You are here

  • Home
  • 2 Chinese aircraft carriers are operating in the Pacific for the first time. Why?

2 Chinese aircraft carriers are operating in the Pacific for the first time. Why?

2 Chinese aircraft carriers are operating in the Pacific for the first time. Why?
A helicopter takes off from China’s Shandong aircraft carrier, over Pacific Ocean waters, south of Okinawa prefecture, Japan. (File/AFP)
Short Url

https://arab.news/2hcjf

Updated 11 June 2025
AP
Follow

2 Chinese aircraft carriers are operating in the Pacific for the first time. Why?

2 Chinese aircraft carriers are operating in the Pacific for the first time. Why?
  • Two Chinese aircraft carriers operating together for the first time in the Pacific fuel concern about Beijing’s rapidly expanding military activity far beyond its borders
  • China routinely sends coast guard vessels, warships and warplanes to areas around the disputed East China Sea islands, but never east of the second-island chain until now
Updated 11 June 2025
AP
Follow

TOKYO: Japan this week confirmed that two Chinese aircraft carriers have operated together for the first time in the Pacific, fueling Tokyo’s concern about Beijing’s rapidly expanding military activity far beyond its borders.
Carriers are considered critical to projecting power at a distance. China routinely sends coast guard vessels, warships and warplanes to areas around the disputed East China Sea islands, but now it is going as far as what’s called the second-island chain that includes Guam — a US territory. A single Chinese carrier has ventured into the Pacific in the past, but never east of that chain until now.
Here’s what to know about the latest moves by China, which has the world’s largest navy numerically.
What happened?
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the two carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, were seen separately but almost simultaneously operating near southern islands in the Pacific for the first time. Both operated in waters off Iwo Jima, about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of Tokyo, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Monday.
The Liaoning also sailed inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone of Minamitorishima, the country’s easternmost island. There was no violation of Japanese territorial waters. Still, Nakatani said Japan has expressed “concern” to the Chinese embassy.
Both carriers had warplanes take off and land. Late Wednesday, Japan’s Defense Ministry said a Chinese J-15 fighter jet that took off from the Shandong on Saturday chased a Japanese P-3C aircraft on reconnaissance duty in the area and came within an “abnormally close distance” of 45 meters (50 yards).
The Chinese jet on Sunday crossed 900 meters (980 yards) in front of the Japanese P-3C, the ministry said, adding it has strongly requested China to take measures to prevent such an “abnormal approach” that could cause accidental collisions.
Why is Japan worried?
China’s military buildup and expanding area of activity have raised tensions in the region.
The Chinese carriers sailed past the first-island chain, the Pacific archipelago off the Asian mainland that includes Japan, Taiwan and part of the Philippines. The Liaoning reached farther to the second-island chain, a strategic line extending to Guam, showing China also can challenge Japan’s ally, the United States.
“China apparently aims to elevate its capability of the two aircraft carriers, and to advance its operational capability of the distant sea and airspace,” Nakatani said.
The defense minister vowed to further strengthen Japan’s air defense on remote islands.
Japan has been accelerating its military buildup especially since 2022, including counter-strike capability, with long-range cruise missiles as deterrence to China.
What does China want?
China’s navy on Tuesday confirmed the deployments, calling it part of routine training in the western Pacific “to test their capabilities in far seas protection and joint operations.” It said the deployment was in compliance with international laws and not targeted at any country.
China is pursuing a vast military modernization program including ambitions of a true “blue-water” naval force capable of operating at long ranges for extended periods.
Beijing has the world’s largest navy numerically but lags far behind the United States in its number of aircraft carriers. China has three, the US 11.
Washington’s numerical advantage allows it to keep a carrier, currently the USS George Washington, permanently forward-deployed to Japan.
The Pentagon has expressed concern over Beijing’s focus on building new carriers. Its latest report to Congress on Chinese defense developments noted that it “extends air defense coverage of deployed task groups beyond the range of land-based defenses, enabling operations farther from China’s shore.”
What are the carriers’ abilities?
The two Chinese carriers currently in the western Pacific employ the older “ski-jump” launch method for aircraft, with a ramp at the end of a short runway to assist planes taking off. China’s first carrier, the Liaoning, was a repurposed Soviet ship. The second, the Shandong, was built in China along the Soviet design.
Its third carrier, the Fujian, launched in 2022 and is undergoing final sea trials. It is expected to be operational later this year. It is locally designed and built and employs a more modern, electromagnetic-type launch system like those developed and used by the US
All three ships are conventionally powered, while all the US carriers are nuclear powered, giving them the ability to operate at much greater range and more power to run advanced systems.
Satellite imagery provided to The Associated Press last year indicated China is working on a nuclear propulsion system for its carriers.
Any other recent concerns?
In August, a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft violated Japan’s airspace off the southern prefecture of Nagasaki, and a Chinese survey ship violated Japanese territorial waters off another southern prefecture, Kagoshima. In September, the Liaoning and two destroyers sailed between Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni — just east of Taiwan — and nearby Iriomote, entering an area just outside Japan’s territorial waters where the country has some control over maritime traffic.
China routinely sends coast guard vessels and aircraft into waters and airspace surrounding the Japanese-controlled, disputed East China Sea islands to harass Japanese vessels in the area, forcing Japan to scramble jets.
Tokyo also worries about China’s increased joint military activities with Russia, including joint operations of warplanes or warships around northern and southwestern Japan in recent years.

