Greece Builds 25-mile Fence to Fend Off Afghan Refugees

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Anthee Carassava
VOA News
August 21, 2021

Greece has erected a 25-mile fence and installed a new surveillance system on its border with Turkey as fears mount of a surge in Afghan refugees trying to reach Europe. Greece has faced recurring refugee crises since 2015, when more than a million mainly Syrian refugees swarmed through its land and sea borders to escape conflict in their homeland.

Speaking from Checkpoint One, Greece’s key border post along the country’s rugged land frontiers with Turkey, Public Order Minister Michalis Chryssochoidis sounded what he called a clear and fair warning.

Our borders, he said, will remain safe and inviolable. And we will not allow any indiscriminate inflow of refugees.

The minister’s warning sounded as he toured the checkpoint and a soaring, 25-mile, steel fence completed in recent days amid fears of a deluge of Afghan refugees fleeing for their lives after the Taliban takeover.

Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said the Greek fence along the shallow Evros river that separates the country from Turkey is just part of a bigger plan pieced together by authorities to further shield the country against a new migration crisis.

We are on alert, but Greece, he said, will continue to protect itself from any threat.

The defense minister said special surveillance systems, including a fleet of drones and night cameras, had been installed across the new fence to watch for illegal crossings. Army bulldozers were also seen plowing across stretches of the country’s northern frontier with Bulgaria, where military trucks were unloading barbed wired to erect more fences.

Greece has been on the front line of Europe’s migration woes since about 1.2 million refugees from Syria streamed through in 2015, sparking the biggest migration push to the European continent since the Second World War.

Greece has repeatedly complained to the European Union about doing too little to support hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees trapped in the country for six years, as neighboring states and other European nations, including Germany, turned a blind eye, sealing their borders to keep them away.

The United Nations is now making appeals for countries in the region to not do the same to fleeing Afghanis.  But the government in Athens says it won’t sit passively.

In fact, in a surprise move. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis placed an urgent telephone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday trying to drum up support and a common strategy on how to deal with a potential migration crisis in the region.

Details of the meeting or any decision between the two men were not released. But no sooner had the call ended than Erdogan warned Europe he too would not allow Turkey to become what he called a refugee warehouse.

Turkey is already hosting 3.6 million Syrian refugees and more than 300,000 Afghans.

In Greece, meanwhile, humanitarian groups, Afghan refugees and leftist parties are now up in arms about the border fence and the government’s controversial plan of deterrence.  Those groups say the plan completely disregards human rights and the right to asylum to those fleeing danger and bloodshed.

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Taliban bar Afghan employees from returning to work in Kabul

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Taliban Militants in Kabul

Press TV
August 21, 2021

The Taliban have barred employees from entering government buildings in Kabul, one week after the militant group took over the capital.

Government buildings, banks, passport offices, schools and universities have been largely closed since the Taliban seized Kabul on August 15.

A government employee, identified as Hamdullah, told AFP, “I went to the office this morning, but the Taliban who were at the gate told us they have not received any orders to reopen government offices.”

“They told us to watch TV or listen to the radio for an announcement about when to resume work.”

According to a foreign ministry employee, roads leading to the ministry in central Kabul were closed.

“They aren’t allowing anyone to enter the ministry building,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity. “One of them even told me to wait until the new minister and directors are appointed.”

Workers at the offices of the ministry of rural rehabilitation, however, said they were allowed to enter after showing identification.

Over the past week, the capital has been largely calm, but daily chaos in and around Kabul’s airport has left at least 12 people dead, NATO and Taliban officials said.

Thousands of people are still attempting to board flights in a chaotic and dangerous situation at the airport. The daily mayhem there has stoked criticism that NATO and US President Joe Biden’s administration are slow in trying to get Americans and their allies out of the country.

As chaos continued to unfold on the streets of Kabul, Washington advised Americans in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to the airport on Saturday.

“Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising US citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a US government representative to do so,” said an alert, posted on the website of the US Embassy in Afghanistan.

Citing an official, AFP reported that the US military sent helicopters to rescue over 150 Americans unable to reach the airport gates.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) criticized Washington for being concerned only with the evacuation “of its own citizens and former employees.”

