BOSTON: Haseena Niazi had pinned her hopes of getting her fiancé out of Afghanistan on a rarely used immigration provision.
The 24-year-old Massachusetts resident was almost certain his application for humanitarian parole would get approved by the US government, considering the evidence he provided on the threats from the Taliban he received while working on women’s health issues at a hospital near Kabul.
But this month, the request was summarily denied, leaving the couple reeling after months of anxiety.
“He had everything they wanted,” said Niazi, a green card holder originally from Afghanistan. “It doesn’t make any sense why they’d reject it. It’s like a bad dream. I still can’t believe it.”
Federal immigration officials have issued denial letters to hundreds of Afghans seeking temporary entry into the country for humanitarian reasons in recent weeks, to the dismay of Afghans and their supporters. By doing so, immigrant advocates say, the Biden administration has failed to honor its promise to help Afghans who were left behind after the US military withdrew from the country in August and the Taliban took control.
“It was a huge disappointment,” said Caitlin Rowe, a Texas attorney who said she recently received five denials, including one for an Afghan police officer who helped train US troops and was beaten by the Taliban. “These are vulnerable people who genuinely thought there was hope, and I don’t think there was.”
Since the US withdrawal, US Citizenship and Immigration Services has received more than 35,000 applications for humanitarian parole, of which it has denied about 470 and conditionally approved more than 140, Victoria Palmer, an agency spokesperson, said this week.
The little-known program, which doesn’t provide a path to lawful permanent residence in the country, typically receives fewer than 2,000 requests annually from all nationalities, of which USCIS approves an average of about 500, she said.
Palmer also stressed humanitarian parole is generally reserved for extreme emergencies and not intended to replace the refugee admissions process, “which is the typical pathway for individuals outside of the United States who have fled their country of origin and are seeking protection.”
The US government, meanwhile, continues to help vulnerable Afghans, evacuating more than 900 American citizens and residents and another 2,200 Afghans since the military withdrawal. The state department said it expects to help resettle as many as 95,000 people from Afghanistan this fiscal year, a process that includes rigorous background checks and vaccinations.
Many of them, however, had been whisked out of Afghanistan before the US left. Now, USCIS is tasked with this new wave of humanitarian parole applications and has ramped up staffing to consider them.
The agency said in a statement that requests are reviewed on an individual basis, with consideration given to immediate relatives of Americans and Afghans airlifted out.
And while USCIS stressed that parole shouldn’t replace refugee processing, immigrant advocates argue that isn’t a viable option for Afghans stuck in their country due to a disability or hiding from the Taliban. Even those able to get out of Afghanistan, they say, may be forced to wait years in refugee camps, which isn’t something many can afford to do.
Mohammad, who asked that his last name not be used out of fear for his family’s safety, said his elder brother, who used to work for international organizations, is among them. He has been in hiding since the Taliban came looking for him following the US withdrawal, Mohammad said.
On a recent visit to the family home, Taliban members took his younger brother instead and held him more than a week for ransom, he said. Now, Mohammad, a former translator for US troops in Afghanistan who lives in California with a special immigration status, is seeking parole for this brother, too. He hopes a conditional approval letter can get them a spot on one of the US evacuation flights still running out of the country.
“I can provide him housing. I can provide him everything,” he said. “Let them come here.”
Immigrant advocates began filing humanitarian parole applications for Afghans in August in a last-ditch effort to get them on US evacuation flights out of the country before the withdrawal.
In some cases, it worked, and word spread among immigration attorneys that parole, while typically used in extreme emergencies, might be a way out, said Kyra Lilien, director of immigration legal services at Jewish Family & Community Services in California’s East Bay.
Soon, attorneys began filing thousands of parole applications for Afghans.
When the US immigration agency created a website specifically to address these applications, Lilien said she thought it was a sign of hope. By November, however, the agency had posted a list of narrow criteria for Afghan applicants and held a webinar telling attorneys that parole is typically granted only if there’s evidence someone faces “imminent severe harm.”
A few weeks later, the denial letters began arriving. Lilien has received more than a dozen but no approvals.
“Once the US packed up and left, anyone who was left behind has only one choice, and that is to pursue this archaic refugee channel,” she said. “It is just so angering that it took USCIS so long to be clear about that.”
Wogai Mohmand, an attorney who helps lead the Afghan-focused Project ANAR, said that the group has filed thousands of applications and that since the US troop withdrawal, has seen only denials.
