Captain to face trial in first Italy ‘migrant pushback’ case – Arab News
KABUL:With the launch of a new $224 million aid package to tackle the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Afghans told Arab News on Sunday that they feared corruption, and demanded stricter monitoring of resources.
It follows President Ashraf Ghani launching the initiative on Saturday, to provide basic food and essentials to 4 million families, by covering 90 percent of the population in the war-torn country.
It is going to be implemented by thousands of local members of Misaq Sharwandi (Citizenship Charter) council all civil society entities are responsible for monitoring. It is a citizens-based approach,Ghanis chief spokesman, Seddiq Sediqqi, told Arab News on Sunday, adding that the new project was a partnership between the Afghan government and the World Bank.
Afghan citizens, however, are not convinced.
I am a war widow and breadwinner for my family of four, and deserved to have been on the list of beneficiaries in the last round, but got nothing, Jamila, a 46-year-old Kabul resident, told Arab News, referring to a government bread distribution program for families affected by weeks of lockdown to limit the spread of COVID-19.
There should be a monitoring system to make sure that this time, too, the aid is not misused and looted, she said.
It is a sentiment shared by lawmakers who said that the government under fire at home and abroad for not doing enough to tackle corruption had not consulted or informed them about the new program.Some politicians are skeptical that the aid may be embezzled.
The aid hardly reaches the needy and deserving people, Hamida Wardak, an MP from Maidan-Wardak province, told Arab News.
I think the resources will be wasted again. There should be tight monitoring of the process, and we in the parliament will have to be part of the monitoring, she added.
Atta Mohammad Dehqanpur, a legislator from Ghor province, agreed, and said that the parliament was mostly weak, with no power to check government spending.
He feared that the new resources would be misused by some in the government, while many in his impoverished province would not benefit from it.
Others on social media spoke about their mistrust of the government and its ability to deliver the new aid package.
As a citizen, I have no belief in the transparency of this process, Hasiba Efat, a former provincial council member from Parwan province, tweeted on Sunday.
This could be a plan for corruption within the government from those who could not squander resources in previous programs, she added.
Another lawmaker said instead of spending $224 million on the new aid package, Kabul needed to rebuild roads, upgrade urban areas and construct a hydroelectric dam, which would ensure long-term benefits for the public and provide jobs for thousands of people.
In recent months, international institutions and donors had pledged to provide hundreds of millions of dollars for Afghanistan to combat the COVID-19 crisis. In contrast, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had said it would offer Kabul $229 million as a free loan.
Since March, however, there have been complaints of mismanagement and embezzlement by government officials in Kabul and elsewhere, with an Afghan daily reporting that $11 million alone was misused from the bread distribution program.
Other accusations include the disappearance of ventilators, delayed payment of doctors salaries, a shortage of protective gear for medical staff, and a lack of oxygen, sanitizers and surgical masks at hospitals dealing with the pandemic.
Amid complaints of corruption involving COVID-19, Ghani said his government will act against those who have misused the resources in fighting coronavirus.
But locals say they have not seen any significant progress, even as Ghani reiterated on Saturday that his government would prevent corruption in the new program.
Torek Farhadi, a former government and IMF adviser, told Arab news that Kabul was using World Bank package first and foremost for its propaganda and popularity, adding: Afghanistan has become addicted to international aid. The trouble is, international aid does not reach the needy it ends up in private real estate projects and financing armored cars for the powerful.
The rest is here:
Captain to face trial in first Italy 'migrant pushback' case - Arab News
- Migrant crisis: Michelle Dewberry erupts over Britain's 'direction of travel' with taxpayers set to shell out for rent - GB News - May 5th, 2025 [May 5th, 2025]
- 'Labour want to reimpose free movement by stealth and make the migrant crisis worse' - GB News - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Number of small boat migrants hits TEN THOUSAND in 2025 with PM's 'smash the gangs' plan in tatters - GB News - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Keir Starmer's answer to the migrant crisis is to pay their rent, council tax and energy bills - Kelvin MacKenzie - GB News - April 30th, 2025 [April 30th, 2025]
- Trump official calls for Americans to be paid reparations over trauma caused by Biden's migrant crisis - Daily Mail - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Top Donald Trump ally calls for US citizens to receive reparations for Biden's migrant crisis trauma - GB News - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Keir Starmer issued firm warning over very foolish act as PM sweats over migrant crisis - Totally irrational - GB News - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: HUNDREDS more migrants arrive in Britain on Good Friday as record week for crossings grows again - GB News - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Somali criminal asylum seeker allowed to stay in Britain as deportation would 'stress him out' - GB News - April 14th, 2025 [April 14th, 2025]
