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Afghan Americans fearful after Trump order halts refugee program

Afghan Americans fearful after Trump order halts refugee program
An executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump to suspend refugee admissions has magnified the fears of one Afghan American soldier who has long been worried about the fate of his sister in Kabul. (AFP/File)
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Updated 22 January 2025

Afghan Americans fearful after Trump order halts refugee program

Afghan Americans fearful after Trump order halts refugee program
  • Almost 200 family members of active-duty US military personnel approved for refugee resettlement in the US will be pulled off flights between now and April
  • They are among nearly 1,560 Afghan refugees who will be taken off flight manifests, according to VanDiver and the official

WASHINGTON: An executive order by US President Donald Trump to suspend refugee admissions has magnified the fears of one Afghan American soldier who has long been worried about the fate of his sister in Kabul.
The soldier is afraid his sister could be forced to marry a Taliban fighter or targeted by a for-ransom kidnapping before she and her husband could fly out of Afghanistan and resettle as refugees in the US
“I’m just thinking about this all day. I can’t even do my job properly because this is mentally impacting me,” the soldier with the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division told Reuters on Tuesday. He spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Almost 200 family members of active-duty US military personnel approved for refugee resettlement in the US will be pulled off flights between now and April under Trump’s order signed on Monday, according to Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of veterans and advocacy groups, and a US official familiar with the issue.
They are among nearly 1,560 Afghan refugees who will be taken off flight manifests, according to VanDiver and the official.
They said the group includes unaccompanied children and Afghans at risk of Taliban retaliation because they fought for the US-backed government that fled as the last US troops withdrew from the country in August 2021 after two decades of war.
The UN mission in Afghanistan says the Taliban have killed, tortured and arbitrarily detained former officials and troops. It reported in October that between July and September, there were at least 24 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, 10 of torture and ill-treatment and at least five former soldiers had been killed.
The Taliban instituted a general amnesty for officials and troops of the former US-backed government and deny accusations of any retaliation. A spokesman for the Taliban-backed government did not immediately respond to questions about fears of retribution against those families awaiting relocation.
A UN report in May said that while the Taliban have banned forced marriages, a UN special rapporteur on human rights remained concerned about allegations that Taliban fighters have continued the practice “without legal consequences.”
A crackdown on immigration was a major promise of Trump’s victorious 2024 election campaign, leaving the fate of US refugee programs up in the air.
His executive order, signed hours after he was sworn for a second term, said he was suspending refugee admissions until programs “align with the interests of the United States” because the country cannot absorb large numbers of migrants without compromising “resources available to Americans.”

DESTINY UNCLEAR
“It’s not good news. Not for my family, my wife, for all of the Afghans that helped us with the mission. They put their lives in danger. Now they will be left alone, and their destiny is not clear,” said Fazel Roufi, an Afghan American former 82nd Airborne Division soldier.
Roufi, a former Afghan army officer, came to the US on a student visa, obtained citizenship and joined the US Army. He witnessed the chaotic Kabul airport pullout as an adviser and translator for the commanding US general, and he himself helped to rescue Americans, US embassy staff and others.
His wife, recently flown by the State Department to Doha for refugee visa processing, now sits in limbo in a US military base.
“If my wife goes back, they (the Taliban) will just execute her and her family,” said Roufi, who retired from the US Army in 2022.
The active-duty 82nd Airborne soldier said he harbors similar fears, adding that his sister and her husband have been threatened with kidnapping by people who think they are rich because the rest of the family escaped to the US in the 2021 evacuation.
“She has no other family members (in Afghanistan) besides her husband,” he said.
Trump’s order has ignited fears that he could halt other resettlement programs, including those that award special immigration visas to Afghans and Iraqis who worked for the US government, said Kim Staffieri, executive director of the Association of Wartime Allies, a group that helps Afghans and Iraqis resettle in the United States.
“They’re all terrified. The level of anxiety we are getting from them, in many ways, feels like the lead-up to August 2021,” she said, referring to the panic that prompted thousands of Afghans to storm Kabul airport hoping to board evacuation flights.
Another Afghan American, who caught a flight with the US troops for whom he translated and joined the Texas National Guard after obtaining his green card, said his parents, two sisters, his brother and his brother’s family had been scheduled to fly to the US within the next month. He had found accommodations for them in Dallas.
“I cannot express in words how I feel,” said the Afghan American who asked his name be withheld out of fear for his family’s safety. “I don’t feel good since yesterday. I cannot eat. I cannot sleep.”


