Latest news with #Taliban-controlled
First Post
16 hours ago
- Politics
- First Post
UK: Ethiopian Man Accused of Sexual Assault Sparks Anti-Immigration Protest Firstpost Africa
UK: Ethiopian Man Accused of Sexual Assault Sparks Anti-Immigration Protest | Firstpost Africa |N18G UK: Ethiopian Man Accused of Sexual Assault Sparks Anti-Immigration Protest | Firstpost Africa | N18G Anti-immigrant sentiment is escalating across Europe, fuelled by public anger over asylum seeker housing and high-profile crime cases involving migrants. Last week, anti-immigration protesters gathered around a hotel housing asylum seekers in a town on outskirts of London for the second time in four days. This comes after an Ethiopian asylum seeker was accused of sexual assault. The trend extends beyond the UK, with anti-immigration protests sweeping Poland and the recent clashes between far-right groups and North African migrants in Spain. In response, the European Union is pushing for stricter asylum rules, including deporting criminal migrants. Germany recently deported 81 Afghan men to their Taliban-controlled homeland. Watch this video to know more. See More
Hans India
5 days ago
- Climate
- Hans India
Afghanistan: Three people killed, houses damaged after flash floods in Khost, Paktia
Kabul: As many as three people were killed and homes and farmland suffered severe damage on Thursday after flash floods in Afghanistan's Khost and Paktia provinces. According to local sources, three people died and there was financial loss after the recent floods in several parts of Khost and Paktia, Afghan news agency Khaama Press reported. Local officials said that the floods have impacted Wazi area of Paktia and Nadershah Kot, Zazi Maidan, and Sabari districts in Khost . Several houses were destroyed, farmland were washed away and walls were demolished, leaving residents without shelter and agricultural resources. Three people were killed in Nadershah Kot district while they were gathering firewood near the floodwaters, the news agency reported, citing eyewitness reports. Besides human casualties, local communities that rely heavily on farming and natural resources for their livelihood have suffered significant losses. These floods come just week after flood struck the same region, demonstrating a worrying pattern of recurrent natural disaster in these regions. The floods in these areas showcase the vulnerability of rural communities in eastern Afghanistan, where inadequate infrastructure and limited disaster preparedness increase the damage caused by natural calamities. Urgent steps, including improved flood management systems and support from national and international organisations is needed to help people recover and reduce the effect of future floods. Earlier in June, five people and several houses and infrastructure were severely damaged across several provinces due to floods in Afghanistan. According to a spokesperson from the Taliban-controlled National Disaster Management Authority on June 29, five people were killed and eight others were injured due to floods that occurred in 10 provinces. Kabul, Parwan, Logar, Maidan Wardak, Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Zabul, Nangarhar, and Laghman were particularly impacted in flooding. Spokesperson Mohammad Yousuf Hamad said that one house was completely destroyed, while 162 others were partially damaged. Furthermore, 171 wells, irrigation systems, 11 mosques, 27 water supply networks, dams, channels, 27 small bridges, and 41 kilometers of paved roads were damaged due to flooding. Nearly 100 livestock were lost, and approximately 2,000 jeribs of farmland were destroyed in the flooding.
Toronto Star
5 days ago
- Politics
- Toronto Star
I grew up being humiliated as an Afghan refugee in Iran and I can't turn away from harm facing refugees there today
By Zahra Nader Contributor Ceri Marsh is a Toronto-based writer, author and book coach. She runs a membership called Write Your Damn Book. I have been following the crisis Afghan refugees face in Iran and Pakistan, as a journalist and editor-in-chief of Zan Times, a media outlet that covers human rights in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. I might not be 'objective' in the traditional sense because I stand on the side of the people, on the side of those at the receiving end of suffering and trauma. I do this as a survivor. I lived as a child refugee in Iran and was subjected to inhumane treatment. As an Afghan refugee there, I didn't have the right to education. I was abused on a daily basis on the streets of Tehran and was often told, 'Nasty Afghan, go back to your country.' That experience is now a trauma I've been reliving every day for the past few months.