Topics: East China Sea Japan China US aircraft carrier

Related

The US and China have agreed on a framework to resolve their trade disputes
World
The US and China have agreed on a framework to resolve their trade disputes
Japan allows longer nuclear plant lifespans
World
Japan allows longer nuclear plant lifespans

Authorities say about 200 immigrants were arrested in raids on 2 Southern California farms

Authorities say about 200 immigrants were arrested in raids on 2 Southern California farms
Updated 8 sec ago
AP
Follow

Authorities say about 200 immigrants were arrested in raids on 2 Southern California farms

Authorities say about 200 immigrants were arrested in raids on 2 Southern California farms
Updated 8 sec ago
AP

CAMARILLO, California: Federal immigration authorities said Friday they arrested about 200 immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally in raids a day earlier on two California cannabis farm sites. Protesters engaged in a tense standoff with authorities during an operation at one of the farms.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that authorities executed criminal search warrants in Carpinteria and Camarillo, California, on Thursday. They arrested immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally, and there were also at least 10 immigrant children on site, the statement said.
Four US citizens were arrested for “assaulting or resisting officers,” the department said. Authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of one person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents. One worker who called family to say he was hiding from authorities was on life support after falling and suffering significant injuries.
During the raid, crowds of people gathered outside Glass House Farms in Camarillo to seek information about their relatives and protest immigration enforcement. Authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators. Acrid green and white billowing smoke then forced community members to retreat.
Glass House, a licensed California cannabis grower, said in a statement that immigration agents had valid warrants. The company said workers were detained, and it is helping provide them with legal representation. The farm also grows tomatoes and cucumbers.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” the statement said.
It is legal to grow and sell cannabis in California with proper licensing.
The state’s Department of Cannabis Control said they “observed no minors on the premises” during a site visit to the farm in May 2025. After receiving another complaint, the department opened an active investigation, according to a department spokesperson.
Worker gravely injured
At least 12 people were injured during the raid and protest, said Andrew Dowd, a spokesperson for the Ventura County Fire Department. Eight were taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center and the Ventura County Medical Center, and four were treated at the scene and released. Dowd said he did not have information on the extent of the injuries of those hospitalized.
On Friday, about two dozen people waited outside the farm to retrieve the cars of loved ones and speak to managers. Relatives of Jaime Alanis, who has picked tomatoes at the farm for 10 years, said he called his wife in Mexico during the raid to tell her immigration agents had arrived and that he was hiding with others inside the farm.
“The next thing we heard was that he was in the hospital with broken hands, ribs and a broken neck,” Juan Duran, Alanis’ brother-in-law, said in Spanish.
It was not immediately clear how Alanis was injured. A doctor at Ventura County Medical Center told the family that those who brought Alanis to the hospital said he had fallen from the roof of a building.
Alanis had a broken neck, fractured skull and a rupture in an artery that pumps blood to the brain, said his niece Yesenia, who didn’t want to share her last name for fear of reprisal. He is on life support, she said.
“They told us he won’t make it and to say goodbye,” Yesenia said, crying.
