Russia’s isolation takes toll on Arctic climate science


By AFP
Published December 17, 2023

A monument to Lenin in Barentsburg in Norway's Svalbard Archipelago, where Russians have been mining coal for decades

 - Copyright AFP PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA

Viken KANTARCI with Pierre-Henry Deshayes in Oslo

Glaciologist Andrew Hodson used to collaborate with his Russian colleagues in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, but snowmobile excursions to see them have come to a halt since the war in Ukraine.

“We used to work with Russian permafrost scientists and hydrologists in the Barentsburg region. This doesn’t happen now,” the British scientist told AFP.

“We’re sad that we can’t use this basis for collaboration, but we’re not at all happy with the actions of the Russian government, obviously,” he said at his office at Longyearbyen University in the archipelago’s capital.

Although a part of Norway, the islands have long had a strong Russian presence. But the frequently-cited diplomatic mantra of cohabitation there — “High North, low tensions” — no longer applies.

In the Arctic, as in the rest of the world, Western and Russian researchers have cut almost all ties since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Moscow’s February 2022 invasion was the final nail in the coffin of their cooperation, already in decline in recent decades amid President Vladimir Putin’s more aggressive policies.

The deep freeze has significantly affected scientific research in a region warming around four times faster than the planet as a whole, and which is therefore crucial to climate studies — and where Russia plays a major role due to its vast size.

– Missing data –

“It’s damaging because Russia is more than half of the Arctic,” said Rolf Rodven, executive secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). ]

The exchange of data from Russia has now completely dried up.

“We do not know what’s happening on the ground there and of course, what’s happening there will also affect the European, US and Canadian part of the Arctic,” he said.

This deprives scientists of crucial information about permafrost — present predominantly in Russia and a ticking time bomb for the climate of the entire planet — and recent wildfires, which are believed to have been as devastating as those in North America.

Some data can be obtained through international databases such as the World Meteorological Organization or through satellite observations, but those are incomplete.

“We know that there will be more uncertainty in our estimates and as a consequence also more uncertainties in projections for the future,” Rodven said.

Studies written by AMAP — one of the Arctic Council’s six working groups — are all the more important since they are used in reports by the UN’s IPCC climate panel.

The Arctic Council is a regional forum long held up as a model of cooperation, but now stands divided between the West (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the United States) and Russia.

A number of projects have been suspended and some studies have been delayed.

Not only have relations with Russian research institutes — almost all state-run bodies — been halted, but even the few independent researchers are reluctant to cooperate for fear of being accused of treason or espionage.

Already in 2019, Russian scientists expressed concern about restrictions imposed on their contacts with foreign colleagues, raising fears of a return to conditions that existed during the Soviet era.

– Brain drain –

Russia’s research community has been plagued by a “brain drain” — which began even before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine — and funding that has been slashed in order to pay for the war effort.

“It’s a double whammy,” said Salve Dahle, a marine biologist at Norway’s independent Akvaplan-niva institute.

“Not only do we no longer benefit from the exchange of data, but the collection of data in Russia itself is also cut back.”

Dahle, who used to frequently work on projects in Russia, said his primary concern was for Siberia’s main rivers, the Arctic Ocean’s biggest source of freshwater.

Without being present in the field, it’s impossible to measure the effects on the rivers of oil and gas drilling, industrial activities and mining.

“Everything that can be dissolved in water or be captured in ice is transported into the transpolar drift stream (an ocean current that flows from east to west) and flows out between Greenland and Svalbard,” he said.

In Longyearbyen, British glaciologist Andrew Hodson is trying to be pragmatic.

“There’s much to be gained from working with the expertise there,” he said of his Russian research colleagues.

“But I won’t pretend that it was ever easy… So no, I’m not that sorry.”

Native oysters return to Belfast after a century’s absence

By AFP
Published December 17, 2023

The Belfast Lough was once home to large oyster reefs but overfishing, disease and pollution decimated the population 

- Copyright AFP HAZEM BADER

Peter MURPHY

Long gone from Belfast’s famed harbour where the Titanic was built, oysters are making a comeback thanks to a nursery installation project aimed at boosting marine life and water quality.

Until the early 1900s, the narrow Belfast Lough channel was home to large oyster reefs but overfishing, disease and pollution gradually decimated the population, according to the Ulster Wildlife group.

“We’re bringing back a lost habitat,” the group’s marine conservation manager David Smyth told AFP on a harbour quay in the shadow of a noisy downtown highway and towering commercial buildings.

Extensive native oyster beds were abundant in European seas, and humans have been harvesting them since the Stone Age.

