On the International Day of Education, UNESCO and UNICEF issued a joint statement urging urgent action to protect and restore the right to education for all children in Afghanistan, highlighting a worsening crisis in learning and access, especially for girls and young women.

In their press release, the two UN agencies described education as a fundamental human right and the foundation of peace, dignity, and opportunity for every child and young person. However, they noted that Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where secondary and higher education for girls and women is strictly banned, leaving at least 2.2 million adolescent girls deprived of schooling.

UNESCO and UNICEF also pointed out that around 93 percent of children finishing primary school still struggle with basic reading skills, underscoring the need for greater investment in early learning and teacher training.

“When girls are denied access to education, an entire nation pays the price,” said Soohyun Kim, Officer in Charge, UNESCO Afghanistan. “Strengthening foundational learning and supporting women teachers are critical investments in Afghanistan’s recovery and resilience.”

“Afghanistan urgently needs female teachers, nurses, community health workers, and doctors,” said Tajudeen Oyewale, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan. “In a context where women can only be treated by women, who will care for sick girls and women in the future if they are denied education today?”

At the same time, the European Union delegation in Afghanistan reiterated that quality, accessible education is a fundamental right.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about European troops staying off the front lines in Afghanistan insulting and appalling, joining a chorus of criticism from other European officials and veterans.

“I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling, and I’m not surprised they’ve caused such hurt for the loved ones of those who were killed or injured,” Starmer told reporters, Reuters reported.

When asked whether he would demand an apology from the U.S. leader, Starmer said: “If I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologise.”

Britain lost 457 service personnel killed in Afghanistan, its deadliest overseas war since the 1950s. For several of the war’s most intense years it led the allied campaign in Helmand, Afghanistan’s biggest and most violent province, while also fighting as the main U.S. battlefield ally in Iraq.

Starmer’s remarks were notably strong coming from a leader who has tended to avoid direct criticism of Trump in public.

Trump told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” on Thursday the United States had “never needed” the transatlantic alliance and accused allies of staying “a little off the front lines” in Afghanistan.

His remarks added to already strained relations with European allies after he used the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos to again signal his interest in acquiring Greenland.

Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel condemned Trump’s remarks on Afghanistan, calling them untrue and disrespectful.

Britain’s Prince Harry, who served in Afghanistan, also weighed in. “Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect,” he said in a statement.

‘WE PAID IN BLOOD FOR THIS ALLIANCE’

“We expect an apology for this statement,” Roman Polko, a retired Polish general and former special forces commander who also served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told Reuters in an interview.

Trump has “crossed a red line”, he added. “We paid with blood for this alliance. We truly sacrificed our own lives.”

Britain’s veterans minister, Alistair Carns, whose own military service included five tours including alongside American troops in Afghanistan, called Trump’s claims “utterly ridiculous”.

“We shed blood, sweat and tears together. Not everybody came home,” he said in a video posted on X.

Richard Moore, the former head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, said he, like many MI6 officers, had operated in dangerous environments with “brave and highly esteemed” CIA counterparts and had been proud to do so with Britain’s closest ally.

Under NATO’s founding treaty, members are bound by a collective-defence clause, Article 5, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on all.

It has been invoked only once – after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, when allies pledged to support the United States. For most of the war in Afghanistan, the U.S.-led force there was under NATO command.

POLISH SACRIFICE ‘MUST NOT BE DIMINISHED’

Some politicians noted that Trump had avoided the draft for the Vietnam War, citing bone spurs in his feet.

“Trump avoided military service 5 times,” Ed Davey, leader of Britain’s centrist Liberal Democrats, wrote on X. “How dare he question their sacrifice.”

Poland’s sacrifice “will never be forgotten and must not be diminished”, Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

Trump’s comments were “ignorant”, said Rasmus Jarlov, an opposition Conservative Party member of Denmark’s parliament.

In addition to the British deaths, more than 150 Canadians were killed in Afghanistan, along with 90 French service personnel and scores from Germany, Italy and other countries. Denmark – now under heavy pressure from Trump to transfer its semi-autonomous region of Greenland to the U.S. – lost 44 troops, one of NATO’s highest per-capita death rates.

The United States lost about 2,460 troops in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, a figure on par per capita with those of Britain and Denmark.

CANADA SAYS ‘YOU CANNOT REWRITE HISTORY’

Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne pushed back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest comments on U.S. allies in Afghanistan as an attempt to rewrite the history books.

“You cannot rewrite history.… We’re proud of our men and women in uniform and we know the sacrifice they have endured,” Champagne told reporters, CBC News reported.

“We don’t need comments from anyone else to know the strength of our armed forces … they know what they did, we know what they did and the world knows what they did.”

Canadian Defence Minister David McGuinty added his voice to Champagne’s in pushing back against Trump’s comments.

“There was no standing back. Only standing side by side, together on the front lines with our allies,” said McGuinty in a media statement Friday.

Sweden’s migration minister on Thursday called on the European Union to establish a common procedure for issuing identification and travel documents to Afghan nationals whose asylum applications have been rejected or who have committed crimes in their host countries.

Minister Johan Forssell said it is currently “more or less impossible” to deport Afghan nationals who do not meet asylum criteria because many lack valid ID or travel documents.

Although the EU has no interest in making “any political arrangements” that could lend legitimacy to Afghanistan’s rulers, Forssell said the bloc’s 27 member states could still reach a technical agreement to issue documentation that would speed up deportations.

“It is a major concern for us that we are seeing quite a few cases of people that have committed crimes, Afghan people that committed crimes in Sweden, and it is more or less impossible to expel them today,” Forssell told The Associated Press on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers in the Cypriot capital.

“If you come to Europe and you commit crimes, you have chosen yourself not to be part of our society. And we need to do everything we can to make sure that you are expelled,” he said.

Forssell added that similar challenges exist with failed Syrian asylum seekers, but said Afghan nationals remain the priority.

He said Afghan nationals are largely unable to obtain IDs or passports from their home country because most Afghan embassies in Europe are not recognized by the Islamic Emirate authorities. Forssell noted that the EU’s executive arm has recently had contacts in Kabul on the issue, describing it as a “very positive first step.”

According to him, there is “broad consensus” among many EU countries facing similar challenges to take further steps to accelerate the deportation of failed Afghan asylum seekers or those who have committed crimes.

Forssell said more than half of Afghan asylum applications are expected to be rejected and that “they need to go back home,” warning that public support for accepting refugees who do meet asylum criteria could erode otherwise.

He also proposed that Afghan nationals facing deportation in different EU countries could be grouped together and returned on chartered flights.

European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said EU member states are engaging at a technical level with Afghanistan’s “effective authorities” to better facilitate repatriations.

Sweden’s traditionally generous asylum policy has tightened over the past decade, amid what Forssell described as growing public concern over the “problems” associated with mass migration. He said these concerns played a key role in the formation of the current government three years ago, which relies on support from the hard-right Sweden Democrats.

Forssell noted that asylum applications in Sweden are at their lowest level since 1985. “So I think we are doing very well and we are really delivering what the Swedish population wants to see from us,” he said.