The hospital did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Confrontation with authorities
Relatives and advocates headed to the farm about 50 miles  northwest of downtown Los Angeles to try to find out what was going on, and began protesting outside.
Federal authorities formed a line blocking the road leading through farm fields to the company’s greenhouses. Protesters were seen shouting at agents wearing camouflage gear, helmets and gas masks. The billowing smoke drove protesters to retreat. It wasn’t clear why authorities threw the canisters or if they released chemicals such as tear gas.
Ventura County fire authorities responding to a 911 call of people having trouble breathing said three people were taken to nearby hospitals.
At the farm, agents arrested workers and removed them by bus. Others, including US citizens, were detained at the site for hours while agents investigated.
The incident came as federal immigration agents have ramped up arrests in Southern California at car washes, farms and Home Depot parking lots, stoking widespread fear among immigrant communities.
Federal investigations
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Friday that the investigation into immigration and potential child labor violations at the farm is ongoing. No further details of the allegations were provided.
The agency said hundreds of demonstrators attempted to disrupt the operations, leading to the arrest of four Americans.
“We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who assaults or doxes federal law enforcement,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection were both part of the operation, the statement said.
President Donald Trump said he has ordered DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and White House border czar Tom Homan to direct ICE agents to use “whatever means is necessary” going forward when dealing with violent protesters.
“I am giving Total Authorization for ICE to protect itself, just like they protect the Public,” Trump said in a social media posting Friday evening.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in a statement blamed “violent leftists” and Democrats for the Camarillo incident and other assaults on ICE agents in recent weeks.
Family members search for answers
The mother of an American worker said her son was held at the worksite for 11 hours and told her agents took workers’ cellphones to prevent them from calling family or filming and forced them to erase cellphone video of agents at the site.
The woman said her son told her agents marked the men’s hands with ink to distinguish their immigration status. She spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she feared reprisals from the government.
United Farm Workers said in statement that some US citizens are not yet accounted for.
Maria Servin, 68, said her son has worked at the farm for 18 years and was helping to build a greenhouse. She said she spoke to her son, who is undocumented, after hearing of the raid and offered to pick him up.
“He said not to come because they were surrounded and there was even a helicopter. That was the last time I spoke to him,” Servin, a US citizen, said in Spanish.
She said she went to the farm anyway but federal agents were shooting tear gas and rubber bullets and she decided it was not safe to stay. She and her daughter returned to the farm Friday and were told her son had been arrested Thursday. They still don’t know where he is being held.
“I regret 1,000 times that I didn’t help him get his documents,” Servin said.

State Department lays off over 1,300 employees under Trump administration plan

State Department lays off over 1,300 employees under Trump administration plan
Updated 12 July 2025
AP
Follow

State Department lays off over 1,300 employees under Trump administration plan

State Department lays off over 1,300 employees under Trump administration plan
  • The cuts have been roundly criticized by current and former diplomats
Updated 12 July 2025
AP

