Yerkin Tukumov, Kazakhstan’s special envoy to Afghanistan discussed border security, combating drug trafficking and continuing cooperation on the construction of a railway via Turkmenistan in a meeting with Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani.
Haqqani also called for regional cooperation with Kazakhstan.
Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior, reported the meeting on his X account on Tuesday, 9 December.
According to Qani, Tukumov expressed support for expanding bilateral trade between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, deepening bilateral relations and backing key economic projects, including the railway.
Haqqani praised relations between the two countries, saying, “Afghanistan is on the path of peace, trade and progress, and expects goodwill and regional cooperation from Kazakhstan.”
Although Kazakhstan, like most countries, has not officially recognised the Taliban administration, it removed the Taliban from its list of terrorist organisations in June 2024.
Kazakhstan has also maintained diplomatic and economic ties with the Taliban and previously accepted a Taliban diplomat as Afghanistan’s acting consul general in Astana.
The Trump administration has shifted its immigration approach into a phase that has resulted in sudden detentions, cancelled interviews and halted legal processes for thousands of Afghans in the United States.
This report, compiled from several US local media outlets, highlights numerous cases of summonses and arrests of Afghans.
In the week since a former Afghan soldier shot two US National Guard troops in Washington, the United States has entered what many observers describe as the most aggressive immigration-policy shift in the country’s recent history. From southern Arizona to immigration offices in Sacramento and New York, a single directive from Donald Trump has cast uncertainty over the future of many Afghans living in the country.
The Incident and the Government’s Immediate Response
On 26 November, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker, attacked two National Guard soldiers, wounding them. One later died, and the other remains hospitalised. The incident triggered an abrupt change in US immigration policy.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt announced in the days after the shooting that the government had launched a review of all Afghans who entered the United States during the Biden administration. This position is now reflected in decisions and day-to-day actions of immigration agencies.
A Rise in Arrests
Reports from several American media outlets show that in the first weeks following the Washington incident, roughly twenty Afghan nationals have been detained across the United States. The Associated Press reported that many of these arrests occurred in Northern California, home to one of the country’s largest Afghan communities.
Local newspapers, including The Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Chronicle, published independent reports indicating that at least eight to twelve Afghan men were detained in Sacramento and Northern California. These reports cite sudden summonses, the use of electronic ankle monitors and the cancellation of immigration interviews.
On 1 December, several Afghan men entered a federal building in downtown Sacramento after receiving phone calls from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to volunteers who witnessed the events, each man was taken into custody as soon as he entered the building. Local Sacramento outlets reported six arrests that day.
According to immigration attorneys, none of those detained had a serious criminal record. In one instance, the wife of a detainee was visibly distressed as she left the building.
In Des Moines, Iowa, an Afghan man was stopped and arrested by immigration officers on his way to work. Agents accused him of being a terrorist without presenting any evidence. The Associated Press reported that he was released two hours later after the agents apologised.
In New York, reports indicate that Afghan asylum interviews have been cancelled, several individuals have been detained during routine administrative visits and a heightened level of scrutiny is being applied to Afghan cases. Some Afghans who have lived in the United States for years have received urgent calls ordering them to appear immediately.
A Sacramento immigration adviser also confirmed that several Afghan-related interviews scheduled for that week were cancelled.
Meanwhile, an attorney representing an Afghan asylum-seeker said his client, who fled Taliban threats last year, now faces deportation despite committing no crime. The man was detained after entering a federal office building in New York for a routine administrative appointment.
Also in New York, a group of American citizens, including teachers, neighbours, friends and local community members, showed up at a federal building to support an Afghan family of four who had been summoned by immigration authorities. Although they were not invited, they came to testify to the family’s good conduct.
A few days earlier, Jahanshah Safi, a former Afghan military officer, was arrested on allegations that he financed ISIS through his father. But former US intelligence analyst Sarah Adams, speaking in Waynesboro, expressed doubt about the case, saying the accusations were inconsistent with the information known about him. Safi was arrested on 3 December for allegedly “supporting ISIS-K.”
Return to Deterrence Through Enforcement
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has urged Afghan community members to consult an immigration attorney before taking any action, avoid international travel and keep both physical and digital copies of their immigration documents secure. The organisation says it is offering free legal support to those affected and warns that broad immigration freezes targeting Afghans could have serious consequences for families.
What is clear is that Afghans are now at the centre of the United States’ new immigration directives even those who worked for US forces or arrived through legal, scheduled processes. US Citizenship and Immigration Services has stated it is creating a special security-review unit to strengthen the immigration system. The unit will screen the immigration files of “terrorists,” criminal migrants and those posing potential security threats.
Reports from several US states indicate a growing sense of fear and mistrust among Afghan communities. Some individuals have been detained during administrative appointments; families have told local media they lost contact with members after they visited immigration offices; and long-time Afghan residents have received urgent calls ordering them to appear immediately. Cancelled interviews, sudden notices and arrests of people with no criminal history have shaken Afghan communities nationwide.
