’Our dream collapsed’: British Afghans lament Taliban takeover

Demonstrators, including former interpreters for the British Army in Afghanistan, hold placards as they protest opposite the Houses of Parliament in London on Wednesday following the resumption of power by the Taliban in Kabul. (AFP)
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Updated 19 August 2021
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’Our dream collapsed’: British Afghans lament Taliban takeover

  • "There's no life in our country. The Taliban never help people -- they only know how to kill people," an asylum seeker told AFP
  • "We never thought the Taliban would return. The dream we had for the future of Afghanistan has collapsed," said Nooralhaq Nasimi who reached Britain in a refrigerated lorry.

LONDON: Safir Khan shed tears after watching the Taliban regain power in his native Afghanistan, sending thousands fleeing to Kabul airport in a desperate bid to escape.
“There’s no life in our country. The Taliban never help people — they only know how to kill people,” the 31-year-old asylum seeker told AFP.
He is among thousands of Afghans in Britain watching their stranded compatriots try to flee, many of them with bitter memories of the abuses carried out by the Taliban during its last stint in power between 1996 and 2001.
The sight of a government propped up for two decades by Western money and troops falling to Taliban insurgents within two weeks has left many British Afghans despondent.
“We never thought the Taliban would return. The dream we had for the future of Afghanistan has collapsed,” said Nooralhaq Nasimi, who reached Britain in a refrigerated lorry after fleeing Afghanistan in 1999.
“It’s a desperate situation — there’s no bright future. Afghanistan is left behind once again by the international community,” added Karim Shirin, director of the Afghan Association of London.
Western leaders — particularly US President Joe Biden — have been criticized for withdrawing troops too hastily and abandoning Afghanistan to the hard-line Islamists.
“Building a nation, a democracy, is a long-term solution. Twenty years is not enough. The US decision wasn’t logical and reasonable,” said Nasimi, director of London’s Afghanistan and Central Asian Association.
Fahima Zaheen, head of London-based Afghan refugee association Paiwand, said those fleeing to the UK need urgent support from groups like hers, which would in turn need help from the authorities.
“The government had the past 20 years to prevent this situation,” she said, accusing officials of ignoring the plight of Afghans.
Fears are growing that the Taliban could take action against those who worked for Western military forces, or others who were employed by the government, in the army, journalists and activists.
Kabul-born Homed Mohammad claimed asylum in Britain in 2001 and remembers when the Taliban chopped off the hands of thieves, terrorized women and banned music and football.
“All I care about is my family over there — I don’t know what is going to happen,” he said.
The UK government on Tuesday announced it would take 20,000 refugees “in the long-term” and 5,000 in the first year, prioritising women, children and those most vulnerable to Taliban reprisals.
Adris Tokhi, an immigration solicitor at Paiwand, has been inundated with an “unimaginable” number of inquiries from worried Afghans and said the commitment did not go far enough.
“The first year is the important year — people want their family members out as soon as possible,” he told AFP.
Undocumented Afghan refugees often suffer from mental trauma and discrimination and cannot work or receive welfare payments, excluding them from society.
Khan has been trying to obtain asylum in Britain since arriving from Jalalabad, east of Kabul, in 2008 and suffers from persistent mental health problems.
“It’s really depressing — whenever I think about it, I lose my control. You ask a disabled guy to walk, but he can’t walk — that’s the feeling,” he said.
The fate of Afghan women has become a key issue.
The Taliban previously barred girls from school and women from work and imposed wearing the full-face veil, the burkha, under their strict interpretation of Islamic law.
“I’m worried about the future. There’s been a vast amount of progress and it would be unfortunate if we start from zero,” said Paiwand advocacy service manager Mariam Baraky.
But Shirin believes the Taliban cannot reverse 20 years of educational, political and civil society development in Afghanistan.
“People cannot cope with another atrocity by the Taliban,” he said.


