Tag: Afghan

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Individuals Stretch Throughout Political Divides to Welcome Afghan Refugees

Americans Stretch Across Political Divides to Welcome Afghan Refugees

Mars Adema, 40, said she tried last year to convince Church ministries to take care of immigrants, only to hear that “this is just not our focus”.

“Something has changed completely with Afghanistan,” said Ms. Adema.

In a nation polarized on issues from abortion to the coronavirus pandemic, Afghan refugees have held a special place for many Americans, especially those who worked for U.S. forces and NGOs, or otherwise supported U.S. efforts, Afghanistan to be liberated from the Taliban.

The moment contrasts with the last four years when the country, under the leadership of a president who restricted immigration and banned travel from several Muslim-majority countries, was divided on whether or not to welcome people in search of a safe haven should avoid. And with much of the electorate still deeply divided over immigration, the permanence of the current welcome mat remains unknown.

Polls show Republicans are even more reluctant than Democrats to accept Afghans, and some conservative politicians have warned that the rush to make so many resettlements will result in extremists slipping through the screening process. Influential commentators like Fox News host Tucker Carlson said the refugees diluted American culture and harmed the Republican Party. Last week he warned that the Biden government is “flooding swinging districts with refugees who they know will become loyal Democratic voters”.

But a wide range of veterans and lawmakers have long viewed Afghans who helped the United States as military partners and have long pushed for the red tape that kept them in the country under constant threat from the Taliban. Pictures of babies being lifted over barbed wire fences to meet American soldiers, people clinging to departing planes, and a deadly terrorist attack on thousands gathered at the airport to desperately leave have moved thousands of Americans to theirs Efforts to join.

“For a nation so divided, it feels good when people join a good cause,” said Mike Sullivan, director of the Welcome to America project in Phoenix. “This country has probably not seen anything like it since Vietnam”

Federal officials said this week that in the coming month at least 50,000 Afghans who have helped the US government or may be targeted by the Taliban are expected to be admitted to the United States, although the full number and timeframe of their arrival remains in place Job. More than 31,000 Afghans have already arrived, around half of which, according to internal government documents, are still being dispatched to military bases.

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Threats and Worry Trigger Afghan Girls’s Protections to Vanish In a single day

Threats and Fear Cause Afghan Women’s Protections to Vanish Overnight

It took Women for Afghan Women to build Afghanistan’s largest network of women protection services – 32 safe houses, family counseling centers and children’s homes in 14 provinces, which have been grown by word of mouth and driven by the high demand for their services.

They began closing their doors within a few days when the Taliban began their lightning advance through Afghan cities on August 6. Most of the shelter’s managers were packing or burning files, packing up a few belongings, and fling with their customers when news arrived that the Taliban were arriving.

A few directors of Safe Houses – not just those affiliated with Women for Afghan Women, but also a handful of other long-established shelters – chose to stay where they were, but remained silent for fear that everything what they said could cause harm to the women in their care. Nobody takes new cases.

“Our accommodations, our women’s protection centers, are gone. It is very unlikely that we can do most of the work we do for women as we did, ”said Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of Women for Afghan Women.

Even before the Taliban came to power, Afghanistan was at the bottom of every list when it comes to protecting women and at the top of the need for safe shelter, counseling and justice that could help keep women safe.

More than half of all Afghan women reported physical abuse and 17 percent reported sexual violence, while nearly 60 percent had forced marriages instead of arranged marriages, according to studies cited by the Afghan Ministry of Women.

Honor killings, child marriages, the payment of a bride price for a woman, and the practice of baad – trafficking young girls to pay the elders’ debts, which is equivalent to selling a child into slavery – still exist in rural areas . Everywhere, harassment of women in the workplace and in public is a constant, as is psychological abuse, according to recent studies.

As the uprising progressed, the first concern of staff at Women for Afghan Women and others who operate similar shelters was what the Taliban might do to punish them. As the country’s ruler in the 1990s, the Taliban fought vehemently against women traveling alone or gathering.

Relatively new examples of Taliban’s behavior are worrying. When the Taliban briefly took over the city of Kunduz in 2015, the operators and customers of the women’s refuge for Afghan women fled when threatening phone calls came in from the insurgents. The shelter manager described being actively hunted and said she got calls from the Taliban saying they would catch her as an example and hang her in the village square.

But it is not just the fear of the Taliban that is terrifying the shelter operators and their customers this time around. Taliban fighters have come to some of the shelters in the past few weeks. Sometimes they destroyed the site and took over the buildings, but there are still no reports of them causing harm to anyone, said Ms. Viswanath, the group’s co-founder.

“As far as I know, none of our employees have been beaten, attacked or killed,” she said.

