KYIV: Foreign soldiers captured by Ukraine said they traveled to escape poverty from homes in Asia, the Caribbean and Africa but were tricked into fighting for Russia on the front lines.
Speaking at a recent press event organized by Ukrainian officials, eight prisoners of war from Cuba, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Somalia said they were lured with promises of high wages, non-frontline roles or simply tricked.
Organizers defined the men as “mercenaries” from the “global South” and said they were treating them the same as Russian POWs.
While the men said they spoke of their own free will, they were escorted by masked guards who listened as they spoke to journalists.
The Geneva Convention says POWs should be protected from “public curiosity.”
AFP did not question the men separately and chose not to name them, although organizers did.
A 35-year-old Cuban man with dreadlocks said he had responded to a Facebook post offering construction work in Russia.
“I didn’t think I was coming to the war,” he said.
A man from Sierra Leone wiped away tears, saying he had paid a recruiter and flown to Russia for a “good job” to support his large family but had not wanted to join the military.
The security guard said he only realized after signing Russian-language paperwork that he had joined the army.
Petro Yatsenko, spokesman for a Ukrainian office responsible for prisoners of war, said Russia was seeking to recruit from very low-income countries.
“When the Russians offer such people $2,000 a month and say that they will actually be used as bodyguards or on the third line from the front, they are very tempted,” he told AFP.
Russia has turned to foreign fighters after running low on mercenaries from the Wagner group and ex-prisoners, Yatsenko said.
“The percentage of mercenaries is growing” as “Russia’s mobilization resource is declining,” he said.
Some of the prisoners in Kyiv said they willingly joined the army but did not expect to be sent to the front.
Some said they were told they would be “helpers” for first aid and logistics.
A young Somalian man with cropped hair said he had joined up to give his family a “good future.”
But “I didn’t know that I would be in the first line,” he said.
“I was just dropped there without... knowing the language.”
A 32-year-old man from Nepal said he had watched TikTok videos about Nepalis joining the army, saying his motivation was “of course about the money.”
One man said he was paid 250,000 rubles ($2,720) a month, while another said his promised salary was $2,000.
AFP reporters in India and Nepal have investigated such recruitment, finding it is often done through informal intermediaries and promotional videos posted on social media.
Applicants lacking military experience are initially told they will receive non-combatant roles and the option of permanent residence.
But in reality they receive basic weapons training and are deployed to the front line.
Nepal has said five of its citizens are prisoners of war in Ukraine and at least 12 have been killed. It has banned citizens from working in Russia or Ukraine and asked Russia to return recruits.
The only prisoner in Kyiv to speak basic Russian was a 24-year-old Nepali with hands so scarred by war-inflicted burns that he struggled to hold a pen.
He said he was studying and working in Russia when he spotted recruitment posters, expecting to become a “security guard or something like that.”
“I don’t know what to do, how to shoot,” he said.
Yatsenko urged countries to act to stop such people being “duped by recruiters who promise them mountains of gold.”
Ukraine is currently holding foreigners in the same detention centers and treating them the same as Russian POWs.
“They were captured on the front line... in military uniform, with weapons. And whether they are mercenaries will be decided by the court,” Yatsenko told AFP.
“We are interested to pass them to their homelands,” he added, however.
Foreign POWs say tricked into fighting for Russia
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Foreign POWs say tricked into fighting for Russia
- Organizers defined the men as “mercenaries” from the “global South” and said they were treating them the same as Russian POWs
- The Geneva Convention says POWs should be protected from “public curiosity”
Thousands of Afghans depart Pakistan under repatriation pressure
- Thousands of Afghans have crossed the border from Pakistan in recent days as Islamabad ramped up pressure for them to return to Afghanistan
- Families with their belongings in tow lined up at the key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan: Thousands of Afghans have crossed the border from Pakistan in recent days, the United Nations and Taliban officials said, as Islamabad ramped up pressure for them to return to Afghanistan.
Pakistan last month set an early April deadline for some 800,000 Afghans carrying Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by Pakistan authorities to leave the country, another phase in Islamabad’s campaign in recent years to repatriate Afghans.