- Britain will be 'unrecognisable in 10 years' if migrant crisis continues, Brooks claims - GB News - April 14th, 2025 [April 14th, 2025]
- The bombshell move that could end the Channel migrant hotel crisis - Daily Express - April 8th, 2025 [April 8th, 2025]
- France FINALLY admits it can do more to stop Channel crossing crisis after pocketing 500m for migrant 'taxi service' - GB News - April 8th, 2025 [April 8th, 2025]
- NYC Hotel That Symbolized Migrant Crisis to Fire Most Workers - Bloomberg - March 30th, 2025 [March 30th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Albanian criminal allowed to stay in Britain as his son could have a learning disability - GB News - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- Migrant Hotel Crisis to Drag On for Years, Treasury Confirms - The Global Treasurer - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- Trump takes 'nuclear option' at southern border to solve America's migrant crisis once and for all - Daily Mail - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- Migrant Crossings Surge Over 5000 This Year Amid Crisis - Evrim Aac - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- 'Labour has finally acknowledged that a space elsewhere is required to solve the migrant crisis' - GB News - March 26th, 2025 [March 26th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Tourists from Trinidad and Tobago BANNED from Britain without visa amid soaring asylum applications - GB News - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- POLL OF THE DAY: Should Labour concentrate on the Channel migrant crisis rather than Ukraine? - GB News - March 15th, 2025 [March 15th, 2025]
- The Roosevelt Hotel Closure: A Wake-Up Call for Blue Cities to Rein In the Migrant Crisis - Independent Women's Forum - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- AOC asks host to clarify when he refers to the migrant crisis as a 'problem' for Democrats - Fox News - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: French government to do more to stop Channel crossings as Macron set to lift ban on stopping boats at sea - GB News - March 5th, 2025 [March 5th, 2025]
- Trumps DOJ to toss NYC Mayor Eric Adams historic bribery case, agrees with Dem charges were politically motivated by Biden admin over migrant crisis -... - February 14th, 2025 [February 14th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Asylum seeker on the run for 18 years finally caught after police pulled car over - GB News - February 12th, 2025 [February 12th, 2025]
- One in four people in UK set to be a migrant by 2035 with taxpayers to fund 234billion crisis, study reveals - GB News - February 9th, 2025 [February 9th, 2025]
- Canadas Migrant Crisis Spills Over to US, Raising Concerns: The BorderLine - Daily Signal - February 7th, 2025 [February 7th, 2025]
- NYC Mayor Eric Adams begs Albany for $1.1B more to combat migrant crisis and says Big Apple needs it in 12 weeks - New York Post - February 5th, 2025 [February 5th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Britons fume at growing numbers five years on from Brexit - 'Invasion of rubber dinghies!' - GB News - February 5th, 2025 [February 5th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Failed asylum seeker wins right to stay in UK because of wife's kids fathered by another man - GB News - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Promise kept: How Trumps border orders are reversing the migrant crisis - New York Post - January 24th, 2025 [January 24th, 2025]
- Chicago resident who sued city over migrant crisis says 'change is on the horizon' after Trump's inauguration - Fox News - January 24th, 2025 [January 24th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: More than 1,000 migrants have crossed Channel since New Year - GB News - January 24th, 2025 [January 24th, 2025]
- Active-duty troops begin arriving at US-Mexico border in Texas and California to combat migrant crisis - Fox8tv - January 24th, 2025 [January 24th, 2025]
- Massachusetts Migrant Crisis: Governor Healy Ignores the Elephant in the Room - Federation for American Immigration Reform - January 19th, 2025 [January 19th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Albanian criminal allowed to remain in Britain despite being convicted of smuggling migrants into UK - GB News - January 19th, 2025 [January 19th, 2025]
- Migrant crisis: Germany's AfD pledge 'total closure of borders for 100 days' and mass deportations of immigrants as election draws closer - GB News - January 19th, 2025 [January 19th, 2025]
- How we searched for solutions to our migrant crisis hundreds of miles to the north in Toronto - Chicago Sun-Times - December 30th, 2024 [December 30th, 2024]
- NYC migrant crisis: For a migrant father and his sons, a year of struggle, fear and hope in New York - Newsday - December 30th, 2024 [December 30th, 2024]
- Operation Sluice and the migrant crisis as preparation for full-scale aggression - StopFake.org - December 30th, 2024 [December 30th, 2024]
- Adams says Dems missed the memo on migrant crisis and it hurt the party - PIX11 New York News - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- 'I welcome the border czar in Chicgao': Activist sounds off on illegal migrant crisis in the Windy City - Fox News - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- The real cause of the migrant crisis is neither migrants nor smuggling gangs - William Clouston - GB News - December 22nd, 2024 [December 22nd, 2024]