Much of the concern stems from the waves of prisoners released during the Taliban’s advance. Among them were men detained under the women’s protection laws that have been enacted with Western support over the past 20 years. The former prisoners hold a grudge not only against the female relative who spoke out against them and publicly humiliated her, but also against all who supported these efforts – the directors of the safe house, advisors and lawyers.

A woman from rural Baghlan Province, who spoke on condition of anonymity for receiving death threats, described how she now changes her place to sleep every few nights. She had previously worked with prosecutors to gather evidence of abuse in cases involving women

Updated

9/2/2021, 5:49 p.m. ET

“After conquering the cities, the Taliban released all prisoners. Among those prisoners were some who were sentenced for my work, ”she said. “Now they are threatening me and there is no government or system to go to and take shelter. I only hide in one place or another. “

The shelters have long been targets. For many in Afghanistan’s strictly patriarchal society – not just the Taliban – a woman who is on her own or abandons her family is often viewed as a prostitute. Some see shelters for abused women as a thin panel for brothels.

In the last 15 years, however, despite the societal antagonism towards the protection of women, more and more people have started looking for shelters. Women, often with terrible injuries – broken bones or internal injuries from severe blows – kept knocking on the unmarked gates or ordinary houses where Relief Society groups took in people.

Whether or not these operations continue is firmly in the hands of the Taliban, who are expected to enact their own laws governing the behavior of women. That will leave the former Afghan government’s law on the elimination of violence against women and other protective measures on an uncertain basis.

For the time being, Taliban officials have given assurances that women are allowed to work and, in some cases, travel without the company of a male relative – “as permitted by Sharia law” or Islamic law. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid surprised some when, after other Taliban officials urged Afghan women to stay home temporarily for their own safety, he admitted that many in the ranks of the Taliban could not be trusted to be polite and that they should be educated.

Understanding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

Map 1 of 6

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban emerged in 1994 amid the unrest following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including flogging, amputation and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here is more about their genesis and track record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who for years have been on the run, in hiding, in prison and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to rule, including whether they will be as tolerant as they say they are. A spokesman told the Times that the group wanted to forget their past but had some restrictions.

But the Taliban made similar statements after taking control of the capital and most of the country in 1996.

“The explanation was that security wasn’t good and they were waiting for security to get better and then women to have more freedom,” said Heather Barr, assistant director of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch. “But in the years they were in power, of course, that moment never came – and I can promise you that the Afghan women who hear this today think that it will never happen this time either.”

For Mahbouba, a longtime activist who has spent much of her life fighting to protect Afghan women, the picture is not yet clear. But she says she gives the Taliban the benefit of the doubt for now. With her claim that everything must be done according to Sharia law because that is the religion of Afghanistan, she has nothing against it.

But the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia law will also be important, she said.

“We just have to wait and see what happens. The Taliban haven’t really started anything yet – check in in a month, in two months, in six months, ”she said.

Mahbouba, whom the Times identifies by name only to protect her and her organization, oversees a long-standing safe house for women. She hasn’t escaped or closed her doors, but she’s holding back and calibrating what she tells the news media, she said.

When some Taliban recently came into her office and said the women were being held against their will, Mahbouba said she did not let them in but went outside to speak to them.

They told her they heard that “some women are being held here.” She rejected that and instead said she was defending the honor of Afghan women.

“I don’t let them take to the streets to be used and abused by other people; they are the victims of domestic violence, ”she recalls. “So instead of running away and letting you go into prostitution, I have kept your honor and protect you.”

The Taliban appeared to accept this statement, and Mahbouba said she was determined to have a dialogue with them.

But she also made a request: please, she said, “keep watching, and if our world goes crazy and it gets really terrible, we can let people know.”

A New York Times employee contributed to the coverage.

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U.S. Wrestles With Taliban Sanctions as Afghan Disaster Looms

U.S. Wrestles With Taliban Sanctions as Afghan Crisis Looms

WASHINGTON – America’s war in Afghanistan is over, but the Taliban’s finances are just beginning.

The fate of billions of dollars in international reserves and foreign aid represents its own politically and legally strained choices as the world grapples with what Afghanistan will look like under Taliban rule. The stake is extraordinarily high as millions of Afghans face the prospect of collateral damage from the stranglehold of the Taliban’s sanctions, which are still in place, an economy the United States has tried for two decades support, threatens to sink.

Faced with an impending humanitarian crisis, the Biden government is examining how this web of sanctions can be tailored so that aid can continue to reach the Afghan people. The challenge is to keep donor money flowing without further enriching the Taliban, who see the US as a terrorist organization. Experts say that such a situation, in which a group believed to be terrorists takes over an entire country, is unprecedented and represents a complex test for the US sanctions program.

“This is a new world,” said Adam M. Smith, a senior sanctions officer in the Obama administration’s Treasury. “I cannot imagine a case in which an already named terrorist group has taken power over an entire country.”

