Trump says he will help Afghans stuck in the UAE
By Doina Chiacu
President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would help Afghans detained in the United Arab Emirates for years after fleeing their country when the United States pulled out and the Taliban took power.
Trump, a Republican who promised a far-reaching immigration crackdown, suspended refugee resettlement after he took office in January. In April, the Trump administration terminated temporary deportation protections for thousands of Afghans in the U.S.
"I will try to save them, starting right now," Trump said in a post on Truth Social that linked to an article on the Afghans held in limbo there.
Trump cited news website "Just the News" as saying that UAE officials were preparing to hand over some Afghan refugees to the Taliban. Reuters has not confirmed the report.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The UAE, a close security partner of the United States, agreed in 2021 to temporarily house several thousand Afghans evacuated from Kabul as the Taliban ousted the U.S.-backed government during the final stages of the U.S.-led withdrawal.
Nearly 200,000 Afghans were brought to the U.S. by former President Joe Biden's administration since the chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Kabul.
Canada agreed in 2022 to resettle about 1,000 of the Afghans still held in the UAE after a U.S. request. It is unclear how many remain in the Gulf country.
Some countries have forced Afghan refugees to return to Afghanistan. Nearly 2 million Afghans were returned from Iran and Pakistan in the past seven months, the United Nations said last week.
Germany on Friday deported 81 Afghan men to Afghanistan amid a tightening of refugee admissions. Some other European countries are pushing to tighten asylum rules in the bloc.
In the United States, Democrats have urged Trump to restore temporary protected status for Afghans, saying women and children could face particular harm under the Taliban-led government in place since 2021.
Refugees include family members of Afghan-American U.S. military personnel, children cleared to reunite with their parents, relatives of Afghans already admitted and tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. government during the 20-year war.
Shawn VanDiver, president of the #AfghanEvac advocacy group, urged Trump to follow up on his post with action.
"President Trump has the authority to do the right thing. He should instruct DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and the Department of State to expedite processing, push for third-country partnerships, and ensure that we never again leave our wartime allies behind," he said in a statement.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nikkei Asia
2 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Thailand and Cambodia trade accusations but fragile truce holds
BANGKOK (Reuters) -- A fragile truce between Cambodia and Thailand held for a second day on Wednesday, despite mutual accusations of violations, and Cambodia took military attaches and diplomats to a border checkpoint destroyed by fighting to verify the ceasefire. The visit took place hours after Thailand's military accused Cambodian forces of breaching the truce at three separate locations along the disputed frontier. The Cambodian government denied this. The two sides agreed at a meeting in Malaysia on Monday to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to halt the heaviest fighting between the two countries in over a decade. There have been no reports of any exchange of heavy artillery fire since the truce was announced, but Thai and Cambodian troops were still massed along the frontier where fighting raged for five days at multiple locations. At least 43 people, many of them civilians, were killed and more than 300,000 people were displaced. At the checkpoint in Cambodia's Preah Vihear province, which was now a pile of concrete, bricks and metal, Cambodian military officials told foreign observers on Wednesday that Thailand had illegally captured 20 Cambodian soldiers, according to a government statement. "One of our soldiers managed to flee," said Major General Chan Sopheaktra, according to the statement. "We suspect two others may have died, but the rest are still being held by the Thai military, with no signs of release as of this afternoon." Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said Thailand's military was currently holding 18 Cambodian soldiers who it said surrendered in Sisaket province. They had been provided clothes, food, water and medical care, he said. "They are expected to be sent back to Cambodia after a permanent ceasefire is reached," he said, adding the bodies of two deceased Cambodian soldiers had been returned on Tuesday. Referring to Cambodia taking defense attaches to the border, Thailand's vice foreign minister, Russ Jalichandra, said Bangkok would soon do the same, when it was safe to proceed. "Cambodia was able to act more quickly than Thailand because they were the party that initiated the attacks, which gave them immediate command and control over the area," he said The Thai army accused Cambodian forces of violating the truce overnight, including with small arms, grenade launchers and mortar fire, spread over several hours at multiple locations. Cambodia called Thailand's allegations baseless. "Cambodia strongly rejects the ceasefire accusations as false, misleading and harmful to the fragile trust-building process," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chum Sounry said, adding the government supports a monitoring mechanism and independent observation. The ceasefire, which also agreed to halt troop movement, paves the way for a high-level military meeting that includes defense ministers on August 4 in Cambodia. Thailand and Cambodia have argued for decades over jurisdiction of various undemarcated points along their 817-km (508-mile) land border and there have been occasional skirmishes, with ownership of several ancient temples central to the disputes. In May, a Cambodian soldier was killed in a brief gun battle, which led to a troop buildup and a diplomatic crisis. The full-blown fighting erupted last week following Thai accusations that Cambodia had laid new landlines in the area that had maimed Thai soldiers. Phnom Penh rejects this.
Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Japan Times
As China advances and the U.S. retreats, Japan-India ties grow stronger
At a summit in Washington earlier this month, foreign ministers from 'the Quad' nations of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. agreed to work together to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals and released the following joint statement: 'We are committed to a region where all countries are free from coercion and strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion.' The Quad diplomats were, of course, referring to China's growing economic and military ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region and its gray-zone threats in the South China and East China seas. But 'coercion' is also an accurate description of U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policies in the region and insistence, as with NATO in Europe, that the nations of the Indo-Pacific increase their military spending and take more responsibility for their own defense. In this environment, bilateral India-Japan relations are more important than ever. Located on two ends of the Indo-Pacific region, India and Japan are pivotal to shaping a stable and viable counterweight to Chinese ambitions and the volatility of Trump's second term. Both countries possess a strategic heft that makes them invaluable to any Indo-Pacific strategy and have a record of success in regional coalition building and strategic autonomy to advance their own shared interests, whether in the Indo-Pacific or Southeast Asia. India-Japan relations have a nuanced history, including collaboration between Japanese forces and the Indian National Army, an Indian nationalist military force allied with Tokyo, in World War II. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's first articulation of the 'Indo-Pacific' took place in New Delhi in a speech to the Indian Parliament on the 'Confluence of the Two Seas' in 2007, when he spoke of how 'the Pacific and Indian Oceans are now bringing about a dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and prosperity.' In addition to the Quad, both Japan and India are members of a clutch of ASEAN-led regional bodies, the Group of 20 and the Group of Four, which is seeking a seat in a reformed U.N. Security Council. In addition to forming the Quad in 2007, India and Japan's contemporary history is built on a robust relationship anchored in the 2011 India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership of 2014. These partnerships sprung from three significant events a decade earlier. First, after years of investing heavily in China, the country's 2005 anti-Japanese riots led to a shift of focus toward India. Second, given Japan's special postwar relationship with the U.S., the Indo-U.S. Civil Nuclear Agreement, announced in July 2005, was necessary for the growth of ties with India. And third, the arrival in Japan of more outward-looking prime ministers like Junichiro Koizumi (2001-2006) and Shinzo Abe (2012-2020) led to deeper diplomatic relations. Moreover, Japan has played a significant role in India's development with nearly $60 billion worth of Official Development Assistance loans, grants and technical cooperation since 2000. This includes around $2 billion for Northeast India through which Japan seeks to forge links to Southeast Asia, where it not only provides oda, but its foreign direct investment is double that of China. Japanese money has helped build the Delhi and Chennai Metros, the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and other roads, bridges and bypasses. Another prestige project Japan is undertaking is the high-speed rail corridor between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Indeed, FDI from Japan has increased steadily and it is now the fourth-largest investor in the country. Military cooperation is also increasing. In 2004, the Indian, U.S. and Japanese navies came together to provide humanitarian assistance after the devastation caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami. In 2007, at the suggestion of Abe, the Quad was formed. That same year, Japan began to participate in the Indo-U.S. Malabar naval exercises. Japan's Self-Defense Forces have now been participating in it regularly since 2014 after it developed a sharper Indo-Pacific focus. Greater defense cooperation makes sense. India's entire border with China is disputed and remains unsettled — largely due to Chinese mendacity. Today, a rising China flexes its muscles and prioritizes national security; it rubs up against Japan in the Senkaku Islands and its neighbors in the East and South China seas, as well as the Himalayas. Meanwhile, the first Trump administration sounded a warning bell for Japan, signaling a more transactional relationship with the U.S. As a result, in December 2022 Japan announced that it would double its defense expenditure to 2% of gross domestic product and also acquire military capabilities it had previously avoided, such as long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles. It also announced plans to sharply enhance its cybercapabilities, satellites and unmanned aerial- and maritime-systems to support counterstrikes. Structural changes were made to the higher command of the Japanese military and it reached out to