The despair has led some immigration attorneys to give up on filing parole applications altogether. In Massachusetts, the International Institute of New England is holding off filing new applications until it hears on those that are pending after receiving a flurry of denials.
Chiara St. Pierre, an attorney for the refugee resettlement agency, said she feels clients like Niazi are facing an “unwinnable” battle.
For Niazi’s fiancé, they had provided copies of written threats sent to the hospital where he works as a medical technician and threatening text messages he said came from Taliban members, she said. It wasn’t enough.
A redacted copy of the denial letter provided by St. Pierre lists the USCIS criteria released in November but doesn’t specify why the agency rejected the application, which had been filed in August.
For now, Niazi says her fiancé is living and working far from Kabul as they weigh their options. They could potentially wait until Niazi becomes an American citizen so she can try to bring him here on a fiancé visa, but that would take years.
“He can’t wait that long. It’s a miracle every day that he’s alive,” Niazi said. “I’m feeling like every door is closing in on him.”
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Taxin reported from Orange County, California.
Hundreds of Afghans denied humanitarian entry into US
https://arab.news/66y52
Hundreds of Afghans denied humanitarian entry into US
- Federal immigration officials have issued denial letters to hundreds of Afghans seeking temporary entry into the country for humanitarian reasons in recent weeks
- The despair has led some immigration attorneys to give up on filing parole applications altogether
Zelensky calls for more pressure on Russia after deadly Kyiv missile strike
He thanked Ukraine’s partners who he said are ready to pressure Russia to “feel the real cost of the war”
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said a Russian missile strike on a nine-story Kyiv apartment building was a sign that more pressure must be applied on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, as Moscow intensifies attacks in the three-year war.
The drone and missile attack on Kyiv early on Tuesday, the deadliest assault on the capital this year, killed 28 people across the city and injured 142 more, Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said on Thursday.
Zelensky, along with the head of the presidential office Andrii Yermak and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, visited the site of the apartment building in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district Thursday morning, laying flowers and paying tribute to the 23 people who died there after a direct hit by a missile collapsed the structure.
“This attack is a reminder to the world that Russia rejects a ceasefire and chooses killing,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, and thanked Ukraine’s partners who he said are ready to pressure Russia to “feel the real cost of the war.”
Intensifying attacks
Tuesday’s attack on Kyiv was part of a sweeping barrage as Russia once again sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles in what Zelensky called one of the biggest bombardments of the war, now in its fourth year.
As Russia proceeds with a summer offensive on parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, US-led peace efforts have failed to gain traction. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected an offer from US President Donald Trump for an immediate 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt on Ukraine’s mobilization effort and a freeze on Western arms supplies.
Meanwhile, Middle East tensions and US trade tariffs have drawn world attention away from Ukraine’s pleas for more diplomatic and economic pressure to be placed on Moscow.
Russia in recent weeks has intensified long-range attacks that have struck urban residential areas. Yet on Wednesday, Putin denied that his military had struck such targets, saying that attacks were “against military industries, not residential quarters.”
Speaking to senior news leaders of international news agencies in St. Petersburg, Putin said he was open to talks with Zelensky, but repeated his claim that the Ukrainian leader had lost his legitimacy after his term expired last year — allegations rejected by Kyiv and its allies.
“We are ready for substantive talks on the principles of a settlement,” Putin said, noting that a previous round of talks in Istanbul had led to an exchange of prisoners and the bodies of fallen soldiers.
Denmark to push for Ukraine’s EU membership during presidency
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has strongly opposed providing NATO military and EU aid to Ukraine
- Ukraine had already initiated the necessary reforms
COPENHAGEN: Denmark will continue preparing Ukraine for EU membership in the face of Hungary blocking negotiations, when the Nordic country takes over the presidency of the European Council from July 1, its European affairs minister said on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, Hungary is blocking and we are trying to put as much pressure there as we can and also do everything we can to make Ukraine continue with the necessary reform work,” European affairs minister Marie Bjerre told a press conference in Copenhagen.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has strongly opposed providing NATO military and EU aid to Ukraine, saying the country’s EU membership would destroy Hungarian farmers and the wider economy.
Ukraine had already initiated the necessary reforms and is ready to speed up the negotiations.
“When we get to the point where we can actually open the specific negotiation chapters, we can be ready to close them very quickly,” Bjerre said.
Denmark will also seek to reach agreement among EU nations on the bloc’s planned 2040 climate goals.
