US remains Afghanistan’s top aid provider: SIGAR Report
Khaama: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, known as SIGAR, has stated that even two years after the complete withdrawal of international forces, the United States remains the most significant contributor to Afghanistan’s reconstruction efforts. In the quarterly report on November 1st, released for presentation to the U.S. Congress, it was revealed that the United States has allocated $11.1 billion to address the situation in Afghanistan and support Afghan refugees. Click here to read more (external link).
The Expulsion of Afghan Refugees from Pakistan: A Multifaceted Political Decision
8am: There are multiple underlying factors contributing to this mass deportation, some of which are rooted in Afghanistan. Inside Afghanistan, there is a belief that this action is an attempt by the Taliban to alter the country’s demographic landscape by relocating refugees. In private political circles, there are allegations of collusion between the Taliban and the Pakistani government in planning the transfer of refugees and the displaced population to the surrounding areas of the Qosh Tepa and Qataghanzamin canals. To mitigate public reactions, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi, an Uzbek member of the Taliban from northern Afghanistan, has been appointed as the head of the commission for the management of returnees, and a ministry known as “Refugees and Returnees” is actively engaged in implementing these plans. Click here to read more (external link).
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Pakistan Rejects ‘Flawed’ US List of Potential Afghan Resettlers
Ayaz Gul
VOA News
November 1, 2023
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has started rounding up and deporting undocumented foreigners — including 1.7 million Afghan nationals — following a one-month deadline for voluntary departure that expired Wednesday.
Authorities have reported that nearly 250,000 Afghans have returned to their home country voluntarily in the run-up to the November 1 deadline to avoid being arrested and forcibly expelled.
The United Nations and Pakistani officials say those facing deportation include more than 600,000 people who fled Afghanistan after the Islamist Taliban returned to power in August 2021, when the United States and NATO withdrew their troops from the country.
U.S. officials say they are working closely with Pakistani counterparts to ensure the protection of at least 25,000 Afghans who could be eligible for relocation to the United States under a special immigration program for their services during the two-decade-long presence of American forces in Afghanistan.
But a senior Pakistani official said Wednesday that Islamabad had rejected the list because of significant discrepancies.
“The list of 25,000 Afghans was shared with Pakistan just days before the deportation deadline was to expire. We examined it thoroughly but found it flawed and incomplete,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for not being authorized to discuss the subject publicly.
The official added that the U.S. side eventually withdrew the list in response to Pakistan’s objections and promised to resubmit it after removing the flaws. Washington did not comment immediately on Pakistani assertions.
On Tuesday, a U.S. official said that facilitating “the safe and efficient” resettlement of Pakistan-based eligible Afghan refugees and asylum seekers is a priority for the U.S. administration.
“To help protect vulnerable individuals, we have shared a list with the government of Pakistan of more than 25,000 Afghan individuals in the U.S. resettlement and relocation pipelines,” said the U.S. official, who spoke anonymously to discuss the policy. “We are in the process of sending letters to those individuals that they can share with local authorities to help identify them as individuals in the U.S. pipeline.”
Dozens of Afghan nationals jailed for “minor crimes” also were released from a prison near the capital of Islamabad and were transported along with others to the border for repatriation Wednesday.
“This action is a testament to Pakistan’s determination to repatriate any individuals residing in the country without proper documentation,” Pakistani Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said on social media platform X.
The Taliban have repeatedly called on Pakistan and other neighboring countries hosting Afghan refugees to halt their deportation. The U.N. and human rights groups have warned the Pakistani plan could expose many individuals to retribution and abuses by de facto Afghan authorities.
“We call on them not to deport Afghans forcefully without preparation; rather give them enough time, and countries should use tolerance,” a Taliban statement said Wednesday. “Those Afghans who have left the country due to political concerns, we assure them to return and live peacefully in their country.”
The Taliban have set up temporary camps on the Afghan side for returning families to provide them with immediate shelter, health care, food and other services.
Pakistan has been praised globally for hosting millions of Afghan refugees who fled the decadelong Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and ensuing factional fighting in the 1990s. Currently, more than 4 million Afghans reside in the country, including 1.4 million legally registered refugees and hundreds of thousands of documented economic migrants.
Pakistani authorities have stated that Afghans living legally in the country are not subject to the crackdown.
Islamabad defends its policy regarding foreigners without legal status, saying Afghan nationals have carried out several suicide bombings in Pakistan amid a recent spike in deadly attacks in the country being orchestrated by Taliban-allied militants from Afghan soil.
The violence has led to anti-Afghan sentiment and calls for forcing the refugee community out of the country. It comes as Pakistan struggles to address a protracted economic crisis, which has led to historic levels of inflation and energy prices.
VOA Pakistan Bureau Chief Sarah Zaman contributed to this report.
Taliban Claim: Three Members of National Resistance Front Allegedly Killed in Balkh Province
8am: Local Taliban officials have claimed that three members of the National Resistance Front were killed during clashes with their fighters in Balkh Province. Ataullah Zaid, the spokesperson for the Taliban in Balkh, stated that these individuals were killed on Tuesday night, October 31st, in the “Char Sarak” area of Balkh district. According to him, among the deceased was a senior official from the northern zone of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. Click here to read more (external link).
Taliban Creates Fake Nonprofits to Get Millions in U.S. Afghanistan Aid Since Military Withdraw
Taliban fighters (file photo)
Judicial Watch: In one of the most recent Afghanistan debacles, the Taliban has established fraudulent non-governmental organizations (NGO) to loot the hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid that the United States has sent Afghanistan since the 2021 military withdraw. NGOs are typically nonprofits with humanitarian missions that supposedly work to improve public or social welfare. Approximately 1.5 million NGOs operate in the U.S., according to the State Department, and they advocate for a variety of issues that include the environment, healthcare, women’s rights, marginalized populations, youth empowerment and economic development. The U.S. government gives NGOs billions of taxpayers every year through various agencies, including the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and State. Click here to read more (external link).