Russian drone kills two Ukrainian journalists, Zalenskiy condemns Russia

Russian drone kills two Ukrainian journalists, Zalenskiy condemns Russia
Updated 3 sec ago

Russian drone kills two Ukrainian journalists, Zalenskiy condemns Russia

Russian drone kills two Ukrainian journalists, Zalenskiy condemns Russia
Donetsk region governor Vadym Filashkin identified the journalists as Olena Hubanova and Yevhen Karmazin
The channel, which broadcasts in Russian, confirmed their deaths and said they were in a car at a petrol station at the time of the strike

KYIV: Two Ukrainian journalists were killed by a Russian drone in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Thursday in an attack that was condemned by President Volodymyr Zelensky and described by Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman as a war crime.
Donetsk region governor Vadym Filashkin identified the journalists as Olena Hubanova and Yevhen Karmazin from Ukraine’s state-funded Freedom television channel.
The channel, which broadcasts in Russian, confirmed their deaths and said they were in a car at a petrol station at the time of the strike.
Filashkin said they were hit by a Lancet, a costly and powerful drone often used against tanks and armored vehicles.
“This tragedy is further evidence of Russia’s systemic war crimes against civilians,” human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram.
The general prosecutor’s office said a colleague of the two journalists had also been wounded and that it had opened a war crime investigation. It posted a photo of a destroyed red car and an image of two flak jackets marked “press” in the boot.
Zelensky said Russia had killed 135 media representatives during its war in Ukraine. He did not say how many of these were journalists.
“These are not accidents or mistakes, but a deliberate Russian strategy to silence all independent voices reporting about Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Russia did not immediately comment on his or Lubinets’ remarks.

Ukraine says Russia returned 1,000 bodies

Ukraine says Russia returned 1,000 bodies
Updated 23 October 2025

Ukraine says Russia returned 1,000 bodies

Ukraine says Russia returned 1,000 bodies
  • Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded, though neither side regularly publishes data on their own casualties
  • The exchange of prisoners of war and killed soldiers is one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022

KYIV: Russia on Thursday returned 1,000 bodies to Ukraine, which Moscow said were the remains of Kyiv’s soldiers killed in battle, a Ukrainian government agency said.
The exchange of prisoners of war and killed soldiers is one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Repatriation measures took place today,” Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced on social media.
“One thousand bodies, which according to the Russian side belong to Ukrainian servicemen, were returned to Ukraine,” the agency added.
Ukraine has said that Moscow handed over to Kyiv the bodies of killed Russian soldiers during previous repatriations.
Kyiv also announced in September, August and July that it had received the remains of 1,000 killed soldiers from Russia, illustrating the intensity of fighting across the sprawling front line.
The Coordination Headquarters said law enforcement would soon begin the process of identifying the repatriated remains and thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for its role in the repatriation.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides since Russia invaded, though neither side regularly publishes data on their own casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February this year told US media that Ukraine has lost more than 46,000 soldiers and that tens of thousands are considered missing in action.
The BBC and independent outlet Mediazona say they have documented more than 135,000 Russian soldiers killed in the three-and-a-half-year campaign, using open-source data, with the actual number likely higher.


EU leaders seek role in Gaza at summit focused on Ukraine and Russia

EU leaders seek role in Gaza at summit focused on Ukraine and Russia
Updated 23 October 2025

EU leaders seek role in Gaza at summit focused on Ukraine and Russia

EU leaders seek role in Gaza at summit focused on Ukraine and Russia
  • Outrage over the war in Gaza has riven the 27-nation bloc and pushed relations between Israel and the EU to a historic low
  • European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in September plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel, aimed to pressure it to reach a peace deal in Gaza

BRUSSELS: European Union leaders are seeking a more active role in Gaza and the occupied West Bank after being sidelined from the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
At a summit Thursday in Brussels largely focused on Ukraine and Russia, EU heads of state are also expected to discuss the shaky ceasefire in Gaza and potential EU support for stability in the war-torn coastal enclave. The EU has been the biggest provider of aid to the Palestinians and is Israel’s top trading partner.
“It is important that Europe not only watches but plays an active role,” said Luc Frieden, the prime minister of Luxembourg, as he headed in to the meeting. “Gaza is not over; peace is not yet permanent,” he said.
Outrage over the war in Gaza has riven the 27-nation bloc and pushed relations between Israel and the EU to a historic low.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in September plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel, aimed to pressure it to reach a peace deal in Gaza.
Momentum driving the measures seemed to falter with the ceasefire deal mediated by US President Donald Trump, but European supporters say they should still be on the table as violence continues to flare up in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
In the run-up to the ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that “Europe has essentially become irrelevant and displayed enormous weakness.”
The deal came about with no visible input from the EU, and European leaders have since scrambled to join the diplomacy effort currently reshaping Gaza.
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has said the EU should play a role in Gaza and not just pay to support stability and eventually reconstruction.
The EU has provided key support for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank, pledged to help flood Gaza with humanitarian aid, and said it could bring a West Bank police support program to Gaza to buttress a stabilization force called for in the current 20-point ceasefire plan.
It has also sought membership in the plan’s “Board of Peace” transitional oversight body, Dubravka Šuica, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, said this week.
The European Border Assistance Mission in Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, began in 2005. In January, it deployed 20 security border police experts from Italy, Spain and France.
During the February-March ceasefire, the mission helped 4,176 individuals leave the Gaza Strip, including 1,683 medical patients. Those efforts were paused when fighting resumed.