Families with their belongings in tow lined up at the key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south, recalling similar scenes in 2023 when tens of thousands of Afghans fled deportation threats in Pakistan.
“In the last 2 days, 8,025 undocumented & ACC holders returned via Torkham & Spin Boldak crossings,” the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a post on social media platform X on Monday.
“IOM stands ready to scale up its response at key border points with forced returns expected to surge in the coming days,” it said.
Taliban officials also said thousands of people had crossed the border, but at lower rates than the IOM reported.
Refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutalib Haqqani told AFP that 6,000-7,000 Afghans had returned since the start of April, saying “more than a million Afghans might return.”
“We are urging Pakistan authorities not to deport them (Afghans) forcefully — there should be a proper mechanism with an agreement between both countries, and they must be returned with dignity,” he said.
Fleeing successive conflicts
The UN says nearly three million Afghans live in Pakistan, many having lived there for decades after fleeing successive conflicts in their country and after the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021.
“We were forced to return. Two days ago I was stopped and asked for documentation when they were searching houses,” 38-year-old Abdul Rahman told AFP after passing the Spin Boldak crossing with his family from Quetta, in Pakistan’s southwest, where they lived for six years.
“They didn’t even gave me an hour (to leave), I sold a carpet and my phone to make some money to come here, all my other belongings we left behind,” he said.
Human rights activists have been reporting for months the harassment and extortion of Afghans in Pakistan, a country mired in political and economic chaos.
More than 1.3 million Afghans who hold Proof of Registration cards from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, have also been told to move outside the capital Islamabad and the neighboring city of Rawalpindi.
Human Rights Watch has slammed “abusive tactics” used to pressure Afghans to return to their country, “where they risk persecution by the Taliban and face dire economic conditions.”
Ties between the neighboring countries have frayed since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s rulers of failing to root out militants sheltering on its soil, a charge that the Taliban government denies, as Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in violence in border regions with Afghanistan.
Ex-detainees at UK asylum center bring claim against govt
- Inspector was ‘rendered speechless’ after seeing conditions at Manston site
- Syrian woman suffered miscarriage, Sudanese man allowed to shower once in 33 days
LONDON: At least 250 asylum-seekers detained at a UK facility are suing the government for unlawful detention after it emerged that the site was dangerously overcrowded and faced infectious disease outbreaks.
Manston asylum center in Kent, used by the Home Office to process people who had crossed the English Channel on small boats, was once described by a union official as a “humanitarian crisis on British soil,” The Guardian reported on Monday.
David Neal, the former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said he was “rendered speechless” after seeing conditions at Manston.
Andy Baxter, a senior official at the Prison Officers’ Association, also condemned conditions at the site after being warned by union members working there.
He described Manston as closely resembling a refugee camp in an unstable country after visiting the site, which he said was “in crisis.”
Marquees that were intended to be used for hours upon the arrival of asylum-seekers had been used for more than a month, despite the Home Office planning to relocate arrivals to more permanent accommodation. People slept on the ground using pieces of cardboard, he added.
Manston also faced diphtheria and scabies outbreaks, with one man dying after contracting the former, a rarity in the UK due to vaccination. Kent Police also investigated claims that guards at the facility had assaulted asylum-seekers.
One of the claimants against the government, a 19-year-old Sudanese national, was detained at the site for 33 days, and his past experience of being tortured and trafficked was never recorded by officials at Manston.
While at the facility, he was “often hungry” and was allowed one shower during the 33-day period.
He was also denied a change of clothes, and was told by officials to “go back to your country.”
A 17-year-old Kurd from Iraq, detained for 12 days, had his birth date recorded as five years older than his real age, despite telling officials he was a child.
A Syrian woman who arrived in the UK with her husband and five children outlined the troubling details of her ordeal in the claim.
Her husband was removed to a separate immigration center after complaining about conditions at Manston, yet she was not informed about his whereabouts and feared he had been deported.
The woman and her children spent 11 days in a freezing, dirty tent, and were only permitted to leave to go to the toilet.
Her children contracted a stomach bug that was circulating at the site, and she had nowhere to wash their vomit-stained clothes.