‘They will kill me’: Hazaras being deported by Pakistan to Afghanistan fear renewed persecution
Hazaras (file photo)
Scroll.in: The predominantly Shi’ite community are reviled by the Sunni Taliban as infidels. Sadiq, an ethnic Hazara, fled Afghanistan last year because he was attacked and beaten by the members of the Taliban regime. Now, the 25-year-old faces expulsion from Pakistan and he fears a return to his home country could amount to a death sentence. “Going to Kabul would be like going to a graveyard to be buried,” he said… Click here to read more (external link
Tolo News in Dari – November 1, 2023
Pakistan Begins Rounding Up Undocumented Afghans For Deportation
By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
November 1, 2023
Pakistan on November 1 began rounding up undocumented foreigners, the vast majority of them Afghans, hours ahead of the deadline for them to evacuate the country.
The country’s Interior Ministry said in a statement before the midnight deadline that “a process to arrest the foreigners…for deportation” had begun, but that voluntary return would still be encouraged.
The undocumented foreigners were reportedly being transferred to transit centers.
Officials in the southwestern port city of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and capital of Sindh Province, said that up to 40 people without proper documents had been moved to one of the transit centers.
Pakistan announced in early October that it would expel an estimated 1.7 million undocumented immigrants who remained in the country after November 1. As the deadline approached, tens of thousands of Afghans — some who have sought refuge in Pakistan for decades — made their way back to Afghanistan with their families and belongings.
In the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, which borders Afghanistan, officials said on November 1 that more than 100,000 Afghan nationals had returned to their homeland via the Torkham border crossing in the past two weeks.
An undetermined number of Afghans have returned to Afghanistan by way of the Chaman border crossing in the southwestern Balochistan Province.
Overall, more than 140,000 people had voluntarily left Pakistan following the government’s October 3 order, according to Pakistan’s Interior Ministry.
Pakistan’s move to remove undocumented foreigners is seen as part of an anti-immigrant crackdown that has been criticized by human rights groups and the United Nations.
On October 31, the chair of the nongovernmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Hina Jilani, wrote the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warning that Islamabad’s move to expel Afghans could “trigger a humanitarian crisis.”
“The decision amounts to forced repatriation, which is not recognized under international customary law, and will invariably affect vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers, which include women, children, the elderly, persons living with disabilities, persons from low-income groups, and Afghans at risk because of their professions — many of whom fled Afghanistan after the Afghan Taliban took over the government in August 2021,” Jilani wrote.
Ahmad Afghan, an Afghan national who lives in Islamabad, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that he and his family left Afghanistan after the Taliban regained power in Kabul. He said his visa has since expired and he has been unable to extend it as he and his family await documents to move to a third country.
“We are very worried. We cannot go back to Afghanistan,” Afghan said. “If we go back to Afghanistan, [the Taliban] will kill us — 100 percent.”
Pakistan has been a popular refuge for Afghans for decades, beginning during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation. Others fled fighting during the ensuing Afghan civil war and the Taliban’s first stint in power from 1996 to 2001. Millions of Afghans returned to their homeland following the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban from power.
Some 3.7 million Afghans fleeing war, poverty, and political upheaval in their homeland currently reside in Pakistan, according to the United Nations, with Islamabad putting the number as high as 4.4 million.
Officials in Islamabad have said that about 1.4 million Afghans possess documents allowing them to legally stay in Pakistan and that the order for undocumented immigrants to leave affects 1.7 million people.
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban has previously criticized the move to remove undocumented Afghans from Pakistan, saying they are being punished for tensions between Kabul and Islamabad.
On November 1, the Taliban called on the Pakistani government to give undocumented Afghans more time to leave as large numbers of evacuees created bottlenecks at the Pakistan-Afghan border.
While thanking Pakistan and other countries that have harbored Afghans over years of conflict in Afghanistan, the Taliban asked Islamabad “to not forcibly deport Afghans with little notice, but give them time to prepare.”
Mohammad Zaman, an Afghan national who spoke to Radio Azadi at the Torkham border crossing on November 1, said the large group his family traveled with struggled to prepare for the evacuation.
“More than 30 families came with us. They are people who had left their country due to poverty. They are people who could not find a loaf of bread, so they left the country and came [to Pakistan],” Zaman said. “Instead of supporting us, Pakistan gave us a very short deadline. The deadline was so short that we couldn’t even wrap up our businesses.”
An Afghan national who spoke to Radio Azadi on condition of anonymity following his arrival in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province expressed hope that he and his children would be treated fairly by the Taliban.
“I swear by God, I have neither a place to live in nor a piece of land,” the man said, adding that he and his family had moved to Pakistan in search of work. “I ask the Taliban to provide us with shelter, at least a tent to live in…. Here, we may die of hunger.”
On November 1, Afghanistan’s state news agency, Bakhtar, which is under Taliban control, said the Taliban government had dedicated 2 billion Afghanis (about $27 million) to provide returnees “with basic needs.”
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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Explosion At The Milat Gym: ‘The Taliban Were Beating People During the Incident’
Taliban militant (file photo)
8am: The government must ensure the security of its citizens, even in the face of security threats, as it is responsible for the people. However, despite being aware of the threats, the Taliban failed to provide us with security. Moreover, we had suggested on several occasions that they send one or two Taliban members to ensure security, or allow us to purchase and provide security ourselves with locally available firearms, as is common practice. Unfortunately, our request was rejected by the Taliban, and we had to inspect individuals entering the sports complex with empty hands to ensure security. Click here to read more (external link).