He said that the Treasury Department would soon have to decide what exemptions or licenses it would grant for certain types of transactions. It must also decide whether all of Afghanistan or just the Taliban leadership is under sanctions so that the world knows how to deal with the government.

“We have to find a way to get goods and services into Afghanistan or 30 million Afghans will have side effects here and it will be a disaster,” said Smith.

When the Taliban came to power last month, the United States acted quickly to maintain as much influence as possible. It blocked its access to $ 9.5 billion in international reserve funds and put pressure on the International Monetary Fund to suspend distribution of more than $ 400 million in currency reserves.

A Treasury Department official said the United States would not ease sanctions pressures on Taliban leaders or significant restrictions on their access to the international financial system. The militant group continues to be classified as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group, and it is also subject to United Nations sanctions that the United States and other countries must enforce.

But the desire to demonstrate some flexibility is already evident. Last week, the Ministry of Finance signaled to humanitarian organizations that it was taking steps to enable relief work to continue for the benefit of the Afghan people. On August 25, the agency issued a special license, similar to the one it has issued in countries such as Syria and Venezuela, to enable the delivery of food, shelter, medicines and medical services to Afghanistan.

There are also signs that the financial flows into the country, which have been frozen for two weeks, are resuming.

Financial institutions in the United States have been waiting for the Biden administration to clarify whether Afghanistan’s property is considered Taliban property, banking industry officials said. Banks fear they could violate US sanctions if they allow transactions with the country.

Updated

9/2/2021, 5:49 p.m. ET

However, Western Union said Thursday that it would resume money transfer services to Afghanistan so its customers can send money to loved ones and that it would waive fees for transfers into the country for two weeks. A company spokeswoman said she made the decision after the US government said it allowed money transfers to Afghanistan.

An official from the Treasury Department confirmed that the agency had contacted financial institutions to inform them that personal transfers were allowed.

The Treasury Department has experience trying to service people ruled by enemy governments and has issued humanitarian aid licenses to arrive at such locations. In June, it issued licenses to send relief supplies to fight the coronavirus to Iran, Syria and Venezuela.

However, a terrorist group presents its own challenges and it will not be easy to keep aid out of the hands of the Taliban, especially if they control the country. The group is notorious for using exorbitant taxes to steal wealth from Afghan citizens, and an influx of food or medicine from abroad would be an opportunity to confiscate and sell them to raise funds. Harsh sanctions could also force the Taliban to rely even more heavily on illegal finances and drug trafficking, despite their public opposition to such practices.

“Due to the increased risk that the Taliban takeover entails, the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing must be stepped up,” said Alex Zerden, from 2018 to 2019 financial attaché of the Treasury Department at the US embassy in Kabul.

Dealing with the situation in Afghanistan is becoming more complex as the Treasury Department carries out a broader review of its sanctions program. Critics have accused the previous administration of arbitrarily imposing sanctions and often undermining their effectiveness. The Biden government has stated that it is not conducting intelligence reviews of certain sanctions, but rather is focusing on ways to modernize the practice so that it is more effective.

Understanding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

Map 1 of 6

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban emerged in 1994 amid the unrest following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including flogging, amputation and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here is more about their genesis and track record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who for years have been on the run, in hiding, in prison and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to rule, including whether they will be as tolerant as they say they are. A spokesman told the Times that the group wanted to forget their past but had some restrictions.

The Treasury Department did not offer a schedule for this review. It’s taking place while Senate Republicans have blocked two of President Biden’s nominations for top sanctions positions at the Treasury, Brian E. Nelson and Elizabeth Rosenberg. Although the Biden administration has been less vocal than the Trump administration about the application of sanctions, it is still well on its way to making about 1,000 nominations this year, according to the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Any easing of sanctions for the Taliban could come at a political price.

Senators Marco Rubio from Florida and Rob Portman from Ohio, both Republicans, called on Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Monday to keep all internationally held Afghan assets out of the Taliban.

“The Taliban are sponsors of terrorism and have close ties to al-Qaeda, and therefore cannot be trusted to distribute money to the Afghan people who are in dire need and will instead use all means to actively set priorities that are hostile to US interests. “They wrote in a letter. “We can and should work to create alternative means of supporting the Afghan people, but we must not allow resources to be used to strengthen a repressive Taliban regime.”

Khalid Payenda, who resigned as Afghan finance minister last month, said Thursday during an event at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service that the Taliban appear to be struggling to resume government financial operations and that the country is about to run out of money would. He said the world must find ways to provide economic support to the people of Afghanistan without giving the Taliban the money and that sanctions must be maintained as leverage.

“I think it would be catastrophic to give full access to the reserves,” said Payenda, accusing the Taliban of still having links with al Qaeda. “The Taliban know that they cannot run a government without the finances and technical assistance of other countries.”