“This is blocking the evacuation of those on the lists of sensitive persons who are in danger.”

The organization called on the US president on Saturday to make “a special plan for evacuating endangered Afghan journalists” from Afghanistan’s capital city.

The RSF chief Christophe Deloire said they “are receiving dozens and dozens of urgent evacuation requests.”

“Our problem today is not getting visas or seats on planes, it is making it possible for these people to access planes.”

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also said it had received “hundreds of requests for help” from Afghan journalists, mostly women, who are “in panic and fear,” after the Taliban takeover.

The US administration is under fire for being overly bureaucratic and not having enough staff to process thousands of Afghans seeking to leave their country for the United States.

Biden has pledged to help any US citizen in Afghanistan seeking to evacuate. But he has acknowledged that the presence of thousands of US soldiers at the airport does not guarantee safe passage to that vast compound.

The Taliban, however, take the US and its Western allies responsible for carrying out a messy troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has significantly aggravated the situation in the country after two decades of war.

Inside Afghanistan’s cryptocurrency underground as the country plunges into turmoil

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CNBC: For many Afghans, this week has laid bare the worst-case scenario for a country running on legacy financial rails: A nationwide cash shortage, closed borders, a plunging currency, and rapidly rising prices of basic goods. In some ways, it’s a perfect test case for the usefulness of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. CNBC spoke with several Afghans who are using crypto to learn how they got into it, how it’s helping them, and barriers to further adoption. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban Leadership Reportedly Gathering In Kabul To Discuss Future Government

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Baradar

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 21, 2021

The Taliban’s senior leadership is reportedly gathering in Kabul to map out a future government following the hard-line Islamist group’s return to the Afghan capital.

The August 21 gathering will take place as the Taliban attempts to present a more moderate image after regaining control over most of the country as U.S.-led forces evacuate following nearly two decades of war.

A senior Taliban official told AFP on condition of anonymity that Taliban co-founder and political-office head Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar would meet in Kabul with “jihadi leaders and politicians for an inclusive government set-up.”

Reuters, meanwhile, quoted an unidentified Taliban official as saying that Baradar was in Afghanistan to “delegate responsibility to commanders, meet former government leaders, local militia commanders, policymakers, and religious scholars.”

The official told the news agency that the Taliban planned to set up separate teams to deal with internal security and the country’s financial crisis.

The meeting of Taliban leadership is expected to include a top official of the Haqqani network, which has ties to the Taliban and has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

The Taliban have promised “positively different” rule compared to its last stint in power in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, when it ruled with a strict, fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.

With the militant group’s return to power concerns have been expressed about a return to harsh conditions for religious minorities and women, who were excluded from public life.

The Taliban has promised a general amnesty for anyone who worked with the U.S.-backed government, but there have been worrying reports of the militants hunting down journalists as well as former Afghan troops and government officials.

The international rights watchdog Amnesty International has said that Taliban fighters last month “massacred” and brutally tortured several members of Afghanistan’s mainly Shi’ite Hazara minority, in what the watchdog called a “horrifying indicator” of the hard-line Sunni militant group’s rule.

The Taliban official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity on August 21 said that the group plans to present a new model for governing Afghanistan in the next few weeks.

The official said the new framework worked out by legal, religious, and foreign-policy experts would not be a democracy, but would “protect everyone’s rights.”

The Taliban would investigate reports of violence carried out by its members, according to the official.

“We have heard of some cases of atrocities and crimes against civilians,” he told Reuters. “If Talibs [members] are doing these law and order problems, they will be investigated.”

Based on AFP, Reuters, and TASS

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Female Journalists Say Taliban Barred Them From State-Run Media

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VOA News
August 21, 2021

WASHINGTON – At least two female journalists working for a state-owned broadcaster in Afghanistan have said the Taliban are not allowing them to work.

Since entering Kabul last Sunday, the Taliban have taken control of government agencies, including state-run media.

When journalists at the national Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) arrived at work, some women were told they could not enter the building.