US Supreme Court sides with Trump in South Sudan deportation fight

Updated 12 sec ago
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US Supreme Court sides with Trump in South Sudan deportation fight

  • Trump administration has sought to deport 8 migrants to unstable South Sudan
  • District judge had said the deportation attempt violated his injunction

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court again sided with President Donald Trump’s administration in a legal fight over deporting migrants to countries other than their own, lifting on Thursday limits a judge had imposed to protect eight men who the government sought to send to politically unstable South Sudan.
The court on June 23 put on hold Boston-based US District Judge Brian Murphy’s April 18 injunction requiring migrants set for removal to so-called “third countries” where they have no ties to get a chance to tell officials they are at risk of torture there, while a legal challenge plays out.
The court on Thursday granted a Justice Department request to clarify that its June 23 decision also extended to Murphy’s separate May 21 ruling that the administration had violated his injunction in attempting to send a group of migrants to South Sudan. The US State Department has urged Americans to avoid the African nation “due to crime, kidnapping and armed conflict.”
Two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the decision.
The court said that Murphy should now “cease enforcing the April 18 injunction through the May 21 remedial order.”
Murphy’s May 21 order mandating further procedures for the South Sudan-destined migrants prompted the US government to keep the migrants at a military base in Djibouti. Murphy also clarified at the time that non-US citizens must be given at least 10 days to raise a claim that they fear for their safety.
After the Supreme Court lifted Murphy’s April injunction on June 23, the judge promptly ruled that his May 21 order “remains in full force and effect.” Calling that ruling by the judge a “lawless act of defiance,” the Justice Department the next day urged the Supreme Court to clarify that its action applied to Murphy’s May 21 decision as well.
Murphy’s ruling, the Justice Department said in court filings, has stalled its “lawful attempts to finalize the long-delayed removal of those aliens to South Sudan,” and disrupted diplomatic relations. Its agents are being “forced to house dangerous criminal aliens at a military base in the Horn of Africa that now lies on the borders of a regional conflict,” it added.
Even as it accused the judge of defying the Supreme Court, the administration itself has been accused of violating judicial orders including in the third-country deportation litigation.
The administration has said its third-country policy is critical for removing migrants who commit crimes because their countries of origin are often unwilling to take them back. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal members dissented from the June 23 decision pausing Murphy’s injunction, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor calling it a “gross abuse” of the court’s power that now exposes “thousands to the risk of torture or death.”
After the Department of Homeland Security moved in February to step up rapid deportations to third countries, immigrant rights groups filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of a group of migrants seeking to prevent their removal to such places without notice and a chance to assert the harms they could face.
In March, the administration issued guidance providing that if a third country has given credible diplomatic assurance that it will not persecute or torture migrants, individuals may be deported there “without the need for further procedures.”
Murphy found that the administration’s policy of “executing third-country removals without providing notice and a meaningful opportunity to present fear-based claims” likely violates due process requirements under the US Constitution. Due process generally requires the government to provide notice and an opportunity for a hearing before taking certain adverse actions.
The Justice Department on Tuesday noted in a filing that the administration has received credible diplomatic assurances from South Sudan that the aliens at issue will not be subject to torture.”
The Supreme Court has let Trump implement some contentious immigration policies while the fight over their legality continues to play out. In two decisions in May, it let Trump end humanitarian programs for hundreds of thousands of migrants to live and work in the United States temporarily. The justices, however, faulted the administration’s treatment of some migrants as inadequate under constitutional due process protections.

 


Russian shelling kills five in and near eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk

Updated 34 min 46 sec ago
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Russian shelling kills five in and near eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk

  • Two people had been killed in Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub

KYIV: Russian shelling killed five people on Thursday in and near the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, the regional governor said, a key target under Russian attack for months.

Vadym Filashkin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said two people had been killed in Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub, where local authorities have been urging residents to evacuate.

Two died in Bylitske, northwest of Pokrovsk, and another in Illinivka, between Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk, another frequent target in Russia’s slow westward advance through Donetsk region.


University of California reiterates ban on student government boycotts of Israel

Updated 47 min 10 sec ago
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University of California reiterates ban on student government boycotts of Israel

SAN FRANCISCO: The president of the University of California this week reiterated that student governments are prohibited from financial boycotts of companies associated with any particular country, including Israel, as the Trump administration continues its probe of alleged antisemitism on college campuses.
Michael Drake did not mention Israel by name, but he did single out student governments in a letter he sent to chancellors of the university system. He said that while freedom of speech and inquiry are core commitments of the university, its policies also require that financial decisions be grounded in sound business practices, such as competitive bidding.
“This principle also applies to student governments,” he wrote. “Actions by University entities to implement boycotts of companies based on their association with a particular country would not align with these sound business practices.”
UC spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said in a statement that the letter is in keeping with the university’s opposition to financial boycotts of companies associated with a particular country.
“While our community members have the right to express their viewpoints, financial boycotts are inconsistent with UC’s commitment to sound business practices, academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas,” she said.
College campuses exploded with pro-Palestinian protests in the wake of the war in Gaza, including a particularly brutal clash involving police at the University of California, Los Angeles last year. At the start of his term this year, President Donald Trump launched antisemitism probes at several universities, including the University of California, Berkeley.
The US Department of Health and Human Services and National Science Foundation are requiring research grantees to certify they will not engage in boycotts of Israel or promote diversity, inclusion and equity or risk federal funding.
The UC Student Association, which represents students across the campuses, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But its president, Aditi Hariharan, told the Los Angeles Times that she disagreed with the ban.
“Students already have little influence on how the university works, and student government is one of the few places where they can really get involved and have their voices heard,” she said in an interview before the letter was released.