But the group estimates that oyster populations have declined by 95 percent since the 19th  century, with native oyster reefs now one of the most threatened habitats in Europe.

– ‘Coral reef’ –

Last month a nursery comprising some 700 of the molluscs — brought from Scotland by van, and measured and screened for disease — were lowered into Belfast Lough in over a dozen cages fitted with shelves.

It should eventually create a local “equivalent of a coral reef”, said Smyth during a check of the oysters’ health with a team of researchers tracking their progress.

After hoisting the metal oyster homes from the water, the team carefully removed each animal and placed them on the pier for measurement and weighing.

Pairs of oysters already conjoined are the early stages of forming a reef, said Smyth holding two aloft.

“Imagine 100,000 of these all stuck together, this is what we are after, from them millions of larvae will settle around the shore and on the seabed,” he told AFP with a satisfied smile.

Among the ecological benefits of a restored habitat are boosted marine biodiversity and better water quality, according to Ulster Wildlife.

“Just as with a coral reef, once these animals start forming their beds then small fish and crustaceans like mussels, barnacles, worms, snails, and algae will come to live and feed there,” said Smyth.

Oysters are also “supreme water filters” he noted, with just one animal able to filter over 200 litres of seawater a day.

– Encouraging signs –

With cargo ships and passenger ferries manoeuvering in and out of docks not far away, pollutants in the waterway make habitat rehabilitation a challenge.

Shipbuilding was one of Belfast’s largest industries for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, with the yellow gantry cranes of the shipyard that built the Titanic still defining Belfast’s skyline beside a new museum celebrating the doomed liner.

A coalyard and tannin works also contributed to long decades of environmental degradation.

“It’s very difficult for oysters’ larvae to settle and become adults if they are exposed to the sort of pollutants present in an industrial shipping lane,” said Smyth.

But the resilient nursery animals have “performed impressively” so far with just two mortalities from the 700 oysters installed, with many more planned to be installed in the coming years, he added.

Similar projects have got under way recently around Europe but the Belfast nursery aims at replicating a successful effort in New York, begun a decade ago with the goal of restoring millions of oysters to replicate conditions there in the 1800s.

“New York’s the shining example of how well these animals can do in an industrial area,” said Smyth.

“There were dolphins swimming around the Statue of Liberty for the first time in years recently, we don’t know if we will ever have dolphins swimming in Belfast but you never know,” he laughed, before letting a cage drop back below the water.

Ozone hole over Antarctica just keeps getting bigger and bigger


By Dr. Tim Sandle
Published December 17, 2023

Mt Herschel (3335m asl) from Cape Hallet with Seabee Hook penguin colony in Foreground. Antarctica. 

Credit - Andrew Mandemaker. (CC BY-SA 2.5)

A new concern over the ozone layer. Research finds the Antarctic ozone hole has been massive and long-lived over the past four years. This leads researchers from the University of Otago to believe chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are not the only factors to blame.

Specifically, the researchers have found there is much less ozone in the centre of the ozone hole compared to 19 years ago. This means the hole is getting both larger and deeper.

The fact that the hole is getting bigger means that other factors must be at play other than CFCs, given the global restrictions put in place in relation to these classes of chemicals (as per the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer of 1987).

According to lead researcher Hannah Kessenich: “Most major communications about the ozone layer over the last few years have given the public the impression that the ‘ozone issue’ has been solved.”

She adds: “While the Montreal Protocol has vastly improved our situation with CFCs destroying ozone, the hole has been amongst the largest on record over the past three years, and in two of the five years prior to that.

In terms of the extent of the challenge, Kessenich reveals: “Our analysis ended with data from 2022, but as of today the 2023 ozone hole has already surpassed the size of the three years prior — late last month it was over 26 million kilometres squared, nearly twice the area of Antarctica.”

Another reason for being concerned about the trend and for studying it in more detail is, Kessenich indicates, is because understanding ozone variability connects ozone depletion patterns to the Southern Hemisphere’s climate, such as the wildfires and cyclones in Australia and New Zealand.

Notably, since ozone usually absorbs UV light, then a hole in the ozone layer causes extreme UV levels on the surface of Antarctica; moreover, it also drastically impacts where heat is stored in the atmosphere, altering the Southern Hemisphere’s wind patterns and surface climate.

The research appears in the journal Nature Communications, titled “Potential drivers of the recent large Antarctic ozone holes.”

In related news, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano changed the chemistry and dynamics of the stratosphere in the year following the eruption, leading to unprecedented losses in the ozone layer of up to 7 percent over large areas of the Southern Hemisphere.