The White House made it clear this week that it will not let go of its economic influence on the Taliban prematurely. Biden government officials insisted that such interference is important to ensure the Taliban honor their pledges to allow Americans, permanent residents and Afghan citizens to leave the country on special immigrant visas.

“When we talk about Afghan reserves, Afghan access to the banking system, Afghan access to any kind of basic operation of the economy, remember that the United States has been basically the steward of them for the past 20 years. “Jake Sullivan, the White House national security advisor, told CNN.

He argued that the Taliban are now somewhat dependent on the United States, adding, “They understand the extent to which their ability to provide their citizens with everything needed for a functioning economy depends on the international community. It’s up to the United States. “

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Shifting to Governing, Taliban Will Title Supreme Afghan Chief

Shifting to Governing, Taliban Will Name Supreme Afghan Leader

On the second full day with no US troops on Afghan soil, the Taliban moved on Wednesday to form a new Islamic government and prepared to appoint the movement’s leading religious figure, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, as the country’s highest authority, said Taliban officials.

The Taliban are faced with a daunting challenge that switched from insurrection to government after two decades of insurgents fighting international and Afghan armed forces, planting roadside bombs and planning mass bombings that killed the lives of people in densely populated urban centers.

Now, with Taliban rule fully restored 20 years after being overthrown by the US-led invasion in 2001, the group is faced with the responsibility of ruling a country of around 40 million people for over 40 years War was devastated.

There are hundreds of thousands displaced in the country and much of the population lives in crushing poverty, all amid a punishing drought and Covid-19 pandemic. Food supplies distributed by the United Nations are likely to be depleted in much of Afghanistan by the end of September, said Ramiz Alakbarov, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan.

The economy is in free fall after the US freeze $ 9.4 billion in Afghan currency reserves, part of a liquidity pipeline that long made a fragile, US-backed government dependent on foreign aid. International lenders, including the International Monetary Fund, have also cut funds, driving inflation higher and undermining the weak Afghani currency.

Electricity service, spotty and unreliable at the best of times, is failing, local residents say. Fear keeps many people at home instead of working and shopping outside. A shortage of food and other essentials has been reported in a country that imports much of its food, fuel and electricity. A third of Afghans had already dealt with what the United Nations called “crisis levels of food insecurity”.

Taliban officials did not indicate when the new governance would be announced. But the group was under heavy pressure to fill a political vacuum created by the rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed administration of former President Ashraf Ghani, who like many other officials fled the country when Taliban forces broke out on Sept. .August invaded.

Sheikh Haibatullah, a pragmatic but passionate religious scholar from Kandahar, is supposed to take on a theocratic role similar to that of the supreme Iranian leader, according to official reports. His son was trained as a suicide bomber and blew himself up in an attack in Helmand province when he was 23, the Taliban say.

Taliban officials, including Sheikh Haibatullah, met in Kandahar, according to Taliban officials. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a respected Taliban co-founder and one of its current deputies, was expected to be put in charge of day-to-day affairs as head of government, officials said.

Mr. Baradar had a similar role during the Taliban’s early years in exile, directing the movement’s operations until his arrest by Pakistan in 2010.

After three years in a Pakistani prison and several others under house arrest, Mr. Baradar was released in 2019 and then headed the Taliban delegation that negotiated the troop withdrawal agreement with the Trump administration in February 2020.

Other key government positions are expected to be held by Sirajuddin Haqqani, another deputy and influential leader of operations within the movement, and Mawlawi Muhammad Yaqoub, the son of Taliban founder Mullah Muhammad Omar, who led the group until his death in 2013.

Mr. Haqqani, 48, who helped direct the Taliban’s military operations, is also a leader of the brutal Haqqani Network, a mafia-like wing of the Taliban mainly based in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border. The network was responsible for hostage-taking, attacks on US forces, complex suicide bombings and targeted assassinations.

Political developments on Wednesday gave the Taliban, whose members celebrated with gunfire and fireworks, a real boost after the last planeload of US troops and equipment left Kabul airport shortly before midnight on Monday. On Tuesday, leading Taliban leaders led journalists on a triumphant tour of the looted airport, just hours after it was occupied by US troops.

Now the Taliban are fighting for international aid and diplomatic recognition. The relationship between the United States and the former insurgents is entering a tense new phase in which each side depends on decisive decisions made by their long-standing adversary.

Updated

9/2/2021, 12:24 p.m. ET

The Taliban cooperated in the US military’s evacuation efforts, but that does not mean further cooperations will follow, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday. “I wouldn’t make logical leaps on broader topics,” he said. “It’s hard to predict where this will lead.”

General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Taliban were “a ruthless group,” but when asked if the two sides could work together against a common enemy, the Islamic State of Khorasan, he said: “It is possible.”