Putin told Trump will not ‘give up’ aims in Ukraine: Kremlin

Updated 03 July 2025
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Putin told Trump will not ‘give up’ aims in Ukraine: Kremlin

  • The two leaders spoke as US-led peace talks on ending the more than three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have stalled
  • Putin said the Russian side was ready to continue negotiation process

MOSCOW: Russian leader Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump by telephone on Thursday that Moscow will not “give up” on its aims in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
The pair spoke as US-led peace talks on ending the more than three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have stalled and after Washington paused some weapons shipments to Kyiv.
The Kremlin said the call lasted almost an hour.
Trump has been frustrated with both Moscow and Kyiv as US efforts to end fighting have yielded no breakthrough.
“Our president said that Russia will achieve the aims it set, that is to say the elimination of the root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
“Russia will not give up on these aims.”
Moscow has long described its maximalist aims in Ukraine as getting rid of the “root causes” of the conflict, demanding that Kyiv give up its NATO ambitions.
Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people and Russia now controls large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Even so, Putin told Trump that Moscow would continue to take part in negotiations.
“He also spoke of the readiness of the Russian side to continue the negotiation process,” Ushakov added.
“Vladimir Putin said that we are continuing to look for a political, negotiated solution to the conflict,” Ushakov said.
Moscow has for months refused to agree to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine.
Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Putin of dragging out the process while pushing on with Russia’s advance in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said that Putin had also “stressed” to Trump that all conflicts in the Middle East should be solved “diplomatically,” after the US struck nuclear sites in Russia’s ally Iran.
Putin and Trump spoke as Kyiv said that Russian strikes on Thursday killed at least eight people in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was visiting ally Denmark on Thursday.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Trump and Zelensky planned to speak to each other on Friday.
The US deciding to pause some weapons shipments has severely hampered Kyiv, which has been reliant on Western military support since Moscow launched its offensive in 2022.
Zelensky told EU allies in Denmark that doubts over US military aid reinforced the need for greater cooperation with Brussels and NATO.
He stressed again that Kyiv had always supported Trump’s “unconditional ceasefire.”
On Wednesday, Kyiv scrambled to clarify with the US what a White House announcement on pausing some weapons shipments meant.
“Continued American support for Ukraine, for our defense, for our people is in our common interest,” Zelensky had said on Wednesday.
Russia has consistently called for Western countries to stop sending weapons to Kyiv.


Violent Togo protest crackdown must be investigated: Amnesty

Updated 03 July 2025
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Violent Togo protest crackdown must be investigated: Amnesty

  • At least seven people have been killed, dozens wounded and more than 60 arrested
  • At least six people are still reported missing after the protests, said Amnesty

ABIDJAN: Amnesty International called Thursday for an independent investigation into allegations that Togo’s security forces killed, tortured and kidnapped people in a violent crackdown on anti-government protests last month.

Ruled for 58 years by leader Faure Gnassingbe and his late father, Togo has been rocked in recent weeks by rare protests in the capital, Lome, against electricity price hikes, arrests of government critics and a constitutional reform consolidating Gnassingbe’s grip on power.

At least seven people have been killed, dozens wounded and more than 60 arrested, according to civil society groups.

Amnesty International said it had interviewed victims and witnesses who described a series of abuses by security forces at banned protests in late June.

According to witnesses, “men identified as security forces carried out unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, acts of torture and other ill-treatment, and several cases of abduction,” said Marceau Sivieude, the rights group’s interim director for west and central Africa.

“These cases must be independently and transparently investigated as a matter of urgency,” he said in a statement.

At least six people are still reported missing after the protests, said Amnesty, which also condemned the alleged torture of protesters at another series of demonstrations in early June against Gnassingbe, 59, who took power in 2005 after the death of his father.

Authorities said Sunday that two bodies found in a lagoon after the protests were victims of drownings.

A lawyer for victims, Darius Atsoo, told the rights group the number of people detained in connection with the protests was unknown.

As of Monday, at least 31 were still in custody, he said.