She later discovered that she was pregnant after suffering morning sickness, and was unable to access medical care in Manston.
After being released and seeking treatment, she discovered that she had suffered a miscarriage.
She has now reunited with her husband together with their children, but said the experience at Manston continues to affect the family.
Emily Soothill of law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn, who is representing some of the claimants, said: “We consider that our clients were falsely imprisoned and that the conditions in Manston were such that their human rights were breached.
“People seeking asylum are more vulnerable to physical and mental illness; they have the right to be treated with dignity and should not be detained in this way.”
Son of elderly British couple held by Taliban asks for US help
- Peter, Barbie Reynolds have been jailed for 9 weeks despite having ‘never heard one accusation or one charge’
- Couple have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years running education, training programs for locals
LONDON: The son of a British couple currently detained in Afghanistan has asked the US for assistance in obtaining their release, saying they have “never heard one accusation or one charge.”
Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife Barbie, 75, who have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, were arrested on Feb. 1 by the Taliban in Bamiyan province over what they believed was a flight permit issue.
However, despite being initially told it was a minor problem and that they would be released, the pair, along with Chinese-American friend Faye Hall and their translator, had their phones confiscated and were later transferred to a Kabul jail by the Interior Ministry.
Their son Jonathan Reynolds, who lives in Chicago, told Sky News that the pair and their family had not been given an explanation by the authorities for their nine-week detention.
“Originally they (authorities) said they didn’t have the right paperwork to have a chartered plane, which was incorrect and it was all produced,” he said.
“They took a short flight (to Bamiyan from Kabul) to pick up a Chinese-American friend who has visited multiple times,” he added.
“I believe there have been 29 investigative interviews with staff members — people they have served and supported — and everything has come up as no credible charges.”
In February, the Taliban said the pair were arrested because it was believed their Afghan passports were fake.
Peter Reynolds has said he was told books “against Islam” had been confiscated at their house in Afghanistan, but officials had not followed up on these claims.
“They’ve been in and out of court, which is infuriating for them because there’s no charges and they are told every single time: yes, they are innocent, it’s just a formality, we’ve made a mistake,” Jonathan Reynolds said.
In February, the BBC reported that a Taliban official had said the government was keen for the couple to be released.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani was quoted by The Independent as having said: “A series of considerations is being taken into account, and after evaluation, we will endeavor to release them as soon as possible.”
Hall was released on March 29 after bounties placed on the heads of various Taliban figures, including the interior minister, were dropped by the US. The Taliban said her release was “a goodwill gesture.”
Peter Reynolds told the BBC: “Anybody who has the ability to unlock that key and let them out, whether it be the Taliban, whether it be the British government or whether it be the American government, I would ask — do it now, please.”
The family previously appealed to the Taliban to show clemency for Eid Al-Fitr, when the regime handed out amnesties to several thousand detainees in its prisons.
The couple, who married in Kabul in 1970, run the Rebuild organization, which provides training and educational programs for local people.
“I think anyone who goes in their 60s and 70s to live and become Afghan citizens is probably not naive to the dangers of it,” Jonathan Reynolds told Sky.
“If they wanted to live a quiet, retired life and be around their grandkids they could have done that.
“They are under a deep conviction from back in the late 60s when they married in Afghanistan in 1970 that they were going to give their life for a bright future for Afghanistan.”
He said he is extremely concerned for his parents’ welfare, especially as food and medicine are limited in the Taliban’s prison system.
EU and Qatari officials have been able to get essentials to the couple, who are being held separately, and Jonathan Reynolds expressed gratitude to Qatar for aiding his parents.
However, contact with them has been limited to the use of a pay phone in the jail — and the couple have had no direct contact with each other since being jailed.
French Middle East expert defiant despite pro-Palestinian protest
- Balanche was giving lecture to students last week when around 20 individuals shouting pro-Palestinian slogans accused him of racism
PARIS: A prominent French academic specializing in the Middle East Monday vowed to carry on teaching courses and file a complaint after pro-Palestinian protesters ejected him from his own lecture.