In a video posted online, RTA news anchor Shabnam Khan Dawran said that male colleagues were allowed into the building but that she was turned away.

“I was not allowed (in) despite having my office card. The male employees with office cards were able to enter the office but I was told I couldn’t continue my duty because the system (government) has changed,” Dawran, who has worked in journalism for six years, said in the video.

Another RTA anchor, Khadija Amin, told the privately owned TOLONews that she was not allowed to enter her office on Tuesday and that other colleagues were also later turned away.

Amin said they spoke with the new Taliban-appointed director, who told them the group would soon make a decision about whether they can work.

She added that the Taliban have changed RTA programs and “there are no female presenters.”

One journalist who used to work for RTA said she is worried about her former colleagues.

“Unfortunately, we are going back to the Taliban’s era. I am very concerned about the safety of my colleagues,” the journalist, who asked not to be identified, told VOA.

At their first media conference since seizing power, the Taliban said that women’s rights would be honored under Shariah, or Islamic law. The group’s spokesperson also said that media would be allowed to report freely as long as they were fair and promoted national unity.

But many journalists and media rights organizations are wary. The German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) said that Taliban fighters killed one of their journalists’ relatives this week while looking for the reporter.

The killing “is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” DW Director General Peter Limbourg said late Thursday, according to Reuters.

The Taliban have not commented publicly about the attack on the DW journalist’s family or on female journalists being blocked from state media. They said previously that journalists are free to work at privately owned media but that the Taliban will run state-owned outlets.

Change of programming

RTA has dozens of radio and TV channels and operates in Kabul and 32 provinces.

But when the Taliban took over, they changed the stations’ names to Shariat Ghag (Voice of Shariah) — the name of the sole radio station that existed under the group’s rule in the 1990s.

A freelance journalist in Helmand told VOA that the Taliban replaced the local RTA channel with Shariat Ghag Radio on Friday, and that the station is mainly “covering Taliban’s news and activities.”

He said the Taliban told employees of the state-owned provincial station to “broadcast based on their instructions.”

The station no longer has women presenters or voices, according to the journalist, who is not named for safety reasons.

Female journalists at privately owned stations have continued to broadcast. On Tuesday, a female anchor at TOLONews interviewed a Taliban official, in a move many considered unprecedented.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay on Friday called for free expression and journalists’ safety to be ensured in Afghanistan.

“No one should be afraid to say what they think at this critical juncture, and the safety of all journalists, including women, must especially be guaranteed,” Azoulay said in a statement.

UNESCO added that the progress of the past 20 years “should not be undone and in particular that women journalists must be able to continue their crucial work.”

This story originated in VOA’s Afghan division.

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Healthcare Needs Grow Amid Deepening Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan

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Lisa Schlein
VOA News
August 21, 2021

GENEVA – The World Health Organization is sounding the alarm about healthcare in Afghanistan, where conflict has left millions of people vulnerable to hunger and illnesses.

About one-half of Afghanistan’s population, including more than four million women and nearly 10 million children, need humanitarian assistance.

The World Health Organization says one-third of the population is facing acute hunger and more than half of all children under age five are malnourished. It says the current drought is expected to worsen an already dire situation.

WHO officials say they are committed to staying in Afghanistan and delivering critical healthcare services. However, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic notes that only will be possible if all parties in the war-torn country respect and protect civilians, health workers and health facilities.

“Continuity of health services must continue without interruption across the country, with a focus on ensuring women have access to female health-workers…Most major health facilities are functional. And this is based on provincial-level field monitoring. Health workers have been called to return to or to remain at their posts, including female health staff,” said Jasarevic.

The new Taliban rulers of Afghanistan have promised to protect women’s rights and allow them to work and study. However, since they have seized control of the country, there have been reports of female workers having been dismissed from their jobs.

Nearly 300,000 Afghans have fled their homes in the last two months, fearing for their safety as U.S. and NATO forces hastened their departure from the country.

Jasarevic says those newly displaced people are extremely vulnerable. They lack food, shelter and many suffer from a variety of health problems.