Killed Israeli hostage’s brother says army ‘murdered’ him


By AFP
Published December 17, 2023

The funeral of Alon Shamriz, one of three Israeli hostages mistakenly killed by soldiers in the Gaza Strip - Copyright AFP Oren ZIV

An Israeli hostage mistakenly killed by soldiers in the Gaza Strip was buried on Sunday, with his brother accusing the army of having “abandoned” and “murdered” him.

Alon Shamriz, 26, was one of the three Israeli hostages shot dead Friday by soldiers during combat in the Gaza City district of Shejaiya, even as they carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew.

Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer El-Talalqa were killed when troops mistook them for a threat and opened fire, the army said.

“Those who abandoned you also murdered you after all that you did right,” Ido, Shamriz’s brother, said at the funeral attended by dozens of relatives and family members north of Tel Aviv.

“You survived 70 days in hell,” Shamriz’s mother, Dikla, said in her eulogy. “Another moment and you would have been in my arms.”

Israeli media reported that Talalqa was buried on Saturday, while the funeral for Haim was scheduled on Monday.

The deaths of the three men, all in their twenties, have sparked protests in Tel Aviv, where demonstrators demanded that the authorities offer a new plan for bringing home the remaining 129 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday military spokesman Richard Hecht said the deaths were being investigated and what the soldiers did was “violation of the rules of engagement”.

Late on Sunday, in a brief statement, the army said a search at a building adjacent to where the incident happened found signs calling for help.

The signs were made using “leftover food”.

“Based on a field investigation, it appears that the three hostages were in the building where the signs were located for some period of time,” the army said.

Photographs of initial findings from the building released along with the statement showed signs of “SOS” and “Help, three hostages”.

Around 250 people were taken captive when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,139 people, mostly civilians, according to updated Israeli figures.

Vowing to destroy Hamas and bring back the hostages, Israel launched a massive military offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement which has left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins. The territory’s Hamas government says the war has killed at least 18,800 people, mostly women and children.

Activists block Belgian Alibaba hub, private jets

By AFP
Published December 16, 2023

Police officers detain an environmental activist of the Code Red coalition during a demonstration against the aviation industry in Antwerp

 - Copyright POOL/AFP Kim LUDBROOK

Hundreds of climate protesters on Saturday blocked a distribution hub for Chinese online giant Alibaba and an airport for private jets in Belgium, activists said.

The anti-fossil fuel Code Red coalition said hundreds of demonstrators were detained by police during the action aimed at disrupting the aviation industry.

“In Liege, activists are blocking Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Planes filled with consumer goods from China cannot be unloaded and trucks cannot leave the site,” Code Red said in a statement.

“In Antwerp, with 40 activists still on location, the air traffic of private jets is paralysed despite over 700 other activists being arrested.”

An AFP journalist at the airport near the city of Antwerp said that police had fired tear gas and forcefully detained protesters dressed in white overalls as they tried to storm into the facility.

The protest is the latest in a string of civil disobedience actions by the Europe-wide Code Red coalition in Belgium.

Chinese giant Alibaba opened its 30,000-square-metre European distribution hub in Liege in 2021.

“Liege airport is the fastest growing airport in Europe,” said Code Red activist Louis Droussin in a statement.

“Millions of euros of public money support this expansion, which is to the detriment of hundreds of hectares of agricultural land.”

Canada court gives green light to trial on climate inaction


By AFP
Published December 14, 2023

Oil sands, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. 

eryn.rickard (CC BY 2.0)

Canada will stand trial for climate inaction after an appeals court reopened the door for a group of 15 young environmental activists who sued the federal government four years ago on the issue.

The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that a trial must be held to determine whether the actions of Justin Trudeau’s government violate the rights of the young plaintiffs under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, according to a decision made public on Thursday.

“Climate change is having a dramatic, rapidly unfolding effect on all Canadians,” said the ruling, seen by AFP.

“It is also beyond doubt that the burden of addressing the consequences will disproportionately affect Canadian youth.”

In October 2019, 15 young people, aged 10 to 19, sued the federal government, which they claimed was contributing to global warming by failing to implement an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A year later, a federal judge rejected their request, but the Court of Appeal overturned that decision on Wednesday.

“It’s the least we can do to have the right to a trial to discuss what is an existential threat,” Albert Lalonde, one of the plaintiffs and an environmental activist now aged 21, told AFP.

The law student said he considers it “hopeless to have had to wait four years” to reach this stage in the proceedings.

Others found reason for optimism.

