forcibly return Afghans.
"Forcing or pressuring Afghans to return risks further instability in the region, and onward movement towards Europe," the UN refugees agency UNHCR said in a statement on Friday.
Taliban officials have repeatedly called for Afghans to be given a "dignified" return.
Iranian media regularly reports mass arrests of "illegal" Afghans in various regions.
Iran's deputy interior minister Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian said on Thursday that while Afghans illegally in the country were "respected neighbours and brothers in faith", Iran's "capacities also have limits".
That the ministry's return process "will be implemented gradually", he said on state TV.
Many Afghans travelled to Iran to look for work, sending crucial funds back to their families in Afghanistan.
"If I can find a job here that covers our daily expenses, I'll stay here," returnee Ahmad Mohammadi told AFP on Saturday, as he waited for support in high winds and dust at the IOM-run reception centre at the Islam Qala border point in western Herat province.
"But if that's not possible, we'll be forced to go to Iran again, or Pakistan, or some other country."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Int'l Business Times
4 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
US To Send 'More Weapons' To Ukraine: Trump
President Donald Trump said Monday the United States will send additional weapons to Ukraine, after Russia claimed new gains in its grinding war against its neighbour. Trump's announcement followed Washington saying last week that it was halting some weapons shipments to Kyiv, leaving Ukrainian officials caught off guard and scrambling for clarity. A pause poses a potentially serious challenge for Kyiv, which is contending with some of Russia's largest missile and drone attacks of the more than three-year war. "We're going to have to send more weapons -- defensive weapons primarily," Trump told journalists at the White House. "They're getting hit very, very hard," he said of Ukraine, while adding that he was "not happy" with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has shown little willingness to end the conflict despite pressure from Trump. The US president's pledge to ship more arms to Ukraine came after Moscow said Monday that its forces captured its first village in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region after advancing towards it for months. Russia launched a fresh large-scale drone and missile barrage before the announcement, including on Ukraine's military recruitment centres. Kyiv also said it carried out a drone attack on a Russian ammunition factory in the Moscow region. Russia said its forces captured the village of Dachne in the Dnipropetrovsk region, an important industrial mining territory that has come under mounting Russian air attacks. Last month, Moscow said its forces had crossed the border into the Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its campaign. Russian forces appear to have made crossing the regional border a key strategic objective in recent months, and deeper advances there could pose logistical and economic problems for Ukraine. Kyiv has so far denied any Russian foothold in Dnipropetrovsk. Ukraine's military said earlier Monday its forces "repelled" attacks in Dnipropetrovsk, including "in the vicinity" of Dachne. Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea -- that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory. Describing the situation in Dnipropetrovsk as "difficult" for Kyiv's forces, Ukrainian military expert Oleksiy Kopytko said Russia hopes to create some kind of buffer zone in the region. "Our troops are holding their ground quite steadily," he told AFP. The White House said last week that it was halting some key weapons shipments to Ukraine that were promised under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden, without providing details on which weapons programmes were affected. It said the decision was taken after a review of US defence needs and of its military assistance to foreign countries. Kyiv has long feared halts to US aid after Trump returned to the White House in January, having criticised the tens of billions of dollars in support and weapons sent by Biden. Under the Biden administration, Washington committed to providing more than $65 billion in military assistance to Ukraine. Trump has announced no new military aid packages for Kyiv since taking office for the second time. The Republican president instead has pushed the two sides into peace talks, including in phone calls with Putin. The Russian leader has rejected pleas for a ceasefire and demanded that Ukraine cede more territory if it wants an end to the war. Ahead of Trump's remarks on Monday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said air defence remained the "top priority for protecting lives", and his country was counting on partners to "fully deliver on what we have agreed". Explosions were heard overnight to Tuesday in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, mayor Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram, adding that the "threat of drones" was ongoing. Mykolaiv regional governor Vitaliy Kim said a fire broke out in the city's outskirts due to shelling and a 51-year-old man was wounded.