WASHINGTON: The US State Department fired more than 1,300 employees on Friday in line with a dramatic reorganization plan from the Trump administration that critics say will damage America’s global leadership and efforts to counter threats abroad.
The department sent layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with assignments in the United States, according to a senior department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Notices said positions were being “abolished” and the employees would lose access to State Department headquarters in Washington and their email and shared drives by 5 p.m., according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.
As fired employees packed their belongings, dozens of former colleagues, ambassadors, members of Congress and others spent a warm, humid day protesting outside. Holding signs saying, “Thank you to America’s diplomats” and “We all deserve better,” they mourned the institutional loss from the cuts and highlighted the personal sacrifice of serving in the foreign service.
“We talk about people in uniform serving. But foreign service officers take an oath of office, just like military officers,” said Anne Bodine, who retired from the State Department in 2011 after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. “This is not the way to treat people who served their country and who believe in ‘America First.’”
While lauded by President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their Republican allies as overdue and necessary to make the department leaner and more efficient, the cuts have been roundly criticized by current and former diplomats who say they will weaken US influence and the ability to counter existing and emerging threats abroad.
The layoffs are part of big changes to State Department work
The Trump administration has pushed to reshape American diplomacy and worked aggressively to shrink the size of the federal government, including mass dismissals driven by the Department of Government Efficiency and moves to dismantle whole departments like the US Agency for International Development and the Education Department.
USAID, the six-decade-old foreign assistance agency, was absorbed into the State Department last week after the administration dramatically slashed foreign aid funding.
A recent ruling by the Supreme Court cleared the way for the layoffs to start, while lawsuits challenging the legality of the cuts continue to play out. The department had advised staffers Thursday that it would be sending layoff notices to some of them soon.
In a May letter notifying Congress about the reorganization, the department said it had just over 18,700 US-based employees and was looking to reduce the workforce by 18 percent through layoffs and voluntary departures, including deferred resignation programs.
“It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions,” Rubio told reporters Thursday during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.”
Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice obtained by AP. For most civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said.
Protesters gather to criticize the job cuts
Inside and just outside the State Department, employees spent over an hour applauding their departing colleagues, who got more support — and sometimes hugs — from protesters and others gathered across the street.
As speakers took to a bullhorn, people behind them held signs in the shape of gravestones that said “democracy,” “human rights” and “diplomacy.”
“It’s just heartbreaking to stand outside these doors right now and see people coming out in tears, because all they wanted to do was serve this country,” said Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat who worked as a civilian adviser for the State Department in Afghanistan during the Obama administration.
Robert Blake, who served as a US ambassador under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, said he came to support his peers at a very “unjust time.”
“I have a lot of friends who served very loyally and with distinction and who are being fired for nothing to do with their performance,” Blake said.
Gordon Duguid, a 31-year veteran of the foreign service, said of the Trump administration: “They’re not looking for people who have the expertise ... they just want people who say, ‘OK, how high’” to jump.
“That’s a recipe for disaster,” he added.
The American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents US diplomats, said it opposed the job cuts during “a moment of great global instability.”
“Losing more diplomatic expertise at this critical global moment is a catastrophic blow to our national interests,” the AFSA said in a statement. “These layoffs are untethered from merit or mission.”
As the layoffs began, paper signs started going up around the State Department. “Colleagues, if you remain: resist fascism,” said one.
An employee who was among those laid off said she printed them about a week ago, when the Supreme Court cleared way for the reductions. The employee spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
She worked with about a dozen colleagues to put up the signs. They focused on bathrooms, where there are no security cameras, although others went in more public spaces.
“Nobody wants to feel like these guys can just get away with this,” she said.
The State Department is undergoing a big reorganization
The State Department is planning to eliminate some divisions tasked with oversight of America’s two-decade involvement in Afghanistan, including an office focused on resettling Afghan nationals who worked alongside the US military.
Jessica Bradley Rushing, who worked at the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, known as CARE, said she was shocked when she received another dismissal notice Friday after she had already been put on administrative leave in March.
“I spent the entire morning getting updates from my former colleagues at CARE, who were watching this carnage take place within the office,” she said, adding that every person on her team received a notice. “I never even anticipated that I could be at risk for that because I’m already on administrative leave.”
The State Department said the reorganization will affect more than 300 bureaus and offices, as it eliminates divisions it describes as doing unclear or overlapping work. It says Rubio believes “effective modern diplomacy requires streamlining this bloated bureaucracy.”
The letter to Congress was clear that the reorganization is also intended to eliminate programs — particularly those related to refugees and immigration, as well as human rights and democracy promotion — that the Trump administration believes have become ideologically driven in a way that is incompatible with its priorities and policies.
___
Lee reported from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Amiri from New York. Chris Megerian in Washington contributed.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the US Department of State at https://apnews.com/hub/us-department-of-state.