Express Tribune
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
UN urges 'immediate halt' to Afghan deportations
Listen to article The United Nations insisted no one should be sent back to Afghanistan, after Germany on Friday deported 81 Afghans convicted of crimes to their Taliban-controlled homeland. The UN rights office warned that surging numbers of Afghans being forced to return to their conflict- and crisis-torn country from elsewhere in the region especially but also further afield was creating "a multi-layered human-rights crisis". "UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk calls for an immediate halt to the forcible return of all Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers, particularly those at risk of persecution, arbitrary detention or torture upon their return," spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. She stressed that sending people, even those convicted of crimes, back to a country where they risk facing serious abuses "violates the core international law principle of non-refoulement". The comments came after Berlin said it had deported 81 Afghan men convicted of crimes in Germany, the second such operation. Germany, like most countries, stopped deportations to Afghanistan and closed its embassy in Kabul following the Taliban's return to power in 2021. But it resumed expulsions last year, when the previous government of Social Democrat chancellor Olaf Scholz expelled 28 Afghan convicts. Friday's deportations come as Afghanistan is already reeling from the returns of more than 1.9 million people since the beginning of the year from Iran and Pakistan. Iran has deported some 500,000 people in the past month alone, Shamdasani said. The UN warned last week that as many as three million could arrive by the end of the year. "People returning to Afghanistan, whether by compulsion or of their own volition, find a country facing an acute humanitarian and human-rights crisis," Shamdasani said.
Int'l Business Times
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Germany Presses Ahead With Deportations To Afghanistan
Germany said Friday it had deported 81 Afghan men convicted of crimes to their Taliban-controlled homeland, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government looks to signal a hard line on immigration. Europe's top economy was forging ahead with a "policy change", said Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who was also hosting several European counterparts for a migration meeting. "Deportations to Afghanistan must continue to be carried out safely in the future. There is no right of residence for serious criminals in our country," he said. The interior ministry said the plane took off Friday morning bound for Afghanistan, adding that all the deportees were under expulsion orders and were convicted by the criminal justice system. Germany had stopped deportations to Afghanistan and closed its embassy in Kabul following the Taliban's return to power in 2021. But expulsions resumed last year, when the previous government of Social Democrat (SPD) chancellor Olaf Scholz expelled a group of 28 Afghan convicts. Berlin has had only indirect contact with the Taliban authorities through third parties, with Friday's operation executed with the help of Qatar, said the interior ministry. Following the announcement, the United Nations said no one should be sent back to Afghanistan, whatever their status. The UN human rights commissioner called for an "immediate halt to the forcible return of all Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers, particularly those at risk of persecution, arbitrary detention or torture upon their return", spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. Amnesty International directly criticised the deportations, saying the situation in Afghanistan was "catastrophic" and that "extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture are commonplace". Merz defended the expulsions at a press conference, saying he was "grateful" to be able to deliver on a promise he had made when entering government. None of those deported "had a residence status anymore. All asylum applications were legally rejected without further legal recourse," he said. "This is why this deportation and this flight were possible." The deportations were among a number of "corrections" made to immigration policy by his government, including tightening border controls and limiting family reunification rights for some refugees. Merz however said policing Germany's borders was only a "temporary" fix and a durable solution was needed at the European level. To that end, Dobrindt was meeting his Austrian, Danish, Czech, French and Polish counterparts, as well as European Commissioner for Home Affairs Magnus Brunner, in southern Germany. The aim of the meeting was to "strengthen European migration policy", Dobrindt told the Augsburger Allgemeine daily. Migration has become a central issue on the German political agenda in tandem with the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The AfD scored a historic election result of over 20 percent in February -- its highest-ever score at the national level -- leaving the party nipping on the heels of Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc. The controversy over immigration has been fuelled by a series of deadly attacks where the suspects were asylum seekers -- including several from Afghanistan. Germany's new government, a coalition between the CDU/CSU and SPD, has promised to expel more foreign criminals alongside a crackdown on irregular migration. As well as carrying out deportations to Afghanistan, Dobrindt has said he was in contact with authorities to enable deportations to Syria, which have been suspended since 2012. Longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December, and the country is now under the control of Islamist leaders, some of whom were once linked with the Al-Qaeda jihadist network.
