DUBAI: Hundreds of Afghans have launched a rare protest at a United Arab Emirates facility where they have been housed since fleeing their homeland last year, holding banners pleading for freedom and demanding to be sent to the United States to be resettled.
Thousands of Afghans were last year evacuated to the Gulf Arab state on behalf of the United States and other Western countries amid the chaotic US-led withdrawal from Afghanistan and return to power of the hard-line Islamist Taliban movement.
The UAE, a close US partner, agreed to provide Afghans with temporary housing as they waited to be resettled elsewhere.
Six months later, however, many are still in the UAE, living in tightly controlled facilities.
Protests started on Wednesday and continued on Thursday, two demonstrators told Reuters on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution from authorities for speaking out.
Videos sent to Reuters showed men, women and children calling on Washington to welcome them to their second home.
Similar videos and images were widely shared on social media.
The two protesters, one of whom shared the videos, said the rally was triggered by the persistent lack of information on when Afghans would be resettled.
One of those protesters told Reuters by phone that some Afghans were detained by Emirati authorities as demonstrations began.
The UAE government and the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi had no immediate comment on the protests.
Shawn VanDiver, a US Navy veteran and president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of volunteer groups, said the Afghans were understandably frustrated and that there was a shared, global responsibility of being open and honest with them.
“The coalition is going to do everything they can to hold the US government and others to clear, concize and accurate communications,” he said.
It is unclear how many Afghans are being housed in the UAE, which last September said it had evacuated 9,000 Afghan nations who were on their way third countries.
Advocates and protesters estimate there are 12,000 housed across two facilities in Abu Dhabi.
One of the protesters said conditions in the facilities were prison-like.
Two sources familiar with the process told Reuters the United States was prioritising those in Abu Dhabi who had visas or applications to go the United States but many there had neither.
A protest sign at one of the Abu Dhabi facilities read: “When we were evacuated, the (US) dept (department) of defense had the control of the (Kabul) airport. No-one came by themselves.”
Ahmad Mohibi, a former US counter-terrorism adviser in Afghanistan who has assisted those fleeing Afghanistan, said US flights carrying Afghans from the UAE stopped in November.
Some Afghans had threatened to go on a hunger strike in protest as they wait for resettlement, while a small group had asked to return to Afghanistan, he said.
“There is no transparency,” Mohibi said, criticizing the US resettlement process for the Afghans in the UAE facilities.
Afghan refugees in UAE protest at halt to US relocation process
https://arab.news/zfnq8
Afghan refugees in UAE protest at halt to US relocation process
- The UAE has agreed to provide temporary homes for thousands of Afghans evacuated last year when the Taliban seized power in their country
Backlash as Australia kills dingoes after backpacker death
- The euthanization program has stirred debate about how to manage the local population of dingoes
- Wildlife experts said killing the animals was the wrong response and may threaten the island’s dingo population
SYDNEY: Australian authorities have sparked a backlash by killing a group of dingoes linked to the death of a young Canadian woman on an island in the country’s east.
The Queensland government said six animals were put down after 19-year-old backpacker Piper James’s body was found on January 19 at a beach on the World Heritage-listed island of K’gari.
The euthanization program has stirred debate about how to manage the local population of dingoes, a sandy-colored canine believed to have first arrived in Australia 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
An autopsy conducted on James’ body found evidence “consistent with drowning” but also detected injuries corresponding to dingo bites.
“Pre-mortem dingo bite marks are not likely to have caused immediate death,” said a spokesperson for the Coroners Court of Queensland.
The coroner’s investigation into the cause of death was expected to take several weeks.
In response, the Queensland government said a pack of 10 dingoes involved would be euthanized after rangers had observed some “aggressive behavior.”
Six of the dingoes had already been euthanized, the state’s environment minister, Andrew Powell, told reporters Sunday.
“Obviously, the operation will continue,” he said.
The traditional owners of K’gari, the Butchulla people, said the state’s failure to consult with them before euthanizing the dingoes — or wongari in their language — was “unexpected and disappointing.”
“Once again, it feels as though economic priorities are being placed above the voices of the people and traditional owners, which is frustrating and difficult to accept,” the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation said in a statement to Australian media this week.
‘You are food’
Wildlife experts said killing the animals was the wrong response and may threaten the island’s dingo population, estimated at just 70-200 animals.
Given their small numbers, killing a pack of 10 animals would harm the population’s genetic diversity, said Mathew Crowther, professor of quantitative conservation biology at the University of Sydney.
“There’s no moral from the dingoes’ point of view. They’re just being wild animals, doing wild things,” Crowther said.
Dingoes tend to lose their fear of people as they interact with tourists, some of whom defy advice against feeding the animals.
“That’s the worst thing you can do to a wild animal,” Crowther said.
“They just relate humans to food, and if you don’t give them food, well, you are food — that’s basically how it is.”
Dingoes are wild, predatory animals and need to be treated with respect, said Bill Bateman, associate professor in the school of molecular and life sciences at Curtin University.
The canines are more likely to attack children or people who are alone, and may be triggered when people turn their backs or run, he said.
“These are important animals, and therefore we need to change the way we deal with them, otherwise we’re just going to keep reacting to these attacks and driving the population of dingoes down,” Bateman said.
Wildlife managers, rangers, Indigenous people and tourism operators need to work together so that humans and dingoes can coexist on the island, he said.
Todd James, the father of Piper, has described on social media how his family’s hearts were “shattered” by her death.
News of the dingoes’ euthanization was “heart-wrenching,” he told Australian media, adding however that he recognized it may be necessary for safety because of the pack’s behavior.