“I see this going beyond the federal government. This should put every province blocking climate action on notice that there can be legal consequences for inaction,” Tom Green, a climate advisor to the David Suzuki Foundation, an environmental organization that supports young people, said in a statement.

Elsewhere in the world, numerous lawsuits have been filed to force governments to act against the climate crisis, including Germany, the Netherlands and France.

Canada, which is warming faster than most countries due to its geographic position, has in recent years contended with extreme weather events of increasing intensity and frequency.

Kenya, EU ink 'historic' trade deal

Nairobi (AFP) – Kenya and the European Union on Monday signed a long-negotiated trade agreement to increase the flow of goods between the two markets, as Brussels pursues stronger economic ties with Africa.


Issued on: 18/12/2023 -

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Kenyan President William Ruto witnessed the signing ceremony in Nairobi 

© LUIS TATO / AFP

The Economic Partnership Agreement will give Kenya duty-free and quota-free access to the EU, its biggest export market, while European goods will receive progressive tariff reductions.

The agreement is the first broad trade deal between the EU and an African nation since 2016 and follows a spending spree by China on lavish infrastructure projects across the continent.

"Although today represents a moment of monumental promise, it is also the beginning of a historic partnership for historic transformation," Kenyan President William Ruto said at a ceremony attended by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Kenya's capital Nairobi.

"The core of this arrangement is to put real money into the pockets of ordinary people," said Ruto.

EU chief von der Leyen said the partnership was a "win-win situation on both sides" and called on other East African nations to join the pact, which came after years of negotiations that concluded in June.

"We are deepening trade ties and building up our economic resilience," she said.

"We are opening a new chapter in our very strong relationship and now our effort should be focused on implementation," von der Leyen added.

Both the Kenyan and the European parliaments must ratify the deal before it comes into force.

The European Union said that the deal was "the most ambitious economic partnership" it had with a developing country.

It includes commitments to sustainable development in areas such as labour rights and environmental protection, the EU said in a statement.

"A dedicated chapter has been included on economic and development cooperation, aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the Kenyan economy," the EU said.

EU's trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said the "historic agreement" would unlock new areas for cooperation and benefit.

The 27-nation bloc accounts for more than 20 percent of Kenya's overall exports, according to government data, mainly agricultural products, including vegetables, fruits and the country's famous tea and coffee.

Total two-way trade between the markets hit 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) in 2022, up 27 percent since 2018, according to EU figures.
'Door wide open'

Africa has become a renewed diplomatic battleground since the Ukraine war began, with Kenya and other countries on the continent aggressively courted by Russia and China and the West.

An economic powerhouse of east Africa, Kenya is seen by the international community as a reliable and stable democracy in a turbulent region.

The EU has taken steps to counter China's Belt and Road programme, announcing in February it would increase investments in Kenya by hundreds of millions of dollars through its own Global Gateway initiative.

Kenya's biggest infrastructure project, a $5 billion railway line connecting Nairobi to the port city of Mombasa, which opened in 2017, was built by a Chinese company with Chinese financing.

Both the Kenyan and the European parliaments must ratify the deal before it comes into force

 © LUIS TATO / AFP

Kenya is also negotiating a trade deal with the United States.

The new trade deal with Europe is the culmination of trade talks between the EU and the regional East African Community (EAC) that started roughly a decade ago.

Kenya signed and ratified an initial trade agreement with the EU in 2016 alongside the EAC but it fell through after some countries failed to greenlight the pact, with Kenya eventually pursuing its own deal.

"This agreement leaves the door wide open for our EAC partners to join so that together as a region we can benefit," Ruto said.

© 2023 AFP

The more fertile you are, the sooner you may die — study

Fred Schwaller

DW
December 15, 2023

The genes that boost fertility mean you're more likely to die younger, according to a new study.

A new study suggests genetic variants involved in reproduction also contribute to premature aging in humans

Image: Fotolia/Prodakszyn


One of the puzzles of evolution is why we peter out into old age once we can no longer reproduce.

Now, scientists believe that aging may actually be a consequence of how we evolved to reproduce, and it's all a result of natural selection over millions of years.

A study analyzing the genes of 276,406 UK Biobank participants found that people carrying gene variances promoting reproduction are less likely to survive to old age.

"We confirm a hypothesis called the antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis, which says that mutations promoting reproduction are more likely to reduce life span," said Jianzhi Zhang, of the University of Michigan in the US and senior author of the study in the journal Science.