“In areas where people have recently fled, including Kabul, WHO received field reports of increase in cases of diarrhea, malnutrition, high blood pressure, COVID-19-like symptoms and reproductive health complications. When it comes to trauma cases, close to 14,000 conflict-related trauma received at 70 WHO-supported health facilities in July 21,” said Jasarevic.

He says that is more than three times higher than the number of trauma cases received during the same period last year.

The WHO spokesman says attacks on healthcare facilities also pose a major challenge. In the first half of this year, he notes 26 health facilities were damaged, and 31 health care workers were assaulted. He adds 12 of the health workers were killed.

The WHO says medical supplies and equipment are in short supply. It says the most pressing needs are for reproductive and child health services and nutrition supplements to address rising malnutrition among children, especially those affected by conflict.

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Plan B for Afghanistan: Travel to Sri Lanka via Pakistan and Dubai

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CricInfo: The Afghanistan contingent might have to take a circuitous route to get to Sri Lanka for their scheduled three-match ODI series against Pakistan, to be played in Hambantota, because of the political turmoil in their country. No commercial flights are taking off from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of the country… Click here to read more (external link).

Turkish, Greek Leaders Say They Won’t Accept Afghan Migrant Wave

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Erdogan

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 21, 2021

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Afghanistan as concern mounts over a new migration wave to Europe.

The European Union must assist Afghans in Afghanistan and in neighboring countries, particularly Iran, otherwise a migration wave will be “inevitable,” Erdogan told the Greek leader in a phone call on August 20.

Erdogan said that if stability isn’t brought to Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover last weekend, already high migration pressures will increase and this situation will pose “a serious challenge for everyone,” according to his office.

Afghanistan’s neighbors should be supported so that Afghans “stay as close to their homes as possible,” Mitsotakis said according to his office.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, a deteriorating economy, and long-running humanitarian crisis has raised concern in Europe of a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis, when more than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere crossed to Greece from Turkey before travelling north to wealthier states.

Turkey hosts nearly 4 million Syrian refugees and 300,000 Afghans, in addition to migrants and refugees from other parts of the world.

Greece became a frontline state during the European migration crisis, although arrivals from Turkey have dropped since 2016 when the EU reached a deal with Ankara to stem the flow in exchange for billions of dollars of financial support and visa free travel for Turkish citizens to the bloc.

Erdogan often complains the EU hasn’t fully lived up its end of the agreement, and on occasion has used the threat of opening Turkey’s borders to Europe to apply political pressure on Brussels.

“Turkey has no mission, responsibility or obligation to be Europe’s refugee warehouse,” Erdogan said in televised remarks late on August 19.

“We need to remind our European friends of this fact: Europe cannot stay out of this problem by harshly closing its borders to protect the safety and well-being of its own citizens,” Erdogan said.

In other comments, Erdogan said Turkey is in touch with officials in Iran about migration and was prepared to engage with the Taliban, saying the group’s control of the country is “a fact.”

Earlier, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said he doesn’t expect a large number of refugees from Afghanistan to arrive in Europe, as long as those fleeing the country are provided with aid.

He told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on August 20 that Afghanistan’s neighbors are most likely to see an influx of refugees, particularly Pakistan, Iran and, to a lesser extent, Tajikistan.

A greater “risk” to the European Union was likely only if refugees are not promptly provided with aid and decide to attempt the journey to Europe, he added.

According to the UN, more than 5 million Afghans have already been displaced outside the country since the 1979 Soviet invasion and subsequent waves of violence. Ninety percent of them live in Iran or Pakistan.

Turkey and Greece have recently hardened their borders. Turkey is erecting walls and ditches along the border with Iran as well as electronic monitoring systems amid concern about Afghan refugees.

Greece said August 20 it had completed a 40-kilometer fence on its border with Turkey and a new surveillance system to stop possible asylum seekers.

With reporting by Anadolu Ajansi, AP, AFP, eKathimerini, and BBC Turkish

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Anti-Taliban Forces Retake Three Northern Afghan Districts

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 20, 2021

ISLAMABAD – Opposition fighters loyal to Afghanistan’s ousted government on Friday retook three northern districts from the Taliban just days after the Islamist group reestablished its control over most of the country.

