Violations of Freedom of Media & Journalists Doubled in Afghanistan in 2022

The humanitarian organisation stated that irrespective of their status, children and families should not be behind bars.

It called on the country’s government to ensure that people should not be punished or criminalised for exercising their fundamental human right to seek asylum.

It also urged countries neighbouring Afghanistan, including Pakistan, to continue to protect those seeking safety.

UNHCR Pakistan while stating that states should suspend forcible returns of Afghan nationals and former habitual residents of Afghanistan until such time as the security, rule of law and human rights situation in Afghanistan has significantly improved, said that refugees should have access to safety.

This comes even as Amnesty International too had earlier expressed concerned regarding the safety of Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Amnesty stated that due to lack of processes to regularise the stay of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the refugees are facing discrimination and are at risk of arrest and refoulement. Amnesty had also spoken about the detained protestors and urged the government of Pakistan to release them.

Apart from this, even the Taliban's foreign ministry had said that the Pakistani police have been ill-treating Afghan immigrants, especially in Sindh province. The Taliban's foreign ministry condemned the Pakistani police officials behaviour and urged Islamabad to take necessary measures to protect Afghans. It had been reported that over 1000 Afghans have been imprisoned in Pakistan's Sindh province.

In recent weeks, Pakistan has also imposed severe restrictions on Afghans who are without legal residence documents, in the country and set a deadline of December 31, 2022, for them to leave the country.

The gathering had been held after Kaaj, an educational center in Kabul, had been targeted by suicide attackers.

Iranian security forces had attacked the gathering held in Iran and detained a number of Afghan citizens.

Following the detention, 10 Afghan men and women and four children had been deported to Afghanistan.

After leaving Iran, deported Afghan citizens have informed how the security agents of Iran had tortured and insulted them in order to obtain a forced confession.

One of the detainees said that she was pregnant while being detained, but she had a miscarriage to fear and torture. She said that one of the male interrogators had been touching her inappropriately and forced her to sign papers.

Another Afghan citizen also said that the interrogators tried to force him to confess that he had connections with the leaders of the protests in Iran, using obscenities and insults.

He said that even though this gathering had been focused on the genocide of the Hazaras in Afghanistan, the interrogators told him that Afghan people in Iran have no right to any gathering or protest.

Another woman, who was among the detainees said that the interrogators insulted and sexually harassed her to such an extent that she was willing to sign "anything" to get out of the interrogation room.

These statements are made while in Iran, extensive reports have been published about the torture and sexual harassment of detained female protesters.

The sources told Afghanistan International that UNICEF has nearly 1,600 educational classes in Kandahar city and the province’s districts, which provide education to about 50,000 boys and girls.

In recent days, several educational centers, and teachers in different cities of Afghanistan said that the Taliban has ordered girls not to participate in classes.

On the other hand, the Taliban recently announced that women are not allowed to work in non-governmental organisations.

Following the Taliban’s orders and the ban on girls’ education and women’s work, several international aid agencies also announced that they have stopped their humanitarian operations in Afghanistan.

UNICEF's local office in Kandahar and its headquarters in Kabul have not reacted to the closure of educational centers in Kandahar.

Sources said that UNICEF has closed these educational centers in response to the Taliban's decision to ban women from working in non-governmental institutions. Sources said that most of the teachers at these educational centers in Kandahar have been women.

Mohammad Hanif Hamza, the Taliban’s Chief Executive of DABS, said that a joint technical committee from the two sides will assess the project.

DABS in a statement on Thursday announced that after the discussion of the joint technical team, the Taliban leaders will decide on the matter.

Representatives of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce have said that they have worked on coal-fired power projects in 11 countries and are ready to install coal-fired power generation systems in every province of Afghanistan.

After taking control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban has focused on extracting Afghanistan's mines, including the coal mines. China is one of the countries which had previously won a major copper mining contract, but even after several years, it has not yet started extraction of the mining field in Afghanistan.

According to Iranian media reports, Oman's foreign minister has stressed that his country is cooperating with Tehran in the fight against drug trafficking and other crimes.

Iran is among the countries which has good ties with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Before their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban leaders had traveled to Tehran and held talks with Iranian officials.

After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, the Iranian embassy remained open in Kabul and the country maintained close ties with the Taliban.

Earlier, many countries in the region expressed concern about the increase in the activities of terrorist groups in Afghanistan.