Topics: US State Department

Australia detains Palestinian grandmother who fled Gaza

Australia detains Palestinian grandmother who fled Gaza
Updated 11 July 2025
Arab News
Follow

Australia detains Palestinian grandmother who fled Gaza

Australia detains Palestinian grandmother who fled Gaza
  • Maha Almassri, 61, was taken away during a pre-dawn raid on her son’s home in Sydney
  • Government official cancels her visa over concerns she is a ‘security risk’
Updated 11 July 2025
Arab News

LONDON: A Palestinian grandmother who fled the war in Gaza has been detained in Australia by immigration officers after they raided her son’s home in Sydney.

Maha Almassri, 61, was taken away in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday by 15 members of the Australian Border Force, her family said.

She was told her visa has been canceled after she failed a character test, Guardian Australia reported.

Almassri left Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in February 2024 and arrived in Australia, where many of her family live, on a tourist visa soon afterwards, her cousin Mohammed Almassri said.

She had been staying with her son in western Sydney, where the raid took place at 5.30 a.m. She was taken to a nearby police station and transferred to Villawood detention center, Mohammed told the Guardian.

Her visa was canceled by the assistant minister for citizenship and cultural affairs Julian Hill, who “reasonably suspects that the person does not pass the character test” and was “satisfied that the cancelation was in the national interest,” a document seen by the newspaper and SBS News said.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organization assessed Almassri to be “directly or indirectly a risk to security,” it said.

Mohammed said that his cousin was in poor health, frightened, and struggled to talk over the phone because she was so upset.

He said that the Australian and Israeli authorities carried out security checks before she was cleared to leave Gaza, where almost 58,000 people have been killed in a 21-month Israeli onslaught.

“She’s an old lady, what can she do?” Mohammed said. “What’s the reason? They have to let us know why this has happened. There is no country, no house, nothing (to go back to in Gaza).”

A spokesperson for Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told SBS News that the government would not comment on the case.

“Any information in the public domain is being supplied by the individual and is not necessarily consistent with the information supplied by our intelligence and security agencies,” the spokesperson said.

Almassri had reportedly been granted a bridging visa in June last year after applying for a protection visa.

Last year, Amnesty International accused Australia of rejecting more than 7,000 Palestinian visa applications since the Israeli offensive on Gaza started in 2023.

Topics: War on Gaza Australia

Related

Australia cancels citizenship of Muslim cleric in local first
World
Australia cancels citizenship of Muslim cleric in local first
Palestinians in Gaza pay high price to get hold of scarce cash
Middle-East
Palestinians in Gaza pay high price to get hold of scarce cash

Palestine Action protests aim to make UK ban ‘unenforceable’

Palestine Action protests aim to make UK ban ‘unenforceable’
Updated 11 July 2025
Arab News
Follow

Palestine Action protests aim to make UK ban ‘unenforceable’

Palestine Action protests aim to make UK ban ‘unenforceable’
  • Hundreds expected at demonstrations in London, Cardiff, Manchester after group proscribed under Terrorism Act
  • Founder: ‘We’re a force to be reckoned with when we act together’
Updated 11 July 2025
Arab News

LONDON: Palestine Action supporters say they will make the ban on the group “unenforceable” after it was proscribed as a terrorist organization by the UK government. 

