A million more Afghans could be sent back from Iran, Red Cross warns
Over 1.2 million people have been returned to Afghanistan from Iran since the start of this year, according to data from the U.N. refugee agency, with the number of returns surging since Iran and Israel launched strikes on each other last month.
Sami Fakhouri, Head of Delegation for Afghanistan at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said he witnessed bus loads of people returning to a border crossing at the Islam Qala border in Herat province in recent days.
"(We) are anticipating that an additional one million people, possibly more, may return from Iran to Afghanistan by the end of this year," he told reporters at a Geneva press briefing, voicing concern about their futures with many having left their home country years ago and were now homeless.
"The majority didn't have a say in coming back. They were put on buses and driven to the border," he said.
Afghanistan is already battling a humanitarian crisis and aid groups worry that the new arrivals from Iran - on top of hundreds of thousands pressured to return from Pakistan - risks further destabilising the country.
Fakhouri said the IFRC appeal for 25 million Swiss francs ($31.40 million) to help returning Afghans at the border and in transit camps is only 10% funded, voicing concerns about whether it could maintain support for people.
Babar Baloch, a spokesperson at the U.N. refugee agency, said tens of thousands were arriving from Iran daily with over 50,000 crossing on July 4.
He also voiced concerns about family separations.
"The psychological scars are going to stay with Afghans who have been made to come back to the country in this way,' he said at the same press briefing.
($1 = 0.7963 Swiss francs)
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New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Almost 20 Camp Mystic cabins were in known flood zone — despite recent $5M overhaul of century-old site
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Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP via Getty Images 10 New York Post front cover from July 6, 2025, featuring four Camp Mystic girls dead, with 23 others remaining missing. It passed a state inspection on July 2, just two days before the deadly flooding, with inspectors noting that emergency and evacuations were in place, although this was not detailed in the report. 'Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly. We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls,' camp officials said in a statement on the camp's website.
Vox
2 days ago
- Vox
Would this food label change how you eat?
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This story was first featured in the Processing Meat newsletter Sign up here for Future Perfect's biweekly newsletter from Marina Bolotnikova and Kenny Torrella, exploring how the meat and dairy industries shape our health, politics, culture, environment, and more. Have questions or comments on this newsletter? Email us at futureperfect@ The law will also require disclosures explaining that foie gras is made by force-feeding ducks and geese. Horrific as these procedures are, especially when performed without pain relief, they're standard practice in global meat, milk, and egg production. Male piglets, for example, are castrated to prevent their meat from giving off a fecal odor and taste — what the industry calls 'boar taint.' Piglets' teeth are clipped to prevent injuries to littermates or their mom's teats while nursing, but it can also cause painful dental issues and infections. 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It's an unusual law, and although it falls short of what animal advocates want, it's refreshing to see a country take this step toward transparency. Switzerland's disclosure requirement pierces the veil of the shrink-wrapped slab of meat consumers see in the grocery store or prepared in dishes at restaurants, suggesting that meat is simply an inanimate product rather than the flesh of a once-living, feeling creature who suffered. A mere disclosure provides no respite from that suffering, but it's something. Because in the US and around the world, meat, milk, and egg companies go to great lengths to conceal the horrors of animal agriculture from the public. By requiring food companies and restaurants to slap what amounts to a warning label on their products, Switzerland is effectively treating meat produced with particularly cruel yet common practices as a vice — much like many countries do with tobacco products. 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The vast majority of the world's farmed animals are raised on factory farms with standard practices that would be illegal animal cruelty in many countries if done to a dog or cat. Yet most consumers — at least in the US — believe they don't buy animal products from factory farms. Cows stand in the milking parlor at the Lake Breeze Dairy farm in Malone, Wisconsin. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images Turkeys in a Michigan factory farm. Rudy Malmquist Some of that disconnect can be attributed to industry deceit. Meat industry trade groups in the US and abroad have successfully lobbied for laws that make it a crime for activists to document animal cruelty on farms. And in the US, meat companies are allowed to claim just about whatever they want on their labels and in advertising. That's led to extensive 'humanewashing' in which brands mislead consumers into believing their animals are treated decently. 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Switzerland implemented a similar law in 2000, requiring disclosure labels on imported eggs from producers that cage their hens (it was already illegal to cage egg-laying hens in Switzerland). After that law, Gerritsen told me, imports significantly declined. Di Concetto also pointed to a labeling law in the European Union, which requires that egg cartons on grocery store shelves include a code that corresponds to a specific production method, such as caged, indoor, outdoor, or organic. Di Concetto credits these egg-labeling requirements for helping initiate the EU egg industry's transition to cage-free production. But, she said, 'it's not so much that consumers wouldn't buy caged eggs. It's mostly due to manufacturers not liking the idea of selling products that indicated something so detrimental.' The new Swiss law, though, will require disclosures far more direct and visceral, and harder for the public to ignore. At bare minimum, for consumers to make more humane choices — whether that means eating less meat or buying from farms that avoid some of the cruelest factory farm practices — they at least need to be informed. Right now, meat, milk, and egg labels tell consumers little about animal treatment or actively lie to them. Switzerland's experiment will soon show us what happens when that's forced to change, if only a little.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
US again halts cattle imports from Mexico over screwworm pest
By Tom Polansek CHICAGO (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Agriculture has again halted imports of Mexican cattle into the United States due to the spread of the damaging livestock pest New World Screwworm in Mexico. Screwworms are parasitic flies whose females lay eggs in wounds on warm-blooded animals, usually livestock and wild animals. Once the eggs hatch, hundreds of screwworm larvae use their sharp mouths to burrow through living flesh, eventually killing their host if left untreated. The USDA said in a statement late on Wednesday that it ordered the closure of livestock trade through southern ports of entry effective immediately following the detection of screwworm about 370 miles south of the border in Ixhuatlan de Madero, Veracruz. The decision was a quick reversal after the USDA said last week it would resume cattle imports from Mexico on Monday at a port of entry in Douglas, Arizona, as part of a phased reopening of the border. Washington suspended cattle imports from Mexico in May as New World Screwworm was detected in farms in Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico, about 700 miles from the U.S. border. "We must see additional progress combatting NWS in Veracruz and other nearby Mexican states in order to reopen livestock ports along the Southern border,' USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement.