- Fox News finds a way to tie UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting to migrant crisis in New York City - The Independent - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- GOP lawmaker on migrant crisis: The left is being mugged by reality - MSN - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- GOP lawmaker on migrant crisis: The left is being mugged by reality - Fox Business - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Eric Adams may be New Yorks best hope for tackling the migrant crisis - UnHerd - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- NYC Mayor Eric Adams will meet Trump's border czar and discuss migrant crisis next week - MSN - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Fox anchor baselessly ties the shooting of the United Healthcare CEO to the migrant crisis - Media Matters for America - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Battenfeld: Michelle Wu the new national face of the migrant crisis, but could she pay a price? - Boston Herald - November 24th, 2024 [November 24th, 2024]
- Lefty Mass. gov to phase out hotel rooms for illegal immigrants to address over $1B migrant crisis costs - New York Post - November 24th, 2024 [November 24th, 2024]
- Exclusive | NYPD classes canned over migrant crisis budget cuts to be reinstated adding 1.6K cops by next fall - New York Post - November 24th, 2024 [November 24th, 2024]
- Laken Riley's alleged killer Jose Ibarra flew from 'ground zero' of migrant crisis to Georgia - Fox News - November 19th, 2024 [November 19th, 2024]
- Migrant crisis in the Canary Islands: A record-breaking year - Murcia Today - November 19th, 2024 [November 19th, 2024]
- Not a chance in HELL it works! Keir Starmer told to forget new plan to tackle migrant crisis - GB News - November 19th, 2024 [November 19th, 2024]
- Battenfeld: Massachusetts will get no relief from migrant crisis thanks to Maura Healey - Boston Herald - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Is Italy's plan to outsource migrant crisis to Albania falling through? - Firstpost - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Channel migrant crisis on course for 40,000 by year's end - as almost 33,000 cross so far in 2024 - GB News - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Smash the gangs is just Keir Starmers version of stop the boats. It wont solve the migrant crisis - The Guardian - November 12th, 2024 [November 12th, 2024]
- Migrant crisis as 600 risk everything to cross Channel so far this month - Express - November 5th, 2024 [November 5th, 2024]
- Fox Business anchor pushes Trump's lie that "the illegal migrant crisis ... has taken over" Aurora, Colorado - Media Matters for America - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- Nantucket's migrant crisis handling called out after quiet island rocked by wave of violent attacks - AOL - October 12th, 2024 [October 12th, 2024]
- FITZPATRICK: Migrant Crisis Forcing Small-Town Americans To Take Matters Into Their Own Hands - Daily Caller - October 11th, 2024 [October 11th, 2024]
- Spanish centre-right at odds with government over migrant crisis in the Canaries - EURACTIV - October 11th, 2024 [October 11th, 2024]
- New York Closes Randalls Island Migrant Shelter, a Symbol of the Crisis - La Voce di New York - October 11th, 2024 [October 11th, 2024]
- Its time to break the stranglehold on the migrant crisis debate - The Spectator - October 4th, 2024 [October 4th, 2024]
- Gilbert Bigio: Israels Man in Haiti and the Architect Behind the US Migrant Crisis - Mintpress News - October 4th, 2024 [October 4th, 2024]
- Putting up barriers will not solve the migrant crisis - EURACTIV - October 4th, 2024 [October 4th, 2024]
- Kamala Harris Shoves the Migrant Border Crisis in Trumps Face - The Daily Beast - October 3rd, 2024 [October 3rd, 2024]
- Opinion | How the Migrant Crisis Strains Whitewater, Wis. - The Wall Street Journal - October 3rd, 2024 [October 3rd, 2024]
- What will happen to Europe if it cant control the migrant crisis? - The Spectator - October 3rd, 2024 [October 3rd, 2024]
- Israel's invasion of Lebanon could spark another toxic European migrant crisis - Evening Standard - October 3rd, 2024 [October 3rd, 2024]
- Top Adams aide overseeing migrant crisis response hit with federal subpoena: reports - amNY - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Vivek Ramaswamy to host town hall in Springfield, Ohio on migrant crisis - Fox News - September 21st, 2024 [September 21st, 2024]
- Follow The Money: Funding The Biden-Harris Migrant Crisis - The Daily Wire - September 16th, 2024 [September 16th, 2024]
- Investigation will expose Biden-Harris admin over migrant crisis: AFLs Gene Hamilton - Fox Business - September 16th, 2024 [September 16th, 2024]
- JUST IN - Netherlands To Declare State Of Emergency Amid Illegal Migrant Crisis And Will Ask For Opt-out From EU Migration Policy - GreekCityTimes.com - September 16th, 2024 [September 16th, 2024]
- Ohio residents plead for help amid migrant crisis: 'I want out of this town' - KEYE TV CBS Austin - September 12th, 2024 [September 12th, 2024]
- Residents of Springfield, Ohio attend city council meeting to share frustration about migrant crisis hitting their community - Fox News - September 12th, 2024 [September 12th, 2024]
- Exclusive | The US migrant crisis, explained: Special NY Post video report breaks down how we got here from the border to the Big Apple - New York... - August 25th, 2024 [August 25th, 2024]