Int'l Business Times
4 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
Slovak Gunman Who Shot PM To Go On Trial
The man who admitted to shooting Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is due to stand trial on terror charges on Tuesday, more than a year after the attack shocked the central European country. Nationalist, Kremlin-friendly Fico was shot four times from close range after a government meeting in the central Slovak mining town of Handlova on May 15, 2024, leaving him seriously wounded. Detained at the scene, Juraj Cintula, a 72-year-old poet, who has admitted to shooting the leader with the intention to wound but not kill him, is facing up to life in prison if convicted. The hearing at a special penal court in the central city of Banska Bystrica is due to start at 0700 GMT on Tuesday. Prosecutors argue that Cintula sought to "permanently prevent Fico from serving as prime minister, thereby preventing the Slovak government from proper functioning and fulfilling its programme". Just after the shooting, Cintula told the police he wanted to protest against steps taken by Fico's government, including the halting of military aid to war-ravaged Ukraine, according to a leaked video. Cintula, who used a legally owned gun, told the Novy cas tabloid in a rare interview in May that he did not want to kill Fico: "I did not shoot at the heart or the head." He said he had plotted the attack for two days and added he was relieved to see Fico survived. "I have lost physical freedom, but mentally I was liberated... I feel no inner tension. In prison, one must run across green meadows in the mind to stay sane," Cintula told Novy cas. The Cintula case file comprises 18 volumes and more than 6,200 pages. Cintula was originally charged with premeditated murder, but prosecutors later reclassified the shooting as a terror attack. This means they will have to prove Cintula wanted to harm the state, Tomas Stremy, a criminal law professor at Comenius University in Bratislava, told AFP. "It is essential to examine the perpetrator's intent," he said. Fico underwent two lengthy operations and returned to work two months after the attack. The 60-year-old is serving a fourth term as premier, heading a three-party coalition governing the EU and NATO member of 5.4 million people since 2023. Since his return to office, Fico's government has launched a crackdown on non-profit organisations, LGBTQ rights, cultural institutions and some media it deems "hostile", drawing protests in the heavily polarised country. Fico's friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has also led thousands of Slovaks to rally against him under the slogan of "Slovakia is Europe" as Russian troops keep pounding Ukraine. Fico himself called Cintula a "product of hatred, an assassin created by media and the opposition". "The governing coalition naturally tried to use (the shooting) to its advantage," Grigorij Meseznikov, a political analyst at the Institute for Public Affairs, told AFP. "This included associating the horrible act with the activities of opposition parties without any evidence or witness testimony to support these claims," he added. But he said the shooting did not change Slovakia's political landscape. He said the trial would be closely watched, but regardless of the verdict, "the polarisation will last". Gunman Juraj Cintula told the Novy cas tabloid that he did not want to kill Fico AFP Fico himself has called Cintula a 'product of hatred' AFP
Int'l Business Times
7 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
At Least 10 Dead In Kenya During Protests After Heavy Police Deployment
At least 10 people died across Kenya and hundreds were arrested during anti-government demonstrations on Monday, a rights group and police said, following clashes between police and protesters in the capital Nairobi's outskirts. The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) also accused the police of cooperating with criminal gangs, as a heavy deployment of the security forces kept much of central Nairobi deserted ahead of the annual marches to mark Saba Saba Day. Meaning Seven Seven, the demonstrations commemorate July 7, 1990 when Kenyans rose up to demand a return to multi-party democracy after years of autocratic rule by then-president Daniel arap Moi. The KNCHR said in a statement it "had documented ten fatalities, twenty-nine injuries" across 17 counties, but did not provide any further details. A statement from the National Police Service (NPS) late Monday put the death toll at 11, with 52 police officers and 11 civilians wounded. From around midday, AFP saw running battles with groups of anti-riot police who fired teargas at small gatherings, with some of the crowd throwing rocks back and engaging in destructive looting. Young Kenyans, frustrated over economic stagnation, corruption and police brutality, are once again engaging in protests that last month degenerated into looting and violence, leaving dozens dead and thousands of businesses destroyed. Protesters accuse the authorities of paying armed vandals to discredit their movement, while the government has compared June's demonstrations to an "attempted coup". On Monday, the streets of central Nairobi were quiet after police mounted roadblocks on the main roads, restricting entry to areas that were the epicentre of previous rallies. Many businesses were closed for the day. "I have never witnessed the city centre like this," security guard Edmond Khayimba, 29, told AFP. While the centre remained deserted, groups gathered on the outskirts in the afternoon with AFP reporters witnessing two people wounded, as well as looting and vandalism. Protesters on a major highway clashed with police blocking their entry into the city, with the small crowds chanting: "Ruto Must Go", a popular rallying cry against President William Ruto, and "wantam", meaning "one term". Again, AFP saw looting and property destruction in the surrounding area. In its statement, the KNCHR noted the presence of "criminal gangs wielding crude weapons, including whips, wooden clubs, machetes, spears, bows and arrows" during the protests in a number of counties, including Nairobi, where "these hooded gangs were seen operating alongside police officers". In comments to AFP, NPS spokesperson Michael Muchiri said the KNCHR statements "may lack factualness many times over". The spokesperson also reiterated that the NPS "would never work alongside individuals called 'goons' or criminal elements", using the name used for the armed men paid to disrupt demonstrations. Muchiri said in a later statement that 567 people had been arrested during the protests, but did not provide any further details. Kipchumba Murkomen, the interior cabinet secretary, said recent demonstrations had "been infiltrated by criminals out to cause chaos and destruction". In a statement on X, he said the looting and violence had been "markedly reduced" by the officers' presence, but promised those responsible would be "investigated and charged". Social media and rising economic expectations have fanned anger over inequalities in a country where around 80 percent are trapped in informal, poorly paid jobs. But a crackdown by the police -- at least 80 people have died in protests since June last year while dozens have been detained illegally -- has scared many off the streets. "What he has promised the country, (he) is not delivering," Onsomu said. Since being elected in 2022, Ruto has forged an uneasy alliance with the main opposition leader Raila Odinga, leaving no clear challenger ahead of the next vote in 2027. But each violent crackdown fuels further unrest, said activist Nerima Wako. "Every time people organise a protest, they kill more people, so it just continues to feed off itself," she said. The previous demonstration on June 25 -- intended to mark the peak of last year's deadly anti-government rallies -- turned violent and left 19 people dead, according to rights groups. Police brutality is a long-running issue in Kenya AFP Roads in Nairobi were blocked and entry restricted to areas that were the epicentre of previous demonstrations AFP Protesters engulfed in tear gas fired by the police AFP