On Thursday, the group’s founder Huda Ammori, 31, encouraged over 200 people in a Zoom meeting to protest the move this weekend in London and elsewhere, The Times reported on Friday.

“My faith in people like you all is at an all-time high,” she said. “We’re a force to be reckoned with when we act together.

“The most effective route is through actions like the ones Defend Our Juries are leading the way on, in terms of making this ban unenforceable.”

Defend Our Juries is a group originally set up to convince juries not to convict climate activists engaged in disruptive behavior in the UK.

In the Zoom meeting attended by Ammori, a Defend Our Juries member encouraged people to be arrested, saying the police take “a soft approach” to conscientious protests.

“People will be thinking, ‘is that the end of it, has that repression worked to silence us?’ Imagine if it’s the opposite effect and there are double (the number) of us in Parliament Square on Saturday, and there are similar actions in Cardiff and Manchester,” the Defend Our Juries member said.

The call to protest comes a week after 29 demonstrators were arrested for supporting Palestine Action with placards in Westminster, including an elderly female Church of England priest.

“The Met (Police) commissioner has now got an excruciating dilemma. He was being hauled over the coals for wasting public money, for arresting an 83-year-old priest with a sign opposing genocide,” the Defend Our Juries member said.

“He’s either got to double down on that, leaving him looking like he’s not listening, or he’s got to leave it be, which is to admit the law is mad and unenforceable. He’s got no good option. As long as we turn up in numbers, we expose this.”

Palestine Action was outlawed on July 5 after members of the group broke into a Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton and vandalized military aircraft. Under the terms of the ban, support for the group could lead to a 14-year prison sentence. 

Protesters, though, are using encrypted messaging platforms such as Signal to plan further demonstrations in other UK cities, The Times reported. 

Ammori, of Palestinian-Iraqi heritage, has backed the protests to cause major disruption in the UK court system if hundreds of people are arrested under the Terrorism Act.

The first of these, in London, will be held in Parliament Square on Saturday at 1 p.m., and attendees were told via Zoom that they would be provided with placards, solicitors’ information and prepared statements to read to police if arrested.

A nine-page document was also issued with instructions to communicate via burner phones and on what to do when arrested, including to “go floppy” when manhandled by police to “add to the visual drama of the action” of “civil resistance.”

Another activist with over 100 arrests to their name told the Zoom call: “The worst thing we can do is to be scared. We have to become active … You will find it wonderful to do, important to do.

“If any of you have been getting depressed about issues recently, it’s a great antidote to depression.”

Ammori will appear before the High Court on July 21 after a judicial review of the ban on Palestine Action was called, with moves to prevent its proscription rejected by the Court of Appeal.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Palestine Gaza Hamas UK Palestine Action

Related

Police officers monitor protesters holding a banner during a protest in support of pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action.
World
UK students could face jail over support for banned Palestine Action
UK lawmakers approve ban of Palestine Action as terrorist group
World
UK lawmakers approve ban of Palestine Action as terrorist group

UN warns of ‘chaotic’ Afghan refugee-return crisis and calls for urgent international action

UN warns of ‘chaotic’ Afghan refugee-return crisis and calls for urgent international action
Updated 11 July 2025
Follow

UN warns of ‘chaotic’ Afghan refugee-return crisis and calls for urgent international action

UN warns of ‘chaotic’ Afghan refugee-return crisis and calls for urgent international action
  • More than 40,000 people arriving from Iran each day, reaching a high of 50,000 on July 4, as more than 1.6m refugees return from there and Pakistan so far this year
  • ‘Handled with calm, foresight and compassion, returns can be a force for stability. Handled haphazardly, they will lead to instability, unrest and onward movements,’ agency says
Updated 11 July 2025
Ephrem Kossaify

NEW YORK CITY: With more than 1.6 million Afghans returning to their home country from Iran and Pakistan so far this year, the UN Refugee Agency warned on Thursday that the scale and intensity of the mass returns are creating a humanitarian emergency in a country already gripped by poverty, drought and insecurity.

Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, on Friday described the situation as “evolving and chaotic,” as he urged countries in the region and the wider international community to urgently commit resources, show restraint and coordinate their efforts to avoid further destabilization of Afghanistan and the region.

“We are calling for restraint, for resources, for dialogue and international cooperation,” he said.

“Handled with calm, foresight and compassion, returns can be a force for stability. Handled haphazardly, they will lead to instability, unrest and onward movements.”

According to UNHCR figures, more than 1.3 million people have returned from Iran alone since the start of this year, many of them under coercive or involuntary circumstances.

In recent days, arrivals at the Islam Qala crossing on the border with Iran have peaked at more than 40,000 people a day, with a high of 50,000 recorded on July 4.

Jamal warned that many of the returnees, often born abroad and unfamiliar with Afghanistan, arrive “tired, disoriented, brutalized and often in despair.” He raised particular concern about the fate of women and girls who arrive in a country where their fundamental rights are severely restricted.

Iran has signaled its intention to expel as many as 4 million Afghans, a move UNHCR predicts could double the number of returnees by the end of the year. Jamal said the agency is now preparing for up to 3 million arrivals this year. Afghanistan remains ill-equipped to absorb such large numbers.

“This is precarity layered upon poverty, on drought, on human-rights abuses, and on an unstable region,” Jamal said, citing a UN Development Programme report that found 70 percent of

Afghans live at subsistence levels, and a recent drought alert from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

UNHCR’s humanitarian response is severely underfunded, with just 28 percent of its operations financed so far this year. Jamal described agonizing decisions being made in the field, including reductions of food rations and other aid supplies: “Should we give one blanket instead of four to a family? One meal instead of three?”

Despite the strained resources, Jamal said the agency is still providing emergency food and water, shelter and transportation at reception centers, and working with partners such as UNICEF to address the needs of unaccompanied children, about 400 of whom were reportedly deported from Iran in just over two weeks.

Pressed on how the UN can support peace and development in a country where women face widespread discrimination, and access to education and healthcare is limited, Jamal acknowledged the severe challenges but defended the organization’s continued engagement.

“Yes, this is the worst country in the world for women’s rights,” he said. “Yet with adequate funding, the UN is able to reach women. We’ve built women-only markets, trained midwives, and supported women entrepreneurs.

“We must invest in the people of Afghanistan, even in these grim circumstances.”

He added that the Taliban, despite their own restrictions and resource constraints, have so far welcomed the returnees and facilitated UN operations at the border.

UNHCR is now appealing for a coordinated regional strategy and renewed donor support. Jamal highlighted positive examples of regional cooperation, such as trade initiatives by Uzbekistan, as potential models for this.

He also welcomed a recent UN General Assembly resolution calling for the voluntary, safe and dignified return of refugees, and increased international collaboration on the issue.

“Billions have been wasted on war,” he said. “Now is the time to invest in peace.”

Topics: Afghanistan Taliban UN

Related

The ICC on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity. video
World
ICC seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women
UN adopts resolution on Afghanistan’s Taliban rule over US objections
World
UN adopts resolution on Afghanistan’s Taliban rule over US objections

Latest updates

Authorities say about 200 immigrants were arrested in raids on 2 Southern California farms
Authorities say about 200 immigrants were arrested in raids on 2 Southern California farms
State Department lays off over 1,300 employees under Trump administration plan
State Department lays off over 1,300 employees under Trump administration plan
PSG’s success lies in team ethic, not individual stars, says manager Luis Enrique
PSG’s success lies in team ethic, not individual stars, says manager Luis Enrique
‘All our crew are Muslim,’ fearful Red Sea ships tell Houthis
‘All our crew are Muslim,’ fearful Red Sea ships tell Houthis
Tunisian jailed after refusing to watch president on TV: lawyer
Tunisian jailed after refusing to watch president on TV: lawyer

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.