Reports from Sacramento, New York and other states show rising levels of uncertainty and anxiety. Statements from US officials reveal two opposing perspectives. Congressman Ami Bera of Sacramento has called the situation a form of punishment of all in response to one individual’s actions. The White House, by contrast, insists that national-security considerations allow for no risk.
Human Rights Watch has said the Trump administration’s decision to suspend immigration and asylum processing is discriminatory and targets migrants and asylum-seekers based solely on nationality.
The lawyer for an Afghan asylum-seeker in the United States says his client whofled Taliban threats and harassment last year is now at risk of deportation “without having committed any crime.”
According to the lawyer, the man was detained after entering a government building in New York for what was expected to be a routine administrative appointment.
The asylum-seeker’s family and attorney have withheld his name due to security concerns. A legal complaint filed in his case states that he entered the United States after leaving Afghanistan because of “forced expulsion and death threats from the Taliban.”
He was held for six months in immigration detention in New York before being released on parole, but was recently taken back into custody after appearing at a US government office.
His detention comes after President Donald Trump ordered the suspension of all Afghan immigration cases following a recent shooting in Washington, D.C.
The suspect in that shooting an Afghan asylum-seeker who previously worked with the US government, including the CIA has pleaded not guilty.
Following the incident, migrant-rights advocates say Afghan asylum-seekers and immigrants are increasingly being targeted for detention and deportation across the United States.
The Global Coalition for the Protection of Education from Attack (GCPEA) has said that authoritarian regimes and non-state armed groups are depriving women and girls of education through intimidation and violence.
The group warned that the systematic exclusion of Afghan women from public life is a stark example of entrenched gender-based oppression.
In a report released this week, the coalition comprising several international organisations said attacks on educational facilities are rising globally, with women and girls disproportionately affected. It noted that an estimated 600 million women and girls live in or near areas affected by armed conflict
GCPEA said deliberate attacks on schools and universities aimed at preventing women’s access to education, the military use of educational facilities, and threats along routes to classrooms remain major obstacles for women and girls.
The report highlighted the long-term consequences of insecurity in educational settings, stating that more than half of girls in crisis-affected areas are out of school, and adolescent girls in conflict zones are 90 percent more likely to be out of school than those in peaceful countries.
“When girls are denied education, entire societies are set back,” GCPEA said, adding that the effects include increased child marriage, early pregnancy, economic exclusion and intergenerational poverty. Communities, it said, lose future teachers, doctors and leaders.
The coalition stressed that safe access to education acts as a “force multiplier” for health, stability and peace.
GCPEA said authoritarian governments and armed groups in several regions use intimidation and violence to deny women and girls access to education. It cited the Taliban as a clear example, saying: “Nowhere is this more evident than in Afghanistan, where the systematic exclusion of women and girls from education and public life has become a defining example of institutionalised gender-based oppression.”
A new report by Germany’s Federal Police indicates that newly arrived Syrian and Afghan migrants without residency status are involved in crime, particularly violent offences and homicides, at disproportionately higher rates than Germans.
However, the report also notes that overall migrant-related crime fell by more than 3 per cent in 2024.
According to Die Welt, part of the decline is attributed to Germany’s legalisation of cannabis. Still, police data show that, relative to their population size, newly arrived migrants remain significantly overrepresented in several crime categories compared with German nationals.
The report states that for violent crime, police registered 163 cases per 100,000 Germans, compared with 1,740 per 100,000 Syrians and 1,722 per 100,000 Afghans.
Of the 3.1 million criminal cases recorded nationwide, 331,308, around 11 per cent, involved at least one suspect classified as a newly arrived migrant. This category covers individuals with unclear residency status and does not include asylum seekers with regular residency, Germans with migration backgrounds, skilled workers, or international students.
The report also found that Afghan and Syrian suspects were overrepresented in cases of sexual offences and drug-related crimes compared with their share of the migrant population. Ukrainian nationals, by contrast, were underrepresented relative to their proportion of new arrivals.
Die Welt reported that Germany’s Interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said migrants who work and obey the law have a right to stay, but those who pose security threats do not. He said Germany would continue efforts to return such individuals to countries including Afghanistan and Syria.
Germany hosts one of the largest Afghan and Syrian refugee populations in Europe.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Monday called for expanding political and economic cooperation with Kazakhstan during a meetingwith Yerkin Tukumov, Kazakhstan’s special representative for Afghanistan.
Muttaqi said the Taliban seek “positive relations based on diplomacy and understanding” with neighbouring and regional countries, according to a statement issued by the Taliban Foreign Ministry. He also welcomed what he described as a significant expansion of political and economic ties with Kazakhstan.
The Taliban said Tukumov underscored the importance of continued cooperation with the authorities in Kabul across various sectors. He reportedly told Muttaqi that regional stability is a shared responsibility and can be achieved through trust-building, improved security and economic collaboration.
Kazakhstan has not recognised the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan, but in recent years has maintained limited and conditional engagement. In June 2024, it removed the Taliban from its national list of terrorist organisations. Several months earlier, Kazakhstan accepted a Taliban-appointed diplomat as Afghanistan’s consul general in Astana.