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AFGHANISTAN

Norway cuts Afghan aid in protest at graft

Norway will cut its aid to Afghanistan in 2014 due to a lack of progress on women's rights and efforts to combat corruption, a senior Norwegian official said on Friday.

Published: 4 October 2013 21:43 CEST
Norway cuts Afghan aid in protest at graft
Aghan President Hamid Karzai - NATO
Norway's aid will be slashed from an annual 750 million kroner (92.3 million euros, $126 million) to 700 million kroner, a reduction of about seven
percent.
   
"We warned Afghan authorities in July that the consequences (of the reform delays) could be a reduction (in aid), and now this is coming," Deputy Foreign
Minister Torgeir Larsen told daily Aftenposten.
   
A member of Norway's outgoing government that lost September 9 general elections, Larsen said the exact details of the aid cut would be outlined in
the 2014 budget his government is scheduled to present on October 14 — its last task before leaving office a few days later. The decision is not expected to be contested by the incoming government. 
 
A new report from the Norwegian embassy in Kabul quoted by Aftenposten said 87 percent of Afghan girls and women have been subjected to some form of violence and 70 percent of policewomen have been harassed or sexually assaulted by their superiors.
   
According to a recent ranking by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International, Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries
in the world.

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AFGHANISTAN

Spain starts evacuating Afghan employees via Pakistan

Spain was on Monday evacuating via Pakistan Afghan helpers left behind when western forces quit Kabul, a government source confirmed on condition of anonymity.

Published: 11 October 2021 15:58 CEST
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)

The government source declined to give any details of the move, citing security concerns.

But Spanish media, including daily El País and National Radio, reported that Madrid would bring close to 250 Afghan citizens, who had already crossed into Pakistan and would be flown out on military transport planes.

The first flight was expected to arrive on Monday evening.

Spain’s evacuations have been weeks in the making, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares visiting Pakistan and Qatar in early September to lay the groundwork.

Madrid evacuated over 2,000 people, most of them Afghans who had worked for Spain and their families, during the western withdrawal as the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August.

But the flights had to stop once the final American troops that had been protecting the Afghan capital’s airport left.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in August that Spain would not “lose interest in the Afghans who had remained” in their country but wanted to leave.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, on Friday urged the bloc’s member states to host a “minimum” of between 10,000 and 20,000 more Afghan refugees.

“To welcome them, we have to evacuate them, and we’re getting down to it, but it’s not easy,” he said in Madrid.

The EU has said a demand by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to take in 42,500 Afghan refugees over five years can be achieved — although any decision lies with member states.

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