A primary question is how much, if any, US economic aid will it provide and how it will ensure that aid goes to needy Afghans and not to the Taliban government.

The Taliban are also fighting stubborn opposition forces led by leaders of the National Resistance Front in Panjshir Province and other regions in northern Afghanistan, where anti-Taliban sentiment has always been strong. There were competing claims on Wednesday, with Taliban supporters saying their fighters had made progress and resistance leaders said they had repulsed a Taliban attack.

Panjshir, a stronghold of former Northern Alliance commanders, was one of the few areas in Afghanistan not under the control of the Taliban when the group ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban’s transition to governance is based on years of patient building of a so-called shadow government at the provincial, district and even village levels. In the Taliban-controlled areas, many Afghans learned to rely on this shadow government for basic services such as litigation rather than turning to a deeply corrupt national government that could not or would not serve remote areas.

After a military evacuation that flown more than 123,000 people out of Afghanistan in 18 days, most of them Afghans, 100 to 200 Americans will remain in the country, President Biden said Tuesday. Some stayed voluntarily. Others were unable to reach Kabul airport.

Tens of thousands of Afghans who have helped the US or its international partners also remain stranded, according to estimates by US officials. Many are permanent residents of the United States traveling in Afghanistan when the government and military collapsed at breakneck speed and the Taliban took control on August 15.

Understanding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

Map 1 of 6

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban emerged in 1994 amid the unrest following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including flogging, amputation and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here is more about their genesis and track record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who for years have been on the run, in hiding, in prison and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to rule, including whether they will be as tolerant as they say they are. A spokesman told the Times that the group wanted to forget their past but had some restrictions.

Taliban officials have repeatedly publicly assured that Afghans with proper passports and visas will be allowed to leave the country, regardless of their role during the 20-year US mission in Afghanistan.

About 6,000 Americans, the vast majority of them dual Afghan citizens, were evacuated after Aug. 14, Foreign Secretary Antony J. Blinken said Tuesday. In early spring, the American embassy in Kabul began warning Americans to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible, referring to the rapidly deteriorating security situation.

Mr. Blinken described “extraordinary efforts to give Americans every opportunity to leave the country.” He said diplomats made 55,000 calls and sent 33,000 emails to US citizens in Afghanistan, and in some cases took them to Kabul airport.

Mr Biden said Tuesday that the US government had alerted Americans 19 times since March to leave Afghanistan.

The president and his national security team have pledged to continue working to evict Americans and vulnerable Afghans who want to leave Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Tuesday that Kabul airport would be reopened to air traffic within a few days. But with the airport’s future uncertain, some Afghans are crawling around neighboring borders. Hundreds gather every day in Torkham, a major border crossing with Pakistan, in hopes that Pakistani officials will let them through.

The United Nations Refugee Agency recently warned that up to half a million Afghans could flee by the end of the year and urged countries in the region to keep their borders open to refugees.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, estimates that around 3.5 million people have been displaced by violence in Afghanistan – half a million since May alone. The majority of them are women and children.

On the Afghan side of the Pakistani border near Torkham, about 140 miles east of Kabul, some families have been huddled together with their belongings in recent days and decided to flee from the rule of the Taliban. There are also workers from neighboring Afghan provinces who, in the face of increasing money and food shortages, want to move over to earn a living.

Pakistan has announced that it will not accept any further refugees from Afghanistan. Border officials reportedly only allow Pakistani nationals and the few Afghans who have visas to cross.

While Afghan refugees living in Pakistan commuted back and forth for decades without being asked, Pakistan has made access more difficult in recent years and has erected a 2,600-kilometer border fence.

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Politics

Airbnb, Verizon, Walmart supply assist to Afghan refugees

Airbnb, Verizon, Walmart offer support to Afghan refugees

Afghan refugees are led to a bus taking them to a refugee processing center upon arrival at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia August 25, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Businesses are rushing to support the thousands of refugees that have been evacuated from Afghanistan in recent days who are now faced with the difficult task of building a new life in an unfamiliar country.

Airbnb, Verizon, Walmart and Texas Medical Technology are among those who have offered to help the 100,000 plus people to have fled the country to the U.S. after Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15.

On Tuesday, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company is planning to temporarily house 20,000 refugees around the world free of charge.

Refugees will be housed in properties listed on Airbnb’s platform and the stays will be funded by Airbnb, Chesky said on Twitter, without specifying exactly how much the company plans to spend on the commitment or how long refugees will be housed for.

Airbnb on Thursday invited non-hosts to help through its dedicated website for emergency housing that allows property owners to offer up any available space for free or at a discount. Airbnb is urging those that don’t have any available space to donate money to support housing efforts.