Fabrice Balanche, associate professor and research director at the University of Lyon 2 in southeastern France and a prominent expert on Iraq and Syria regularly quoted in international media, vowed “not to give into pressure.”
Balanche was giving lecture to students last week when around 20 individuals shouting pro-Palestinian slogans accused him of racism, and being too close to the ousted Bashar Assad regime in Syria, surged into the lecture theater.
“And then they surrounded me, started to insult me, calling me pro-Israeli, genocidal. And so when I heard that, I left the lecture hall. They tried to chase me, but fortunately, I had students who intervened,” he told RMC TV.
He said he would file a complaint but would resume teaching his course on Tuesday, albeit with a university security agent present.
“I plan to continue my classes normally,” he said, adding it was “out of the question” to even move the lectures to another campus of the university.
Balanche, who rose to prominence as a commentator on Syria during the country’s civil war, in this interview and other comments vehemently rejected having any bias in favor of the Assad regime, which Islamists ousted in late 2024.
France’s right-leaning government has leaped to his defense with Prime Minister Francois Bayrou denouncing “unacceptable pressure” against him in the incident on April 1, in an interview with Le Parisien published Saturday.
French authorities have said Balanche was targeted because he supported the university’s decision not to allow a fast-breaking Ramadan meal on its premises.
But a group calling itself Autonomes de Lyon 2 that claimed the action denied this, accusing him of “unacceptable positions on Palestine and Syria.”
France’s Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste has described the incident as “serious,” adding on his social media account that the judiciary and the university would “deal with these unacceptable acts with the utmost firmness.”
Gaza war driving Muslim ‘isolation’ in UK: MWL chief
- Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa: Integration a national security issue for Britain
- Poll finds growing divides between Muslims, non-Muslims nationwide
LONDON: The Gaza war is causing young British Muslims to become disillusioned and isolated, the head of the Muslim World League has said, urging the UK government to consider integration as a national security issue.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa told The Times that division between Muslims and non-Muslims has been “exacerbated” by the conflict, allowing extremism to develop on both sides.
“A political situation outside (the UK) should not interfere with integration inside,” he added, calling on both sides to focus on domestic issues of mutual concern.
Al-Issa previously warned that rising Islamophobia was a threat to peaceful coexistence in the UK.
The MWL is one of the most powerful Islamic organizations in the world, and in 2023 Al-Issa became the first prominent Muslim figure to be received by the UK’s King Charles at Buckingham Palace.
Al-Issa’s warning came amid new polling by the MWL that found stark differences in values and perceptions between Muslims and non-Muslims, especially among young people.
Younger Muslims in Britain are more isolated from mainstream politics and less likely to view integration as an important duty, the poll found, based on a sample size of more than 5,000 people including more than 450 Muslims.
Almost two-thirds of Muslims described their relationship with non-Muslims as “positive” or “mostly positive,” while less than a quarter of non-Muslims felt the same.
Only 5 percent of non-Muslims felt that religion should play a role in politics, compared to almost 20 percent of Muslims.
More than 70 percent of Muslims labeled increased diversity as “positive,” compared to about 40 percent of non-Muslims.
Less than 10 percent of Muslims aged 18-24 viewed the UK as a tolerant country, and said British concerns over Islam were illegitimate or based on sensationalist media reporting.
About half of the UK’s Muslim population is younger than 25, Al-Issa said, highlighting the importance of the poll and the effect of British foreign policy in the Middle East.
The MWL “believes that this distance creates divides and extremists — both Muslim and non-Muslim — flourish where there are divides,” he added, warning that both sides are “living separate lives.”
Al-Issa said: “Without integration there is isolation, fear of the other. That can cause a vacuum that the evildoers will try to fill.”
The MWL announced a £100,000 ($128,000) donation to develop a social fund that will build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain.
Integration must be at the heart of UK government policy or national security will be threatened, Al-Issa said.
“The problem of integration has been exacerbated by the conflict in Gaza and the politics in the Middle East,” he added.
The MWL “calls on Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK instead to focus on domestic issues where there are shared concerns, such as policy areas that unite rather than divide.”