The European Commission plans to propose in July a legally binding target to cut EU countries’ emissions by 90 percent by 2040, from 1990 levels.
Faced with pushback from governments, however, Brussels is assessing options including setting a lower target for domestic industries, and using international carbon credits to make up the gap to 90 percent.
Ukraine fears being sidelined by Iran-Israel war
- Kyiv has welcomed Israeli attacks on a country which has directly aided and provided weapons to Moscow for its own strikes on Ukraine
- The possibility of weaker support and attention from Washington, however, concerns Kyiv
KYIV: Fighting between Iran and Israel could deflect global attention from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and even bolster Kremlin’s war effort, Ukrainian officials say.
Israel launched a massive bombing campaign on Iran last week that prompted Tehran — a close ally of Russia — to strike back with missiles and drones.
The conflict has pushed up the price of oil — a key revenue stream funding Russia’s invasion.
“For Ukraine, the challenge is the price of oil, because if prices remain high for a long time, the Russians will earn more,” a senior Ukrainian political source told AFP.
However, Kyiv has welcomed Israeli attacks on a country which has directly aided and provided weapons to Moscow for its own strikes on Ukraine.
The campaign has left several high-ranking Iranian military officials dead and put pressure on Tehran’s military capacity that is likely to limit the practical support it can provide to Russia.
“The Iranian regime is Russia’s ally, so the more they lose, the better,” the Ukrainian source said.
“Overall, Israel is doing the whole world a favor. That is a fact,” the source added.
The possibility of weaker support and attention from Washington, however, concerns Kyiv.
The administration of US President Donald Trump, Israel’s closest ally, has made clear that its security priorities are the Middle East and Asia, with Europe lower on the list.
This could mean further Russian advances on the battlefield or deadly aerial attacks will meet with a muted reaction from a White House that already sees the Ukraine conflict mainly as a European problem.
Kyiv’s efforts to lobby for more support from Washington have been complicated by tense relations between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader.
Zelensky recently told journalists that Trump was “obsessed with Iran” and conceded that its bombing campaign with Israel spelt risks for Kyiv.
“No one is claiming to have a relationship more important than America and Israel, but we would like to see the aid to Ukraine would not be reduced because of this,” he said.
He referred to Israel’s war in Gaza that was sparked by a deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas, as a precedent for this.
“It was a factor that slowed down assistance to Ukraine,” he added.
In an interview with US media, the Ukrainian leader said at the beginning of this month that Washington could send “20,000” missiles needed by for Ukraine to shoot down Russian drones to the Middle East instead.
Senior officials in Zelensky’s office told AFP after the outbreak of the war in Gaza that it had spurred Ukraine to focus to developing its own arms industry.
Russia has rained down thousands of drones and missiles on Ukraine since it launched its full-scale invasion early in 2022, including Iranian-made and designed projectiles.
Israel has claimed to have attacked production sites in Iran, which has also launched silos of missiles at Israel that now cannot be sent to Russia for attacks on Ukraine.
“Let’s hope that the corresponding production or transfer (of weapons) to the Russians will decrease. This helps Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
The British defense ministry said Iran’s supply of weapons to Russia could slow as a result of Tehran’s war with Israel.
But it said global focus on the Middle East could overall help Moscow.
“Russia almost certainly perceives some benefit in the conflict as it distracts international focus from its war against Ukraine,” it said on social media.
Moscow also produces its own drones and missiles, and has received projectiles from North Korea.
Ukrainian military analyst and blogger Sergiy Sternenko was among voices to issue caution against celebrating the attacks on Iran.
“Do not rush to get too excited about the strikes on Iran. Of course, Iran is our enemy, and we wish these pigs the worst. But fighting in the Middle East will inevitably lead to higher oil prices,” he wrote.
South Africa declares national disaster as flooding death toll rises to 92
- At least two school children who were washed away in a bus are among the unverified number of missing persons
- Authorities have appealed for residents to report missing people
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa was under a declared state of national disaster on Thursday as the death toll from floods caused by severe rains in the Eastern Cape region rose to 92.
The Eastern Cape government honored the victims of last week’s floods with a provincial Day of Mourning and a memorial service at King Sabatha Dalindyebo Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College in Mthatha, one of the few schools whose infrastructure remained intact.
Speaking at the public memorial service, Zolile Williams, a member of the executive council, said the people of the coastal province have not been the same since the disaster hit, and many are now faced with the challenging task of rebuilding.
