Thousands Take to Streets in Protest Against U.S. Freezing of Afghan Assets

Date: 02 January 2022 - 21:47

News ID: ۹۸۴۴۱

KABUL (Dispatches) – Thousands of Afghans took streets in the capital of Kabul Sunday to protest against freeze of the country’s assets by the United States, calling for the release of Afghans assets.
The Afghan economy, since the Taliban’s takeover in last August, has suffered from the freeze of over 9 billion U.S. dollars in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank by the United States as well as a halt in funds by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The demonstrators were holding placards that said “our seized money should be handed over!” and “Give us our frozen money!”
“The special demand of Afghan people and my demand is to unfreeze our money, it is our rights, they should give our rights, otherwise we will continue our demonstration to make our voice heard,” protester Zekrullah said in a diplomatic district near the shuttered U.S. embassy, adding that the demonstrators came from different provinces.
The protesters said a ban on Afghan assets was an act against the international laws and a violation of international principles.
A couple of days ago a group of Afghan women also held a similar protest at the same district.

‘UK Hired Firm to
Dissuade Migrants’

Meanwhile, according to The Independent, the British government gave a Hong Kong-based firm over £700,000 ($947,200) over five years to tell Afghans not to flee the country, and is set to hand it another £500,000 in the coming years.
The company, Seefar, responsible for websites such as On The Move and The Migrant Project, and which describes itself as “a recognized leader in understanding migration behavior change” and claims to offer services including “scripting lines for politicians to deliver” was hired in 2016 by the Home Office, with even more money possibly being awarded to it by the Foreign Office in the same period.
In a press release, Seefar said it conducted a “migration communications campaign in Afghanistan” throughout 2020, which had “successfully resulted in more than half of consultees making safer and more informed migration decisions, and avoiding potentially deadly encounters on the journey to Europe.”
Posing as a neutral non-profit organization, Seefar’s On The Move website urges migrants: “Don’t risk your life and waste hard earned money trying to reach the UK.”
The Home Office also paid social media platforms Facebook and Instagram over £23,000 to promote adverts for the company’s sites, which do not list details on safe ways to claim asylum in the UK.
In August 2021, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, with thousands of people killed, tens of thousands left stranded or in hiding, and the country facing a winter of shortages.
Seefar added that it used “unbranded” methods to dissuade Afghans leaving the country, and advised European governments not to link themselves to its methods.
The success of Seefar’s campaigns is set to be rewarded with a further £500,000 for an “organized immigration crime deterrence and influencing communications strategy” which “includes proposals to deter migrants and signposting migrants to credible alternatives … through a multilingual website and telephone service.”
The same month Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Seefar was also awarded a three-year deal to provide training for “strategic capability development programs overseas on behalf of the Home Office” in relation to “borders, migration and asylum.”
Tim Naor Hilton, CEO of charity Refugee Action, told The Independent: “We have seen this year the tragic consequences of what happens when ministers waste money on a hostile policy of trying to keep people out, rather than keep people safe.
“The government must spend less time on these murky schemes and more on creating effective safe routes for refugees to claim asylum here.”