Latest news with #Tajikistan
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Tajik lorry driver arrested after £4.5m of ketamine seized at Dover
A Tajikistan national was apprehended at Dover port attempting to smuggle £4.5 million worth of ketamine into the UK. Border Force officers uncovered a haul of 20 handguns, 320 rounds of ammunition, 170kg of ketamine and more than 4,000 MDMA pills hidden inside a Lithuanian-registered lorry on Monday. The driver, a 34-year-old male from Tajikistan, was arrested on suspicion of smuggling the contraband. He has since been released from custody on bail as enquiries continue. The National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators said that the handguns were 'viable pistols' and estimated the street value of the ketamine was £4.5 million, and £40,000 for the MDMA pills. Photos released by the NCA show large packets of powdered ketamine in clear plastic bags were stuffed inside cardboard boxes inside the lorry. Darren Herbert, the NCA senior investigating officer, said: 'With thanks to our Border Force colleagues, an arsenal of deadly firearms, as well as harmful drugs, have been seized before they could reach the criminal supply chain. 'Our investigation to trace and detain the individuals responsible for the attempted importation is ongoing. 'Alongside our domestic and international partners, we are relentless in our efforts to suppress the supply of firearms to UK-based organised crime groups.' Dave Smith, Border Force director for the south east region, added: 'This is a significant seizure which demonstrates the vital work Border Force officers do every day to keep lethal weapons and dangerous drugs off our streets. 'The firearms and drugs intercepted could have caused untold damage to our communities if they had reached their intended destination. 'We will continue to work closely with the NCA to bring those responsible to justice and disrupt criminal networks involved in smuggling.'
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Firearms and drugs worth millions found in lorry at Dover port
Millions of pounds worth of firearms and drugs have been recovered from a lorry at the Port of Dover, according to the National Crime Agency. Twenty firearms, 320 rounds of ammunition and 170kg of ketamine were confiscated from a Lithuanian registered driver, a 34-year-old Tajikistan national, was arrested on suspicion of smuggling the illegal Smith, Border Force director for the South East, said: "This is a significant seizure which demonstrates the vital work Border Force officers do every day to keep lethal weapons and dangerous drugs off our streets." Among the haul, officers also discovered more than 4,000 MDMA -also known as ecstasy or molly - investigators estimated the street value of the ketamine to be about £4.5m, and the MDMA to be £40,000. The firearms will be tested by NCA experts, but are believed to be viable pistols, the agency Herbert, NCA senior investigating officer, said: "Our investigation to trace and detain the individuals responsible for the attempted importation is ongoing."Alongside our domestic and international partners, we are relentless in our efforts to suppress the supply of firearms to UK-based organised crime groups."
CBC
a day ago
- Health
- CBC
Health-care workers who treat refugees plan message to Trump administration
Adeb Arianson fled his home in Kabul just days before the capital of Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, as Western nations were evacuating their citizens and panic seized the city. He crossed the border to Tajikistan, where he had to spend a few weeks in a hospital recovering from physical and mental shock. "The panic attacks, the thoughts that were coming on and all the pressure of what's going to happen? What am I going to do?" Arianson recalled in a recent interview. "It was constant panic attacks. It was fear, it was just shock." Arianson, now 23, eventually arrived in Canada as a government-assisted refugee in 2022. He will be a guest speaker at an international conference in Halifax this weekend, where hundreds of health-care workers are gathering to discuss refugee and migrant health. Last year the conference had more than 1,000 attendees, and about 75 per cent of them were from the United States. This year attendance has dropped to about 500. Many attendees didn't attend because they were afraid of having trouble re-entering the United States—particularly if they were not born there—in the wake of the Trump administration's immigration policies. As well, many agencies had their federal funding cut, said conference organizer Dr. Annalee Coakley. She said the conference attendees are planning to send a message about protection of vulnerable migrants by drafting a statement they are calling the "Halifax Declaration," which they will submit to a major medical journal. "Patients are very, very fearful if they come from a migrant background," said Coakley, a family doctor who works in Inverness, N.S. She is also the co-director of a research program on refugee health in Calgary. "Together we have a shared voice, and we share values and so we're hoping to put together a statement in support of refugee and migrant rights, and their right to health," she said. In January 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order saying it would suspend the United States Refugee Admission Program for an indefinite period of time. President Donald Trump called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out mass deportations, and ended programs that allowed some migrants to live and work in