Reuters World News - Weekend episode: Afghans in limbo two years on, and we remember Danish Siddiqui

Episode Date: August 19, 2023

It's been two years since the Taliban took back Afghanistan. Yet, many of the Afghans who worked for U.S. organizations during the 20-year war are still left waiting for visas. We visit with one family waiting for visas in Pakistan, and examine the photographic legacy of our colleague Danish Siddiqui, who was killed while covering a clash between Afghan Special Forces and the Taliban in Kandahar. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been two years since the Taliban took back Afghanistan. Yet many of the Afghans who worked for US organisations during the 20-year war between their reigns are still left waiting for visas. On the special weekend episode of Reuters' World News, we speak to Afghans stuck in limbo and examine the photographic legacy of our colleague, Danish Siddiqui, who was killed while covering a clash between,

Afghan special forces and the Taliban in Kandahar. I'm Kim Vinal in London. And I'm Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad. Reporter Charlotte Greenfield was in Kabul in the weeks leading up to the takeover. She's one of the journalists to return since, covering the many ways the country has changed under its new rulers. She's also spent time with a family living in a small one-room apartment in Islamabad. They still haven't heard from the U.S.

US government and their money is starting to run out. Reuters is withholding the full names of the family members for security reasons. So Charlotte, can you start by telling us what's the latest with the people waiting for applications to get into the US? There are several different programs by the US government for Afghans. But the one that we've been hearing the most about, especially in terms of delays, is something known as the P2 program, which is a. a major sort of category the U.S. announced just before the Taliban took over to help Afghans

who met certain criteria, such as having worked for American organizations, to move to the United States as refugees. So advocates and Afghans have been saying the progress on this has been particularly slow. Here in Pakistan, there's estimated up to maybe 20,000 Afghan P2 applicants who were really waiting stuck in limbo. Until recently, there were concerns that this had stalled, but we have been hearing from refugee advocates and the State Department that there is a bit of hope on the horizon. They are expanding their processing capacity. So things should start moving, but it's going to be very slow. And for many people who have been here in limbo and very precarious visa and financial situations, times really running out

and their desperation starting to grow. You spent time with one family waiting for a visa to come to the US. Tell me about them. So I spoke to Marwa, who's an 18-year-old and her family, all together there are 12 people. So that's her parents, her husband, and her siblings. The father of the family, Marwa's father, had worked as a guard for an American organization. So he met that initial criteria and they're working through the process. They were told to come to a third country. So they came to neighboring Pakistan, which was really the only place they could get to.

They sold their home. They left their life. And they've really just been living, mostly in this one room for that entire time. They're getting quite concerned because their savings are starting to run out. They're not allowed to work here. The kids can't go to school. So they're starting to ration their food, eating one or two meals a day. They're terrified of getting sick because they can't afford health care.

They're worried about leaving the house because it can cost money. And they're also worried about Pakistan authorities, possibly stopping them. There have been a few reports among Afghans that Pakistan authorities are starting to clamp down on Afghans here. And so the kids barely leave the house. For the younger kids, they've been out of school for just over a year since they came to Pakistan. They're not eligible to be enrolled in public schools, and the family just can't afford to send them to any private schools. But for Azra, who's 14, Marwa's little sister, she's actually been out of school for two years because at Afghanistan, the Taliban of closed schools for girls over the age of about 12.

So she is really, really pining for her school because she remembers it very well. She misses it. She has started trying to teach her youngest siblings along with Marwa. They go through her old school books and sort of practice the alphabet, even learning a few English phrases, which they hope will be useful if they could make it to the US. Why is it so important for these people to get out of Afghanistan? Many of them say that they fear retaliation by the Taliban. I should say that the Taliban have said that there is what they call a general amnesty

against former foes, anyone who worked for foreign forces and foreign governments. But a lot of people feel afraid and they're scared of being discriminated against or maybe even against some violence. And obviously the situation economically is pretty dire. and for families with young girls, they can't go to school. So they felt that it might be worth it to try and come over here. After two years in Pakistan, is there welcome being worn out? Yeah, Pakistan officials have told us that they are starting to get concerned

about the numbers of Afghans who have crossed over into Pakistan, sometimes at the request of foreign governments. Pakistan itself is dealing with an economic crisis. it's also reeling from devastating floods that hit the country last year, and it's got some rising security issues in the border areas. So Pakistan really says this is too much for us to handle. Two years on from the takeover, what is life like in Afghanistan now? How have things changed?

In Afghanistan now, it's a mixed picture. Some international agencies are pointing out that corruption has actually reduced, and overall security has certainly improved because the war has ended. So there's a fraction of the overall violent conflict that there was. There's no more fighting. So almost three quarters of the country now needs humanitarian aid just to survive. And humanitarian aid is actually shrinking. Donors seem to be getting fatigue and withdrawing funding.

And most of the country lives in poverty. When it comes to women, their freedom has really shrunk. There's a sort of patchwork of restrictions that are enforced a bit inconsistently across the country. But all combined, they make it very hard for women to live. leave the house for work or for education reliably. Among those trying to get out of Afghanistan were Reuters journalists. Alessandra Golani was appointed editor-in-chief of the news organization just a few months before the Taliban's takeover.

Alessandra, that period of time trying to get Reuters people out of Afghanistan, how difficult was that time? It was extremely difficult to evacuate our reporters and their families out of Kabul. This is for many reasons. I mean, the first one was that there were so many people trying to get out. You remember the images of crowds storming the airport fences. Then Taliban military were posted across the city, and so it was difficult even to get to the airport. And then once inside the airport, which was controlled largely by the U.S. military,

there were many different countries organizing flights to evacuate their citizens. There were private flights. So it was really scary. It was really scary for our people. I mean, just to give you an example, we tried three times to get our team. And this included entire families with small children to the airport. And the first two times they were pushed back at test points. And some of them were roughed around by the Taliban officials there.

Why was it so important to get so many Reuters people out? So it was clearly a shocking development when the Taliban took over in such a swift amount of time. And for us in particular, it was important to get our team out because most of our journalists and their families, of course, are Afghan citizens. And so they were working as local journalists for an international news organization. So the situation became particularly dangerous for them all of a sudden. And that's why we moved so quickly. Now, of course, there was a huge story unfolding. So we continued to cover the events in the days.

and weeks and months that followed by sending in some of our other reporters who from different countries. It was also a period of extreme sadness for the news organization with the death of Reuters photo journalist Dhanish Siddiqui. Danish was embedded with the Afghan forces when they came under attack by the Taliban on July 16th. A new book honors his work. Alessandra, you oversaw the public of this book. Tell us about the photos. Dunniss was an incredible photographer. What he had is that he was uniquely able to capture what was happening in the world in its raw, unvarnished form. He had talent and he had patience and a deep mission that really came from his heart, which was to give a voice to those who had none. In this book, there are about 150,000,

of Donish's photos. They span his 10 years at Reuters. We have the images of the India COVID crisis, including drone images of funeral pyres. We have his incredible photos of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, protests in Hong Kong. So it's a real panorama of all of his work. What drove him, do you think? I think it was this mission. He really wanted to give a voice to those who didn't have one. And, you know, in 2020, he gave a TED talk. And he said, these were his words, I want to expose you to the raw truth and make you a witness to it.

You can look away or stand up and ask for change. That's it for this special weekend episode. We'll be back with our daily headline show. on Monday. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.