Pakistan Expels Some Afghans Waiting For U.S. Resettlement

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
December 27, 2023

Pakistan has sent scores of Afghans back to their country despite their possessing documents confirming they are being considered for resettlement to the United States.

The expulsions are part of a broader Pakistani crackdown on more than 1.7 million “undocumented foreigners,” who are predominantly Afghans.

Nearly half a million Afghans have returned to their country since early October, when Islamabad announced the forced repatriation drive.

“The process of our resettlement [in the United States] should be expedited or the problems of Afghan asylum seekers will worsen,” Gul Wali Ahmadzai, an Afghan in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar who is waiting to be resettled, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

“Although we carry a letter of protection from the United States, it has not deterred the [Pakistani] police from detaining us,” said another Afghan asylum seeker who requested anonymity.

“The police do not allow us to even call or text the U.S. government hotline,” he added.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad sent protection letters to some 25,000 Afghans. The letters proved to Pakistani authorities that they were being processed for resettlement in the United States.

U.S. officials say they are trying to keep in touch with these Afghans in Pakistan. Washington has established an emergency hotline on WhatsApp in Dari, Pashto, and English.

A senior State Department official told Reuters that his country had “no formal way to track these kinds of cases,” adding that the number of Afghans deported while awaiting U.S. resettlement was “very small.”

But Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, the main coalition of groups helping Afghan resettlement, told Reuters that at least 130 Afghans waiting for U.S. special immigration visas in Pakistan had been expelled and returned to their country.

He said the Pakistan police have arrested more than 230 such Afghans. Of these, about 80 have since been released.

“The letters matter in some cases and not others,” said VanDiver. “Not all local officers are abiding by it.”

Senior Pakistani government leaders have repeatedly assured their Western counterparts that Islamabad will not deport the tens of thousands of Afghans whose cases are being considered for immigration.

On December 13, Islamabad extended a deadline to allow tens of thousands of Afghans waiting to be resettled in a third nation to stay in the country for two more months.

Under the extension, the Afghans can remain in the country until February 29. Previously, they were to leave by the end of December.

With reporting by Reuters

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Taliban Closes Education Ministry Department, Creating Uncertainty For Thousands

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
December 27, 2023

The Taliban’s hard-line Islamist government in Afghanistan has eliminated the Monitoring and Evaluation Department in the Education Ministry, a move that threatens the jobs of more than 5,000 people in Kabul and across the country and further erodes secular education in Afghanistan.

The department was tasked with monitoring the quality of teaching in public and private schools in Afghanistan and has workers in all 34 provinces.

It is unclear whether the employees who lost their jobs will be transferred to other jobs, keep their jobs within a renamed department, or be left jobless.

“This step is tragic and has made us destitute,” Idris Ehsaas, one of the affected employees, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. But he noted that the Taliban-led government could still transfer employees to schools, universities, and other educational institutions where they are needed.

Khayal Mohammad, another employee who lost his job, said some of the laid-off workers were promised they would be transferred to a new branch called the Professional Development Department.

“But only a small number of people from the Monitoring and Evaluation Department would be absorbed into this new department,” he said.

Taliban government officials and spokesmen did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the disbanding of the department.

But one Education Ministry employee said the Taliban had merely changed the name of the department to the Professional Development Department.

The ministry employee, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, added that former employees of the Monitoring and Evaluation Department will continue be employed within the new office.

Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has retained a large number of the civilian employees it inherited from the previous pro-Western Afghan government but essentially disbanded its security forces.

The Islamist group has, however, imposed draconian restrictions and bans on secular education.

It has also banned women and teenage girls from schools and universities and converted many secular schools to madrasahs. Last week, the Taliban said that it would allow girls of all ages to study in madrasahs.

In a report released earlier this month, the global rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the Taliban had caused “irreversible damage” to the education of both Afghan boys and girls.

“By harming the whole school system in the country, they risk creating a lost generation deprived of a quality education,” said Sahar Fetrat, a women’s rights researcher at HRW and the report’s author.

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Rising Mental Health Cases in Herat Province: Daily Visits to the Regional Hospital Reach at Least 170 Individuals

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8am: Residents of Herat province report that more than two years of living under the rule of the Taliban and the dismantling of relative prosperity have left the majority of them afflicted with mental illnesses. Concerns about the increasing mental health problems are shared by officials of the province’s Regional Hospital, who confirm that the number of mental health patients is on the rise. According to these officials, most of the affected individuals are young women and girls who, confronted with the challenges of Taliban-imposed prohibitions and restrictions, have encountered significant mental health issues. Click here to read more (external link).

One-third of children in Afghanistan engaged in laborious work: IRC

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Child Laborers (file photo)

Khaama: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) in its latest report has highlighted that the needs of 40% of children in Afghanistan are unmet, emphasizing that one-third of children in the country are engaged in laborious work. The agency reported on Wednesday, that many children have been forced into arduous labour by their families due to increased poverty following the rise of the Taliban regime. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban’s Slaughter of Civilians: ‘The General Amnesty is a Lie’

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8am: In the past month, the Taliban have reportedly killed more than 50 citizens of the country, including former military personnel, women, elderly men, youths, and children. The group continues its practices of detention, torture, humiliation, and imprisonment of its opposition forces. Citizens of the country claim that these murders are only a fraction of the cases that have been covered by the media, as many other instances of Taliban-induced fear go unreported, and media outlets struggle to access information. According to them, the Taliban’s declaration of general amnesty is a lie, and former military personnel should not trust this group. While credible sources attribute these killings to the Taliban, there are also numerous cases where unknown gunmen are implicated. Nevertheless, reports from the United Nations and other human rights organizations indicate widespread instances where the Taliban have engaged in killing, detaining, and torturing both former military personnel and civilians. Click here to read more (external link).

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Air Arabia to Resume Flights to Kabul on Jan. 10

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Tolo News: Afghanistan’s Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (MoTCA), said that Air Arabia will resume its flights between Kabul and Sharjah, UAE from January 10, 2024.“The Air Arabia Airlines has also asked that they want to start flights with Afghanistan from Kabul, their demand has also been accepted, and in the near future their flights will start. In the meantime, Jazeera Airways has also demanded that they want to start direct flight from Afghanistan,” the spokesman added. Click here to read more (external link).