the United States. Refugees go through a different process, which usually involves being referred for resettlement by the United Nations. In the days following the suspension of the refugee admission program, thousands of refugees who were cleared to travel to the U.S. had their plans halted, including Afghan refugees who helped American armed forces when they were based in that country. Arianson has been following the news from his home in Halifax, and felt it was important to speak out at the conference. "As a refugee myself, as someone who went through this journey, I have seen the gaps and the struggles that refugees go through," he said. "I saw the opportunity and I thought I have the chance to raise my voice." Arianson was 18 years old when he left Afghanistan, and fled alone because his immediate family was killed when he was a toddler after the family car struck an explosive device. As a queer person and proud member of Halifax's LGBTQ community, Arianson knew living in Afghanistan under the Taliban would be dangerous for him. "Refugees are people that are just looking for a spot, a place to just be able to be themselves and be alive," he said, adding that he thinks it is "inhumane" for the United States to close its doors to refugees. Dr. Katherine McKenzie is the director of the Yale Center for Asylum Medicine, and came to the Halifax conference from New Haven, Conn. "I am very worried and concerned, and really sad as well," said McKenzie, who cares for many resettled refugee families. "I am always concerned that the families will be split up, that maybe a mom or dad will be deported," she said. "What will happen with the children in that case?" McKenzie said she is seeing families come to her clinic filled with stress and anxiety. "Obviously I'm a doctor, I want people who I see as patients to be healthy—mentally healthy and physically healthy. And this scenario .... is absolutely interfering and having an effect on mental and physical health," she said. Coakley said in her first conference meeting, one attendee shared a story of a family who delayed bringing their child to an emergency department out of fear of being deported. "When they finally did present to the emergency department they had a ruptured appendix, and that's potentially life-threatening," she said. "That's a very precarious place to be, and it's unconscionable in a country with plenty," she said.
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Migrant-funded dreams: How Kyrgyzstan is growing on foreign wages
BATKEN (Kyrgyzstan), June 26 — In a remote town in southern Kyrgyzstan, teacher Nur Akhmatov watched workers building a library, conference hall and women's sports centre — construction mostly funded by Kyrgyz emigrants sending money home from Russia. The project in Batken is a snapshot of how important emigrant labour has become for economies across Central Asia. The flow of remittances to the region came in at record amounts last year, according to World Bank data. An all-time high of US$3 billion (RM12.67 billion) flowed into Kyrgyzstan from migrant workers living abroad, accounting for around 25 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. In neighbouring Tajikistan, the US$6 billion made-up almost half its GDP — the highest level in the world. Uzbekistan, the region's most populous nation, received US$14.8 billion — 14 per cent of GDP. 'When I worked in Moscow, I donated 300 som (RM12) a month,' said Akhmatov, who is supervising the construction of the building in his home village. He said some 1,500 migrants recently contributed to build a new school in Batken, where the average salary is around US$235. A new sports centre is a particular source of pride for teacher Abazbek Abdinabiyev. 'Children would play in the dust ... now we have this, and a pitch,' he told AFP, showing off the bright blue and yellow indoor sports court. 'The contribution made by migrants has been enormous. Despite being far away, they have all helped to ensure that their children and brothers could have this opportunity,' Abdinabiyev told AFP. In a remote town in southern Kyrgyzstan, teacher Nur Akhmatov watched workers building a library, conference hall and women's sports centre — construction mostly funded by Kyrgyz emigrants sending money home from Russia. — AFP pic 'Duty of every citizen' Local currencies have slipped against the Russian rouble in recent months, pushing up the spending power of what migrant workers send back. The Kyrgyz government estimates that without remittances, the country's poverty rate would shoot up from 29 per cent to 41 per cent. Unable to fund such projects alone, governments encourage the contributions. 'Beautifying the country is the duty of every citizen,' reads a government banner stretched over the road in Mehrobod, northern Tajikistan. 'Each district is trying to solve its own problems: getting our children into school, keeping the streets clean and well-maintained,' said villager Abdukakhor Majidov. Around him, crews on rollers and with shovels were levelling the ground ahead of tarmacking. A new school and bridge were already completed last year. 