Bangladesh court to deliver verdict against Hasina on November 13

Bangladesh court to deliver verdict against Hasina on November 13
Updated 23 October 2025

Bangladesh court to deliver verdict against Hasina on November 13

Bangladesh court to deliver verdict against Hasina on November 13
  • Hasina, 78, has defied court orders to return from India to face charges of ordering a deadly crackdown in a failed attempt to crush a student-led uprising

DHAKA: The verdict in the crimes against humanity case against ousted Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina will be delivered on November 13, the attorney general said, as the trial ended on Thursday.
Hasina, 78, has defied court orders to return from India to face charges of ordering a deadly crackdown in a failed attempt to crush a student-led uprising.
“If she believed in the justice system, she should have returned,” Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman said in his closing speech of the nearly five-month-long trial in Dhaka.
“She was the prime minister but fled, leaving behind the entire nation — her fleeing corroborates the allegations.”
Her trial in absentia, which opened on June 1, heard months of testimony alleging Hasina ordered mass killings.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations.
Prosecutors have filed five charges, including failure to prevent murder, amounting to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law.
They have demanded the death penalty if she is found guilty.
Chief prosecutor Tajul Islam has accused Hasina of being “the nucleus around whom all the crimes were committed” during the uprising.
Her co-accused are former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, also a fugitive, and ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who is in custody and has pleaded guilty.

- ‘We want justice’ -

Witnesses included a man whose face was ripped apart by gunfire.
The prosecution also played audio tapes — verified by police — that suggested Hasina directly ordered security forces to “use lethal weapons” against protesters.
Hasina, assigned a state-appointed lawyer, has refused to recognize the court’s authority.
Defense lawyer Md Amir Hossain said she was “forced to flee” Bangladesh, claiming that she “preferred death and a burial within her residence compound.”
Her now-banned Awami League says she “categorically denies” all charges and has denounced the proceedings as “little more than a show trial.”
Asaduzzaman, the attorney general, said it had been a fair trial that sought justice for all victims.
“We want justice for both sides of the crimes against humanity case, that claimed 1,400 lives,” he said, listing several of those killed, including children.
The verdict will come three months ahead of elections expected in early February 2026, the first since Hasina’s overthrow.


Migrant sent back to France by Britain returns on a small boat

Migrant sent back to France by Britain returns on a small boat
Updated 23 October 2025

Migrant sent back to France by Britain returns on a small boat

Migrant sent back to France by Britain returns on a small boat
  • The news of the migrant’s return came as the number of arrivals so far this year comes close to surpassing the total of 36,816 for 2024

LONDON: One of the first migrants sent back to France under the British government’s flagship “one in, one out” deal has returned to Britain on a small boat, a minister confirmed, adding that he would be deported for a second time.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed a deal in July for Britain to deport some of the undocumented people arriving across the Channel back to France in return for accepting an equal number of asylum seekers with British family connections.
Starmer said the “ground-breaking” deal would act as a deterrent and help with his pledge to “smash the gangs” and reduce small boat arrivals.
The migrant, who was not named, told the Guardian newspaper he was a victim of modern slavery at the hands of people smugglers in Northern France.
The news of the migrant’s return came as the number of arrivals so far this year comes close to surpassing the total of 36,816 for 2024, which was the second highest on record after 2022.
Some 42 have been returned so far in the pilot stages of the “one in, one out” scheme, the government said on Sunday.
The man’s return 29 days after he was deported was on the front pages of British newspapers on Thursday, with the headlines of “One in, one out... and back in again” on four titles and “Le Farce” on the Daily Mail.
Junior minister Josh MacAlister said on Thursday the man would be removed again.
“This guy came across originally, shouldn’t have been coming across, was smuggled across and paid a lot of money to do so, was then returned to France,” he told Sky News.
“Has done the same again. He has paid again, and he will be returned again. We will make sure that happens.”