While access to housing is essential, many refugees will need to find jobs in their new countries to become financially independent.

Texas Medical Technology, a supplier and distributor of medical equipment, said it plans to hire 100 Afghan refugees within a year at a 144,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Houston.

It hopes to have employed 10 Afghan refugees by the end of the month.

Free calls to Afghanistan

Then there’s keeping in contact with friends and family who are still in Afghanistan, which will be of vital importance to some in the immediate future.

Verizon on Tuesday said it plans to waive charges for calls from its consumer, business and residential landline customers to Afghanistan up until Sep. 6.

“During this time of need, customers need to stay connected with loved ones in Afghanistan,” said Ronan Dunne, executive vice president and CEO of Verizon Consumer Group for Verizon. “Waiving these kinds of calling charges will help them focus on what matters: communicating with family and friends.”

The telco is also inviting customers to donate $10 to the International Rescue Committee by texting RESCUE to 25383.

Mental health support

The mental health toll on Afghan refugees could be huge.

Hims & Hers, a telehealth platform that connects people to licensed healthcare professionals, said Wednesday that it is planning to do 10,000 mental health calls with Afghan refugees.

“With a mission to provide access to high-quality, convenient and affordable medical care and personalized treatment plans and solutions, we feel a moral responsibility to act — and fast,” the company said in a blog post on the Hims & Hers website.

Dental kits

Byte said it is planning to donate at least 25,000 oral care kits to Afghan refugees being resettled in the U.S. and elsewhere. Neeraj Gunsagar, the company’s CEO, said he believes it’s a moral obligation and in the national interest of the U.S. to help the refugees in this crisis.

Instead of offering direct support, some firms are donating money to charities. Discount retailer Walmart, for example, is donating $1 million to groups helping Afghan refugees in the U.S. through its philanthropic arm.

Thousands are still trying to flee Afghanistan ahead of President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline, and there are concerns many who want to leave the country won’t be able to.

The Pentagon on Sunday said it called up 18 civilian aircraft from United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, among others, to help carry those stationed at temporary locations after they landed on flights from Afghanistan.

 

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Kamala Harris Pledges U.S. Assist for Afghan Ladies and Youngsters

Kamala Harris Pledges U.S. Help for Afghan Women and Children

HANOI – Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that the United States would work with its allies to protect women and children in Afghanistan as the Taliban takeover forced them to face worrying historical parallels and draw attention from their original mission distracted on a five day trip to Southeast Asia.

“There is no question that any of us who are vigilant are concerned about this issue in Afghanistan,” said Ms. Harris, referring to the protection of women and children in that country.

The vice president made her comments in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on the final day of her trip to Southeast Asia, an important part of the Biden administration’s strategy of forging partnerships in the region and realigning American foreign policy to compete with China’s growing influence.

For Ms. Harris, the trip was an opportunity to assert herself on the world stage after her first overseas trip to Central America, which focused on the root causes of migration, received from political backlash against the Biden government’s response to the increasing crossings at the southwestern border .

Ms. Harris faced the great challenge of reassuring her partners in Asia and around the world that despite the Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan and the arbitrary evacuations of the United States, the United States can still be a credible ally.

While the Biden government seeks to meet an August 31 deadline to leave Afghanistan, the situation in Kabul has overshadowed a trip focused on public health, supply chain issues and economic partnerships.

In Singapore, whether at her meeting with city-state leaders or during her orchid tour after a high-level foreign policy speech, Ms. Harris kept asking questions about withdrawal, the future of human rights in Afghanistan, and the fate of those who had risked their lives to help American troops in the 20 Years War.

The pressure didn’t ease in Hanoi – especially after the world saw pictures of desperate Afghans charging behind US military planes, comparing it to the evacuation of the United States from Vietnam in 1975.

On Thursday, Ms. Harris did not directly answer a question whether the Americans are safer now than they were before they left Afghanistan. Instead, she extolled the government’s evacuation efforts, which have increased rapidly in recent days.

Biden government officials said they had evacuated tens of thousands of people since August 14, the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban. Most Americans have flown out although tens of thousands of Afghan allies will almost certainly be left behind after August 31.

Updated

Aug 28, 2021, 7:25 p.m. ET

During her trip, Ms. Harris upheld her message, stressing that the government’s “uniquely” focus was on evacuating the remaining American citizens and Afghan allies.

Her flight to Hanoi from Singapore on Tuesday was delayed by three hours because the US Embassy in Vietnam described a possible “abnormal health incident”. This is the language the Biden government uses to refer to what is known as Havana Syndrome – the unexplained headache, dizziness and memory loss reported by numerous State Department officials, CIA officials and their families in various countries. When asked about the report, Ms. Harris only said that the officers are investigating him.

