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International Migrants Day observed in Kabul
Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar on Monday criticized neighboring countries for their recent decision to expel Afghan refugees and said this was not in keeping with Islam nor was it in the spirit of good neighborliness.
Speaking at an event to mark International Migrants Day, Baradar said the global refugee count has surpassed 100 million, of which many were being denied their basic rights.
On the decision to expel Afghans by neighboring countries, Baradar said these countries had failed to achieve their intended goals. He pointed to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) successful management of handling the returning refugees, and ensuring they had access to necessary facilities.
He also expressed his gratitude to all Afghans, national businessmen, charitable institutions, and international organizations for supporting the Islamic Emirate during this crisis.
He urged continued assistance to refugees in the future.
But he said the United Nations and the international community had a “two-faced attitude”.
He also raised the issue of Gaza and called on the UN and the international community to recognize and respect the rights of these refugees and address the crisis in Gaza.
Baradar also encouraged Afghan refugees abroad to return, highlighting the security and improved quality of life in their home country.
The event was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister for Administrative Affairs Maulawi Abdul Salam Hanafi, cabinet members, representatives from international organizations, foreign embassies in Kabul, and various other government officials.
Afghanistan’s acting Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund said in a message on the occasion that the world must stop oppression of migrants and that the Islamic Emirate is committed to solving the problems of refugees. He said the IEA considers it its national and religious duty to provide refugees with the best services and to give them their rights.
Maria Moita, the IOM Chief of Mission in Afghanistan, also spoke at the event and said: “We have helped the Afghans while they are being expelled from Pakistan after many years, but we have continued our services for three decades and we are working closely with the Ministry of Migration and since the beginning of this year, we have helped 1.5 million people.”
International Migrants Day comes as millions of Afghans are migrants in other countries, many of whom live in difficult conditions.
The Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan announced on Friday that the country has allocated $19.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Japanese Embassy said it hopes the aid will help bring positive change to the lives of vulnerable Afghans.
According to the statement, the assistance will cover the basic humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities in Afghanistan.
The embassy added that the aid will be delivered through United Nations agencies, international organizations, and Japanese non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan.
Japan’s total assistance to Afghanistan since August 2021 has reached more than $549 million.
Security forces at the Islam Qala border in Herat province prevented hundreds of young Afghans from illegally entering Iran.
Officials from the 207 Al-Farooq Army Corps said that around 530 people attempted over the past two days to illegally enter Iranian territory through areas of Kohsan district in Herat, but border forces detained them and transferred them back to their original areas.
Meanwhile, officials in the local administration of Herat said that due to severe cold along the illegal migration route to Iran, three Afghan migrants have lost their lives in the Kohsan district of the province, and a shepherd has also died there for the same reason.
Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesperson for the Herat governor’s office, said that some statistics and images shared on social media regarding the incident are not reliable.
According to him, further investigations are underway to determine whether any individuals have died on the other side of the border.
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program, the Associated Press reported.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
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