Aid group urges halt to expulsion of Afghan refugees over dire conditions
Voice of America
FILE - Afghan refugees deported from Pakistan wait to receive food aid by Red Cross Society in Kandahar on Jan. 24, 2024 FILE - Afghan refugees wait to register in a camp near the Torkham Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2023.
A global humanitarian agency warned Afghanistan's neighbors Wednesday against expelling millions of refugees in the coming months, citing the country’s unpreparedness due to decades of conflict, economic devastation, and climate-related challenges. The Norwegian Refugee Council, or NRC, reported that Iran plans to expel up to 2 million Afghan refugees by March, while at least 800,000 have already been deported from Pakistan since October 2023. ”The many vulnerable Afghans already returning from Iran, whom I met at the border this week, feel they live in an enduring limbo,” stated Jan Egeland, the NRC secretary-general. “They left Afghanistan in search of a better and safer life and are now returning to an uncertain future in Afghanistan, where they face the same unemployment, hunger, and human rights violations that made them leave their homeland in the first place,” he said.
FILE - Sacks of ammonium perchlorate, a chemical commonly used to make missile fuel, are found on a fishing vessel intercepted by US naval forces in the Gulf of Oman in November 2022.
This file comes from the website of the President of the Russian Federation and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. (www.kremlin.ru)
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping poses for photos with military personnel of the Chinese People's Liberation Army garrison stationed in the Macao Special Administrative Region in southern China, Dec. 20, 2024. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, and Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly attend the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, March 13, 2025. Ministers representing, from left, Japan, Britain, France, Canada, U.S. Germany and Italy post for a photo during the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, March 13, 2025.
FILE - Orphans and children separated from their parents in Kadugli gather to eat boiled leaves at an internally displaced persons camp in South Kordofan, Sudan, June 22, 2024.
Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa signs the country's constitutional declaration, which will be enforced throughout a five-year transitional period, at the presidential palace in Damascus, March 13, 2025.
Rohingya refugees gather to collect relief materials from a distribution point in the Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Ukhia in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district on March 6, 2025. FILE - United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks with the media in Brussels, March 21, 2024. FILE - A Rohingya boy carries a relief supply package with the USAID logo on it, at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Feb. 11, 2025.
Bottles Champagne are for sale at a wine dealer shop in Ville d'Avray, outside Paris, France, as President Donald Trump threatened a 200% tariff on European wine, Champagne and spirits if the European Union goes forward with a planned tariff on American whiskey, March 13, 2025.
Steve Witkoff, White House special envoy, center, speaks with reporters at the White House in Washington, March 6, 2025. The White House said Witkoff will head to Moscow to discuss a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Iranian athlete Elnaz Rekabi competes during the women's Boulder & Lead final during the IFSC Climbing Asian Championships in Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 16, 2022. (Rhea Khang/International Federation of Sport Climbing via AP)
This handout photo from Taiwan Presidential office taken and released March 13, 2025, shows Taiwan President Lai Ching-te speaking in Taipei.
A woman places a candle at the statue of late Pope John Paul II at the Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is being treated for pneumonia, in Rome, March 12, 2025.