Understanding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

Map 1 of 5

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban emerged in 1994 amid the unrest following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including flogging, amputation and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here is more about their genesis and track record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who for years have been on the run, in hiding, in prison and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to rule, including whether they will be as tolerant as they say they are.

What is happening to the women of Afghanistan? When the Taliban was last in power, they banned women and girls from most jobs or from going to school. Afghan women have gained a lot since the Taliban was overthrown, but now they fear that they are losing ground. Taliban officials are trying to reassure women that things will be different, but there are indications that they have begun to reintroduce the old order in at least some areas.

Ms. Harris used the trip to Southeast Asia not only to forge partnerships on climate change, cybersecurity and pandemic, but also to make her most outspoken comments to date on Beijing.

Both Beijing and Washington have recognized Southeast Asia as a region of economic and geopolitical importance. Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have all accused China of building and fortifying artificial islands in the South China Sea and of sending ships to intimidate their military and fishermen.

On Wednesday, Ms. Harris offered to send aircraft carriers and a Coast Guard cutter to Vietnam in addition to a million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

“When it comes to Beijing, let me be very clear,” she said. “We welcome fierce competition, we are not looking for conflict, but we will speak out on issues like you, the South China Sea.”

Tension between the United States and China was evident throughout Ms. Harris’ trip – even when she was in the air. Beijing used its delayed flight to Hanoi to send an envoy to a meeting with the Vietnamese prime minister and pledge a donation of two million doses of coronavirus vaccines – double the US donation.

After the meeting, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh declared that his country “is not allying itself with one country to fight another,” according to Vietnamese state media.

“It’s striking,” said Aaron Connelly, research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore. Chinese officials, he said, “believe they have the advantage and are trying to make it clear to Southeast Asian counterparts that working with the United States will come at a cost.”

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Politics

Amid Afghan Chaos, a C.I.A. Mission That Will Persist for Years

Amid Afghan Chaos, a C.I.A. Mission That Will Persist for Years

The C.I.A.’s new mission will be narrower, a senior intelligence official said. It no will longer have to help protect thousands of troops and diplomats and will focus instead on hunting terrorist groups that can attack beyond Afghanistan’s borders. But the rapid American exit devastated the agency’s networks, and spies will most likely have to rebuild them and manage sources from abroad, according to current and former officials.

The United States will also have to deal with troublesome partners like Pakistan, whose unmatched ability to play both sides of a fight frustrated generations of American leaders.

William J. Burns, the agency’s director, has said that it is ready to collect intelligence and conduct operations from afar, or “over the horizon,” but he told lawmakers in the spring that operatives’ ability to gather intelligence and act on threats will erode. “That’s simply a fact,” said Mr. Burns, who traveled to Kabul this week for secret talks with the Taliban.

Challenges for the C.I.A. lie ahead in Afghanistan, the senior intelligence official acknowledged, while adding that the agency was not starting from scratch. It had long predicted the collapse of the Afghan government and a Taliban victory, and since at least July had warned that they could come sooner than expected.

In the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, C.I.A. officers were the first to meet with Afghan militia fighters. The agency went on to notch successes in Afghanistan, ruthlessly hunting and killing Qaeda operatives, its primary mission in the country after Sept. 11.

It built a vast network of informants who met their agency handlers in Afghanistan, then used the information to conduct drone strikes against suspected terrorists. The agency prevented Al Qaeda from using Afghanistan as a base to mount a large-scale attack against the United States as it had on Sept. 11.

Updated 

Aug. 27, 2021, 11:01 a.m. ET

But that chapter came with a cost in both life and reputation. At least 19 personnel have been killed in Afghanistan — a death toll eclipsed only by the agency’s losses during the Vietnam War. Several agency paramilitary operatives would later die fighting the Islamic State, a sign of how far afield the original mission had strayed. The last C.I.A. operative to die in Afghanistan was a former elite reconnaissance Marine, killed in a firefight in May 2019, a grim bookend to the conflict.

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World News

Child Born on Afghan Flight Is Named Attain, After Jet’s Name Signal

Baby Born on Afghan Flight Is Named Reach, After Jet's Call Sign

The Afghan parents of a baby born on a C-17 plane that was evacuating passengers to Germany named their daughter after the plane’s call sign, a senior US general said this week.

“They named the little girl Reach, and they did so because the callsign of the C-17 plane that flew them from Qatar to Ramstein was Reach,” said General Tod Wolters, commander of US European Command, in a Pentagon -Message conference on Wednesday.

The Afghan mother, who is not named, had contractions and complications on Saturday on a flight from a base in Qatar to the Ramstein air base in southwest Germany, the US Air Force said on Twitter.

In response, the C-17 – identified on the radio as Reach 828 – sank in altitude to increase air pressure on the plane, “which helped stabilize and save the mother’s life,” the Air Force said.

