US allows only 100 Afghan refugees

Lowell: More than 28,000 Afghans have applied for temporary admission into the US for humanitarian reasons since shortly before the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan and sparked a chaotic US withdrawal, but only about 100 of them have been approved, according to federal officials.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services has struggled to keep up with the surge in applicants to a little-used program known as humanitarian parole but promises it’s ramping up staff to address the growing backlog.

Afghan families in the US and the immigrant groups supporting them say the slow pace of approvals threatens the safety of their loved ones. -(AP)

Afghanistan’s most pressing need is cash

Dubai: Afghanistan is facing a looming humanitarian crisis as aid organisations struggle with ways to pay doctors, nurses and others on the ground because there is currently no way to transfer salaries to bank accounts there, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

The country’s economy is estimated to have contracted by 40 per cent since the Taliban took control in August.