Afghanistan Among World’s Top Seven Refugee-Origin Countries, Says Caritas

Earlier on Saturday, the Taliban’s Ministry of Defence claimed it had carried out air strikes overnight against what it described as ISIS-K-linked centres in Pakistan’s Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting rejected the claim as false.

The ministry’s fact-checking unit said: “Terrorist camps including that of Daesh and more than two dozen other terrorists organisations are factually located, run and patronised from inside the territories under control of Afghan Taliban regime..”

The ministry also released images of the downed drone and accused the Taliban administration of issuing false and misleading statements to conceal its alleged support for militant activities in neighbouring countries and the wider region, including activities linked to ISIS-K, the Baloch separatist movement, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other groups.

Meanwhile, local residents in a remote part of Khyber district near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border reportedly discovered the wreckage of drones said to have been brought down overnight.

The debris was found far from populated areas.

Semester examinations have begun at public and private universities across Kandahar. Several students said Taliban checks on their appearance before or during exams have disrupted academic activities and increased pressure on students.

According to the students, anyone who fails to comply with the Taliban’s beard regulations is prevented from sitting examinations, and in some cases is taken away by Taliban officials for further questioning.

One student told Afghanistan International: “We are in the middle of our exams, but suddenly morality inspectors arrive and remove some students from the classroom. They do not care how many months a student has worked hard or how missing an exam could affect their future.”

He added that several students had already been prevented from taking examinations and were forced either to retake certain subjects later or face academic difficulties.

Another student said: “This is not limited to exam periods. Morality inspectors used to come to the university before exams, stop classes and deliver lengthy speeches. Sometimes an hour or more of teaching time was lost.”

Some officials at private universities have also expressed concern, saying the strict restrictions have reduced attendance and discouraged some students from continuing their studies.

An administrative employee at a private university in Kandahar said: “When the educational environment is dominated by fear and pressure, it is natural that students face serious difficulties.”

A resident of Kandahar said the strict approach of the Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice extends beyond universities. According to him, people whose beards have been trimmed or shaved are also questioned and sometimes detained in public.

Students, lecturers and families insist that universities should be centres of learning, intellectual development and professional education. They say they attend university to study but now face conditions that hinder their academic progress.

The ministry claimed the centres had been used, with support from some intelligence networks, to plan attacks against Afghanistan and that several deadly attacks had previously been launched by them.

It said “important and intended targets” were struck in the attacks.

The ministry said on Friday that the strikes were carried out in the Gulistan area of Qila Abdullah district and in the Shakar Ab area of Girdi Jungal in Chagai district, both in Balochistan. The Taliban claimed that “joint centres belonging to subversive elements and Islamic State members were targeted”.

According to the Taliban’s Defence Ministry, an Islamic State Khorasan Province-linked centre was also struck in the Qambar Khel area of Orakzai district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ministry said some senior IS-K leaders had regularly visited the site.

The Taliban said “important, pre-determined targets were successfully struck” during the operation.

The Defence Ministry said in a statement: “From now on, Afghanistan will not allow any threat or danger to its security and stability and will use all available means to eliminate it at its source.”

Pakistani officials and independent sources have not yet commented on the attacks or any possible casualties.

Pakistan recently carried out air strikes on targets in the eastern and south-eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar, Khost and Paktika.

Pakistan’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry said its military conducted strikes in areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border on June 9. It said the operation targeted those who had planned recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan and killed 26 members of the Pakistani Taliban.

A Taliban spokesperson confirmed that Pakistan had struck targets in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan had “bombed civilian homes in Kunar, Khost and Paktika”.

The spokesperson said 13 people were killed and 14 others wounded in the attacks.

The centre warned that Taliban restrictions on women and girls, as well as escalating border tensions, pose risks to civilians.

The organisation also called on countries to provide political and financial support for UNAMA’s mandate amid a worsening civilian protection crisis in Afghanistan.

The international organisation added that the situation of women and continuing border tensions in Afghanistan have created risks for civilians.

The UN Security Council on 15 June, extended UNAMA’s mandate for another year. The resolution was introduced by China and adopted with 15 votes in favour.

In a statement, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect warned of growing and multidimensional concerns about the protection of civilians across Afghanistan.

Referring to public protests in Herat and the arrest of women by the Taliban, the centre said Taliban forces used force during the events and, in some cases, opened fire on crowds.

The statement said: “The arrests and protests took place against the backdrop of the Taliban’s institutionalized discrimination and repression imposed on women and girls, likely amounting to gender persecution, a crime against humanity.”

The organisation also cited the new law on the separation of husbands and wives, severe restrictions on civic space and border tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban as other serious concerns.

According to a UNAMA report, from 1 January to 31 March, more than 750 civilians were killed or wounded as a result of border clashes between Taliban forces and the Pakistani army.

The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect called on the Taliban to end restrictive policies against women and girls and respect the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

According to Reuters, a spokesperson for Belgium’s Foreign Ministry said Prévot, the country’s foreign minister, “would never accept that the Belgian government, in its own name, invite these individuals for discussions in Belgium.”

The spokesperson for Belgium’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that the ministry had received visa applications from five members of the Taliban delegation. He did not provide details about the exact date of the meeting.

Reuters quoted the spokesperson as saying that members of the Taliban delegation would undergo security checks.

It is still unclear when Belgium will be able to issue visas for them.

The spokesperson for Belgium’s Foreign Ministry said the country’s foreign minister did not support the invitation.

The European Commission and the Swedish government, which are jointly hosting the Taliban delegation, said the meeting was purely technical in nature and did not amount to recognition of the Taliban administration.

Last month, the European Commission invited Taliban officials to travel to Brussels for talks on the deportation of Afghan asylum seekers, a move that prompted warnings from human rights groups, who said such engagement could put Afghans at risk and contradict the EU’s fundamental values.

According to a letter seen by Reuters and addressed to Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesperson, the visit is scheduled for 22 and 23 June and will focus on “the return and readmission of Afghan nationals without a right to stay in the European Union.”

Earlier, Belgium’s Foreign Ministry told Afghanistan International, in response to calls for the Taliban invitation to Brussels to be cancelled, that decisions on holding meetings and inviting delegations are made by European institutions.

At the same time, dozens of Afghan and international human rights and civil society organisations issued a joint letter to senior EU officials warning about the consequences of normalising relations with the Taliban administration and calling for an immediate halt to deportations of Afghan asylum seekers.

As the European Commission prepares to meet the Taliban delegation, the European Parliament on Wednesday approved sweeping reforms to the EU’s migration policy aimed at speeding up deportations and allowing member states to establish detention centres outside EU territory. Critics describe the move as a harsh system that weakens legal protections for asylum seekers.

Reuters wrote that the decision reflects rising anti-immigration sentiment across the European Union over the past decade, a trend that has increased public support for far-right parties.

The text, which still needs final formal approval from the 27 EU member states, marks a significant tightening of the bloc’s migration policy, shaped after the arrival of more than one million refugees and migrants in 2015 and 2016.

In a letter to member states on Tuesday, ahead of an EU leaders’ meeting in Brussels, the president of the European Commission said: “The Return Regulation will provide the necessary tools to make returns more efficient, with faster and more effective procedures.”

EU member states say they face difficulties ensuring the departure of asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected or people who have overstayed their visas in Europe.

Critics, however, argue that the EU’s migration policy is too focused on deterrence and deportation and pays insufficient attention to the root causes of migration, including armed conflict, poverty and political repression.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights earlier told a session of the UN Human Rights Council that “the dehumanisation of migrants and refugees, including in the UK, US, and many EU countries, is appalling, often leading also to the denial of their rights.”