Pro-Taliban social media accounts confirmed the military reversal in northern Baghlan province. They said at least 15 Taliban fighters were killed and 15 others injured in what they described as a betrayal of the amnesty announced for members of the former Afghan government.

Abdul Hamid, local commander of what was described as an uprising against the Taliban, said in a video message from Andrab, one of the newly held districts, that his forces were advancing toward another nearby district, vowing to capture all of Baghlan.

The Taliban reportedly have dispatched their forces to Andrab to stage a counteroffensive.

VOA requested but has not received reaction from Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, to what was the first formal armed retaliation since his group took control of the capital, Kabul, on Sunday.

Friday’s attack came just days after Amrullah Saleh, who served as the first vice president to self-exiled President Ashraf Ghani, vowed to organize a strong resistance to the Taliban from his home province of Panjshir.

Saleh has declared himself the caretaker president, citing the Afghan constitution, after Ghani left the country on Sunday and was given asylum by the UAE.

The former vice president claimed to be operating out of Panjshir with the support of Ahmed Massoud, the son of slain Afghan commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, who successfully defended the province and other strongholds in Afghanistan during the previous Taliban government from 1996 to 2001.

Meanwhile, Taliban leaders have been holding talks with former Afghan rivals in Kabul in their bid to form what they have promised will be an “inclusive Islamic government” to run the strife-torn country.

The United States and the rest of the global community have warned the Taliban that running the country any other way would prolong the Afghan civil war and that they would not recognize such a government.

During their previous regime in Kabul, the Taliban enforced a strict interpretation of Shariah, or Islamic law, under which women could leave home only if escorted by a male relative, and girls were barred from education, among other controversial policies.

Taliban spokesman Mujahid vowed earlier this week while speaking at his first press conference in Kabul that the group will respect women’s rights and will allow them to work as well as seek education within Shariah. He said the Taliban want to remain part of the global community and will form an inclusive government where all ethnic groups will have their representation.

However, Afghan rights activists and others report that Taliban fighters are entering their private homes in Kabul and harassing them. Several female media anchors have said the national television has taken them off the air without any explanation.

Former Afghan MP, Elay Ershad, while speaking to VOA from Kabul by phone Friday, said there were “minor issues” facing city residents since the Taliban arrived but the overall situation in terms of security and peace is rapidly improving.

“These are the most calm days of my life in terms of the security situation. There are no explosions, no gunfire and no gunship helicopters in the skies,” Ershad said.

“But still there are groups who are calling themselves Taliban and wear clothes like Taliban. They enter houses, they take people’s weapons, even mobile phones, even houses, like they tried to occupy my house,” she said.

Ershad lamented that schools and universities in Kabul are closed, preventing both girls and boys from resuming their education activities, and banks as well as government offices are closed, which is causing problems for the residents.

“But I am quite happy to have gotten rid of all these thieves and losers who left the country and left behind their constituencies, their people. It is very embarrassing the way they fled the country,” the MP said when asked for her reaction to Ghani and his officials fleeing the country in the face of the Taliban advances.

“I am a woman and stayed back with my people, but all male politicians, they just left,” she said.

“The security situation in Kabul city is under control. A few girls can walk safely on the street, so I cannot see any problems. It is still not a government, but I will still call [it] a government. It’s quite new and even their leadership is not here yet. But they need to move quickly to address whatever problems I have highlighted,” she added.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Program joined Friday the call for millions of Afghans and others around the world for peace, respect for human rights, and access to development assistance for all in Afghanistan, without any discrimination.

“We are alarmed that the current trajectory of conflict, uncertainty, drought and COVID-19 pandemic could endanger fragile development gains, including the rights of Afghan women and girls. The international community must stand by, and continue to support, the people of Afghanistan at this time,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

The Taliban have vowed to improve the Afghan economy, but they still have to address governance issues and reconcile successfully with former rivals to be able to win international legitimacy for their run to receive foreign aid.

Major donors, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have already halted their support for Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries.

Taliban rulers, analysts say, will soon face economic challenges like paying salaries to government employees and ensuring running of other projects if international funding sources remain suspended.