the U.K. and Australia for defense-enhanced ties. January 2023 also saw the first time Indian fighter aircraft landed in Japan for a joint military exercise, Veer Guardian. India remains leery of military alliances, but in May Tokyo and New Delhi agreed to organize a new defense cooperation consultation body, and there is considerable scope for bilateral ties in that area. Though both collaborate with the U.S. and see it as a vital balancer of China in terms of security, they also need to hedge against Trump's mercurial ways. In the past, India and Japan have made attempts to work together in areas like long-range amphibious aircraft. New Delhi had at one time also sought information on possibly making Japan's Soryu-class submarines in India but, for a variety of reasons, no deal materialized. Currently, there is an important agreement between Japan and India to transfer and co-develop advanced naval stealth technologies such as the Unified Complex Radio Antenna mast for warships and submarines. The two countries also have an agreement to jointly develop an advanced underwater surveillance system and other maritime technology to enhance their deterrence capacity in the Pacific and Indian oceans. The potential for expanding joint production of defense equipment that would leverage Japan's advanced technology with India's manufacturing capacity has barely been touched. Another focus, which overlaps the Quad relationship, is building economic resilience through supply-chain diversification in areas like semiconductors and rare earths. There is considerable scope to deepen their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement by boosting trade and investment that will counter U.S. tariff threats and Chinese economic coercion. The two also need to put more energy into their 2017 idea of creating an Asia-Africa growth corridor. Crucial to stronger India-Japan ties are the high-level 'two-plus-two' meetings between the nations' defense and foreign ministers, the last of which took place last August in New Delhi. At that meeting the two sides agreed to enhance cooperation 'to reflect contemporary priorities and be responsive to contemporary security challenges facing them.' Those same challenges — emanating from both Beijing and Washington — will no doubt be high on the agenda next month during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to Japan. Manoj Joshi, a journalist and distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, is former political editor of The Times of India and the author, most recently, of 'Understanding the India-China Border: The Enduring Threat of War in High Himalaya' (2022).
Asahi Shimbun
5 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Thailand accuses Cambodia of second ceasefire violation in two days
Relatives of people who lost their lives when a Cambodian artillery shell slammed into a gas station and destroyed the attached 7-Eleven convenience store, attend a religious ceremony in Sisaket province, Thailand, on July 30. (REUTERS) BANGKOK--Thailand's military accused Cambodian forces on Wednesday of breaching a ceasefire agreement at three separate locations along the disputed border, warning that continued aggression could compel Thai forces to respond more decisively. The allegations come less than two days after both governments agreed to a ceasefire brokered in Malaysia, which came into effect at midnight on Monday, aimed to stop fighting and prevent escalation of their deadliest conflict in more than a decade following five days of intense fighting that has killed at least 43 people and displaced over 300,000 civilians on either side. The truce came after a sustained push from Malaysian Premier Anwar Ibrahim and U.S. President Donald Trump, with the latter warning Thai and Cambodian leaders that trade negotiations would not progress if fighting continued. Thailand and Cambodia face a tariff of 36% on their goods in the U.S., their biggest export market, unless a reduction can be negotiated. After the ceasefire deal was reached, Trump said he had spoken to both leaders and instructed his trade team to restart tariff talks. On Wednesday, Thailand said Cambodian forces fired on positions in northeastern Thailand's Sisaket province on Cambodia's northern border. 'Cambodian forces used small arms and grenade launchers, prompting Thailand to respond in self-defense,' Thai army spokesman Major-General Winthai Suvaree told reporters. 'This was the second incident since the agreement and reflects a behavior that does not respect agreements, destroys de-escalation efforts and hampers trust between the two countries.' Cambodia rejected the allegations, saying it was committed to the ceasefire and called for observers. 'Cambodia strongly rejects the ceasefire accusations as false, misleading and harmful to the fragile trust-building process,' Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chum Sounry told reporters at a press conference, adding the government supports a monitoring mechanism and independent observation. The ceasefire, which also agreed to halt troop movement, paves the way for a high-level military meeting that includes defense ministers on August 4 in Cambodia. There have been no reports of any exchange of heavy artillery fire but also no reports of troop withdrawals by either side.
