KABUL: Sustained power cuts from Iran have badly affected everyday life in Afghanistan’s western Herat province, where traders have lost millions of dollars as a result, Afghan officials said on Saturday.
An Afghan delegation was set to travel on Saturday to Iran to discuss the power shedding which began more than 10 days ago. Iranian officials cited growing warm weather as the reason, saying the country has also cut exports of electricity to Pakistan and Iraq.
Total power imports from Iran for Herat and Nimroz stand at 100 megawatts.
Herat, the second largest city in Afghanistan with an industrial park consisting of scores of factories, has taken the brunt of the power cuts, according Ahmad Khadem, an official for the chambers of commerce.
The Afghan officials described the load shedding as a violation of the agreement struck with Iran.
“People have been suffering a lot. People in Herat and Nimroz are facing lots of problems from production. Poultry and other businesses have lost millions,” said Wahidullah Tawhidi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s national power company.
Jailani Farhad, a spokesman for Herat’s governor, told Arab News that local authorities have activated two tribunes of Salma Dam in Herat to cover part of the load shedding.
Afghanistan relies on imports of power from Central Asia and Iran.
Years of low rain and snowfall have led to a drought in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan where temperatures have risen in recent months, pushing the need for electricity in the summer hot season in the region.
Power cuts from Iran: Afghan traders lose millions of dollars
Power cuts from Iran: Afghan traders lose millions of dollars
- Years of low rain and snowfall have led to a drought in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan where temperatures have risen in recent months
- People in Herat and Nimroz are facing lots of problems from production
UK interior minister insists asylum reforms ‘fair’ amid blowback
- Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders
- Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow”
LONDON: Britain’s interior minister doubled down Thursday on her tough stance on immigration despite criticism from charities and unease within the ruling Labour party that it is shedding left-wing voters.
Shabana Mahmood announced that asylum seekers who break the law or work illegally will be thrown out of government-funded accommodation and lose their support payments.
The policy forms part of a major overhaul of migration rules announced late last year and modelled on Denmark’s strict asylum system that aims to slash irregular migration to the UK.
Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders and that her overhaul of the asylum was “firm but fair,” adding she would open new and safe legal routes.
But Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow” that “risks forcing people into destitution, homelessness and exploitation while they wait for their claims to be decided.”
Mahmood’s reforms are widely seen as an attempt to stem support for the hard-right Reform UK party, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage.
It has topped opinion polls for a year, in part because of the government’s failure to stop thousands of migrants from arriving in England from northern France on small boats.
But her stance has also been credited with contributing to Labour losing support to the progressive Green party, which won a local election in a traditional Labour heartland last week.
Mahmood said there was a middle path between Farage’s “nightmare pulling up the drawbridge and shutting out the world” and Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s “fairy tale of open borders.”
Her reform that makes refugee status temporary, including for accompanied children, came into force this week.
The status will be reviewed every 30 months, with refugees forced to return to their home countries once those are deemed safe.
They will also need to wait for 20 years, instead of the current five, before they can apply for permanent residency.
She also announced earlier this week that the government would stop issuing education visas to nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan.
It said there had been a surge in asylum applications by students from those countries and almost 135,000 asylum seekers in total had entered the UK using legal routes since 2021.