'As soon as one street is repaired, we move on to the next,' said Majidov, who handles fundraising. Workers build a library, conference room and sports hall for women, funded by contributions from Kyrgyz migrant workers abroad. — AFP pic 'Less emigration' But leaving for Russia has lost some of its appeal since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. While Russia's arms factories are booming and job opportunities are plenty, many fear being sent to fight in Ukraine. Around 20,000 Central Asian migrants who received Russian citizenship are already serving in the army, Moscow said last month. The recruitment triggered a backlash among Russia's traditional allies in the region. Without specifying what he was referring to, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has expressed concern about the 'hundreds of repatriated coffins' coming back from Russia, filled with those who had left 'to earn bread for their families'. There has also been a surge in anti-migrant sentiment in Russia following the arrest of four Tajiks as the suspected perpetrators of the 2024 massacre at a music venue outside Moscow, Russia's deadliest terror attack in two decades. Alongside a spike in violence and street harassment, Moscow passed laws making it easier to expel migrants. Kadyrbek Tashimbekov, 29, is among the 300,000 Kyrgyz who have left Russia — willingly or by force — between 2023 and 2024, according to Bishkek's statistics. The exodus accounts for more than half of all Kyrgyz migrants who were living in Russia. 'I was expelled after working there for eight years,' he told AFP. Now he operates the crane picking up the beams for the frame of Batken's new school. Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov has pledged to encourage labour migrants back to the country. Meanwhile locals hope to use their funds to boost living standards at home and break the cycle of emigration. The three former migrants that AFP spoke to — Abdinabiyev, Akhmatov and Tashimbekov — all said salaries were growing at home and do not plan to return to Russia. 'We are building this with the hope that if we have such centres, we will train them in the right professions, guide them,' said Akhmatov. 'And maybe there will be less emigration.' — AFP
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Migrant can stay in UK because he does not want to shave
An asylum seeker from Tajikistan has been allowed to stay in the UK because he would have had to shave his beard off if he was deported. The unnamed man won an appeal after arguing that he could be tortured and have his facial hair forcibly removed if he was sent back home. The Home Office tried to deport him back to the Central Asian state, but an asylum court has now ruled that he may be entitled to international protection in the UK because of his beard. In Tajikistan, beards are unofficially banned by the Government and hundreds of thousands of men have been arrested for having one in the last decade. Men in the country with beards are arrested, shaved against their will and have their fingerprints taken by police. It is part of a government campaign to try to prevent men from becoming radicalised and joining Islamic extremist terror groups. The man's claim was initially dismissed but he appealed and secured a further hearing of his case after it was ruled that being forced to have his hair removed amounted to persecution rather than being the result of social pressures. The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example uncovered by The Telegraph where illegal migrants or convicted foreign criminals have used human rights laws to try to halt their deportations. Ministers are proposing to raise the threshold to make it harder for judges to grant the right to remain based on Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which protects the right to a family life, and Article 3, which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. After his claim was initially rejected, the Tajik man, who was granted anonymity, appealed on the basis that the judge at the first-tier tribunal made 'contradictory' findings about his fear of persecution. He claimed that the tribunal had not properly assessed whether he would shave his beard because of 'social pressures' or because of a 'fear of being persecuted'. The Tajik man said he would shave off his beard if he was sent back but only because he would have 'no option' as he would be at risk of persecution. Parminder Saini, the Deputy Judge of the Upper Tribunal, said: 'The [First-tier Tribunal] judge has failed to assess whether the [Tajik man] is shaving off his beard because of 'social pressures' or due to a 'fear of being persecuted'. 'We find that this represents inadequate and incomplete reasoning in relation to the key issue of why the [Tajik man] is willing to shave his beard on return to Tajikistan. 'If he wears a beard out of religious conviction but will conform for reasons of securing his safety, he may be entitled to international protection. 'If, however, he would conform because of social or other pressures, or simply because wearing a beard is not an act of faith for him, and not because of the risk of persecution, then he may not be a refugee.' He added: 'We also note that the judge has failed to consider the objective risk to the [Tajik man] by reference to the background material before him. '[His lawyer] took us to several examples... which pointed to torture and mistreatment remaining widespread, arbitrary arrest being commonplace, thousands of Tajik men having their beards forcibly shaved and being fingerprinted and recorded by the authorities etc. 'Thus, these examples of background material before the judge were relevant to, and should have informed, his assessment of whether the [Tajik man] was at risk on return as well as the likelihood of whether [he] would feel compelled to shave due to fear, but they find no mention in the decision.' Judge Saini ruled that the previous decision was set aside and that his case must be heard again at the First-tier Tribunal.