“Since June 9, this province has been hit hard by unprecedented, catastrophic and unimaginable disasters, where in the whole of the province, about 92 people have perished,” said Williams.
“Since that day, the Eastern Cape has not been the same. It is the first time we have experienced so many dead bodies, some of whom have not yet been found.”
An extreme weather front brought heavy rain, strong winds and snow to parts of the province caused flooding in one of South Africa’s poorest provinces last week, leaving dozens dead and roads, houses, schools and other infrastructure damaged.
At least two school children who were washed away in a bus are among the unverified number of missing persons according to local media reports, while thousands have since been displaced.
Authorities have appealed for residents to report missing people so rescuers could better understand how many people they were still looking for.
Religious leaders from different Christian religions were among the hundreds of mourners who attended the memorial ceremony, lighting candles as a symbolic expression of remembering the 92 people who died in the floods.
In a government notice on Wednesday, Elias Sithole, director of the National Disaster Management Center, said severe weather had caused property damage. and the disruption of vital services in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape, and the Free State, which prompted South Africa to declare a national state of disaster.
The declaration allows the government to release funding for relief and rehabilitation and will remain in place until it lapses or until the conditions can no longer be categorized as such and is revoked by the head of the center.
President Cyril Ramaphosa recently visited the town of Mthatha, in Eastern Cape province, where the floods hit hardest.
Many of the Eastern Cape flood victims lived on floodplains close to rivers. Government officials said poor neighborhoods with informal dwellings were most severely impacted. Authorities have been criticized for the rescue response but also for the state of the infrastructure in the area.
Russia warns strike on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant could cause ‘Chernobyl-style catastrophe’
- An Israeli military spokesperson said Israel had struck the site, but an Israeli military official later called this statement “a mistake“
- Bushehr is Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant and was built by Russia
ST PETERSBURG: The head of Russia’s nuclear energy corporation warned on Thursday that an Israeli attack on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant could lead to a “Chernobyl-style catastrophe.”
An Israeli military spokesperson said Israel had struck the site, but an Israeli military official later called this statement “a mistake” and said he could neither confirm nor deny that the Bushehr site on the cost of the Gulf had been hit.
Bushehr is Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant and was built by Russia.
President Vladimir Putin told journalists in the early hours of Thursday that Israel had promised Russia that Moscow’s workers — who are building more nuclear facilities at the Bushehr site — would be safe, even as Israel tries to degrade Iran’s nuclear capabilities by force.
The head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom warned on Thursday that the situation around the plant was fraught with risk.
“If there is a strike on the operational first power unit, it will be a catastrophe comparable to Chernobyl,” the state RIA news agency cited Alexei Likhachev as saying.
Likhachev was referring to the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, when a reactor exploded at Chernobyl in Soviet Ukraine.
An attack on Bushehr would be “beyond... evil,” Likhachev added.
Russia has evacuated some of its specialists from Bushehr, he said, but the core workforce — which Putin said numbered hundreds of people — remained on site.
“We are prepared for any scenario, including the rapid evacuation of all our employees,” RIA cited Likhachev as saying.
’GOD FORBID’
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Israeli attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities were unacceptable and illegal.
“We are especially concerned about the safety of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, in whose operation Russian specialists are involved,” she told reporters.
“We would like to especially warn Washington against military intervention in the situation, which would be an extremely dangerous step with truly unpredictable negative consequences,” Zakharova added, underlining a warning that Moscow first issued on Wednesday.
Putin, in his comments early on Thursday, was defensive when asked what more Moscow would do to help Tehran. He said it had not asked for military assistance, that ties were strong, and that the continued presence of Russian workers building more nuclear facilities at Bushehr showed Russia’s support for Iran.
But Putin also stressed the importance of Russia’s ties with Israel — even though he later condemned its behavior in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping — and said he believed a diplomatic solution that would satisfy Israel’s concerns about its own security and Iran could be found.
Russia signed a strategic partnership with Iran in January and also has a relationship with Israel, although that has been strained by Moscow’s war in Ukraine. A Russian offer to mediate in the Israel-Iran conflict has so far not been taken up.
Mikhail Bogdanov, another Russian deputy foreign minister, recoiled on Thursday when asked by Reuters about the possibility of the US joining Israel’s war with Iran.
“God forbid, the consequences would be hard to predict,” he said.