After the plane landed, paramedics got on board and helped drop the baby into the hold. A group of women protected their mother’s privacy with their scarves, said Capt. Erin Brymer, a nurse who helped deliver the child, told CNN.

By the time they got there, the woman was “past the point of no return,” she said. “This baby was supposed to be born before we could possibly move it to another facility.”

Pictures released by the US Air Force showed the woman being transported from the plane to a nearby medical facility shortly after the birth of her daughter.

General Wolters said the baby was one of three – all in good condition – born to women who boarded evacuation flights from Afghanistan. Two more were delivered at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a military hospital in southern Germany.

“It is my dream to see this little kid named Reach grow up and become a US citizen and fly United States Air Force fighter jets in our air force,” General Wolters told reporters.

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World News

Biden Sticks to Afghan Deadline, Resisting Pleas to Lengthen Evacuation

Biden Sticks to Afghan Deadline, Resisting Pleas to Extend Evacuation

“People will die and they will be left behind,” said McCaul.

Mr Biden has stressed that he takes the threat to American security in Kabul seriously. In a closed meeting with the leaders of the Seven Nations Group on Tuesday, the president told them the risk of a terrorist attack was “very high,” according to a senior American official.

A deadly attack by ISIS-K on American and Afghan civilians would be a catastrophe not only for the United States but also for the Taliban, who want to consolidate control over Kabul. The Taliban and the Islamic State were enemies and fought for control of parts of the country on the battlefield.

Understanding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

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Who are the Taliban? The Taliban emerged in 1994 amid the unrest following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including flogging, amputation and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here is more about their genesis and track record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who for years have been on the run, in hiding, in prison and dodged American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to rule, including whether they will be as tolerant as they say they are.

What is happening to the women of Afghanistan? When the Taliban was last in power, they banned women and girls from most jobs or from going to school. Afghan women have gained a lot since the Taliban was overthrown, but now they fear that they are losing ground. Taliban officials are trying to reassure women that things will be different, but there are indications that they have begun to reintroduce the old order in at least some areas.

ISIS-K refers to the Khorasan offshoot of the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who chaired the meeting, tried to put the discussions on a good face and said the evacuation had been remarkably successful. He said the leaders had agreed on a roadmap for long-term dealings with the Taliban and vowed to use Afghan funds in Western banks as leverage to put pressure on the Taliban.

“Condition # 1 is that they must guarantee safe passage for those who want to get out by August 31st and beyond,” Johnson told the BBC after the meeting.

But Mr Johnson failed in his efforts to persuade Mr Biden to extend the evacuation beyond August 31, and it was not clear what other options the allies had to protect their own citizens and Afghan allies without American military power.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said there were plans to find a way to ensure that “we can still get as many local workers and vulnerable people to leave the country” afterwards. But her sober tone exposed the sense of futility Western leaders felt about Afghanistan.

“How can it be that the Afghan leader left the country so quickly?” said Mrs. Merkel. “How can it be that Afghan soldiers who we trained for so long gave up so quickly? We will have to ask ourselves these questions, but they were not the most urgent today. “

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World News

Airbnb plans to briefly home 20,000 Afghan refugees

Airbnb plans to temporarily house 20,000 Afghan refugees

Families begin an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, Jan.

Sgt. Samuel Ruiz | US Marine Corps | via Reuters

Airbnb plans to house 20,000 Afghan refugees worldwide for free, the company’s CEO Brian Chesky said Tuesday.

The refugees will be housed in accommodations listed on the Airbnb platform and the stays will be funded by Airbnb, Chesky said on Twitter, without specifying exactly how much the company plans to spend on the engagement or how long refugees will be housed.

The US announced Monday that it has evacuated around 48,000 people from Afghanistan in the past few days, while thousands are still trying to flee, fearing reprisals from the Taliban fighters now in power.

The main exit point is Kabul Airport, where huge crowds have gathered in the sweltering heat. The Taliban have set August 31 as the airlift deadline and there are concerns that many who want to leave the country will not be able to leave the country.

“The displacement and resettlement of Afghan refugees in the US and elsewhere is one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time,” said Chesky. “We feel a responsibility to become stronger.”

He added, “I hope this inspires other business leaders to do the same. There is no time to waste.”

Chesky urged Airbnb hosts to reach out to him if they would like to host a refugee family and promised to connect them with the right people at the company.

Companies of all shapes and sizes are rushing to show their support to victims in times of great crisis; it is an opportunity to be non-profit while strengthening public relations.

Texas Medical Technology, a medical equipment supplier and distributor, told CNBC Tuesday that it plans to recruit 100 Afghan refugees at a 150,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Houston within a year.

Airbnb, valued at around $ 92 billion, often offers to cover emergency housing costs. Since 2012, 75,000 people have found a place to stay in times of crisis.