According to the research, people carrying genetic variances promoting reproduction were more likely to die by the age of 76. The study also shows that genetic variances promoting reproduction increased over generations from 1940 to 1969, meaning humans are still evolving and strengthening the trait.

Age, menstrual cycle, sports: Factors influencing fertility  11:22

"This shows the evolutionary pattern of high reproduction and low survival [and vice versa] is still visible in modern humans. Our gene variants are the product of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. What's surprising is that despite our far better health than ever before, this pattern is still visible," said Steven Austad, an expert in aging research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in the US, who wasn't involved in the study.
Why aren't humans more fertile in old age?

Scientists have been puzzling over the evolutionary origins of aging for some time. It's unclear why, from an evolutionary perspective, our reproductive performance declines with age. Surely being more fertile in old age would be evolutionary advantageous, giving us more time to pass on our genes?

Not so, according to the antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis. The hypothesis states that the benefits of fertility in early life are responsible for the dreadful cost of aging. This new study now provides robust evidence from a huge sample of humans to back it up.

"This idea is that some traits [and genetic variants that cause them] are important when we are young, helping us grow strong and be fertile. But, when we get older, those same traits can start causing problems and make us fragile and unhealthy. It's like some mutations having two sides: a good side when we're young, and a not-so-good side when we're old," said Arcadi Navarro Cuartiellas, a geneticist at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain who was not involved in the study.

One example is the effects of menopause and fertility loss in women. Eggs, sometimes called ova, deplete during a woman's lifetime. This makes a person more fertile in young adulthood, but results in loss of fertility later in life through menopause.

Genetic variants that increase the chances of having twins may also increase with aging

Pavlo Gonchar/ZUMAPRESS/picture alliance

Biologists think the benefits of regular cycles for reproduction may outweigh the cost of infertility in older age. The downside is that menopause speeds up aging.

"Another example is, say, a gene variant enhances fertility so that a woman is more likely to have twins. Evolutionarily that might be advantageous, because she will potentially leave more copies of that variant than women who have single babies. But having twins leads to more wear and tear on her body so she ages more quickly. That would be an antagonistically pleiotropic process," said Austad.

The converse is true as well. A gene variant that reduces fertility early in life will likely cause a person to have fewer or no children, so that the person ages more slowly, Austad added.
But how does the environment affect aging?

The antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis does have its criticisms, however. For one, it doesn't account for the huge effects of the environment and socioeconomic changes on aging, and nor does this study.

After all, humans are living longer than ever before in history, and it's mostly due to better health care rather than genetic evolution.

"These trends of phenotypic changes are primarily driven by environmental shifts including changes of lifestyles and technologies," said Zhang. "This contrast indicates that, compared with environmental factors, genetic factors play a minor role in the human phenotypic changes studied here."

Austad said a surprising outcome of the study was that reproductive genes had such a strong and observable effect on aging.

"Environmental factors are so important that I'm really surprised patterns [observed in this study] were still visible despite their importance. I think that is the advantage of having hundreds of thousands of individuals in a study," he said.

Research could have implications for aging

The antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis had "mountains of evidence before this paper but not for humans," according to Austad. But the research in humans, and with such a huge sample size, means the study could be important for understanding aging-related diseases.

"Ultimately, some of these variants could now be examined to see if they link to certain later life health problems, so that those problems can be monitored closely and possibly prevented," Austad told DW.

Scientists think the hypothesis could help explain why many serious genetic disorders are prevalent in our long evolutionary history.

Sickle cell anemia is a good example of antagonistic pleiotropy – whereby an inherited blood disorder which causes anemia actually evolved as a protective mechanism against malaria.

Can we counter the aging process?  04:16

Zhang told DW that antagonistic pleiotropy may also be at play in Huntington's disease.

"Mutations causing Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, also increase fecundity [the possible number of offspring produced]," Zhang said.

Mutations in the gene which causes Huntington's disease have also been hypothesized to lower rates of cancer.

Zhang said the paper could also have implications for the rising science of anti-aging.

"In theory, one could tinker with those antagonistically pleiotropic mutations to prolong life, but the downside would be reducing or delaying reproduction," said Zhang.

Edited by: Martin Kuebler

Pakistan's farms, mines in trouble with Afghans pushed out

COUNTRIES RELY ON MIGRANTS FOR CHEAP LABOR

Jamila Achakzai in Islamabad

DW

December 15, 2023

Skilled Afghan workers are in short supply in Pakistan as the country continues its clampdown on illegal migrants. Farmers and mine owners are now paying the price.

The clampdown on illegal immigrants also prompted some documented Afghans to leave Pakistan

Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo/picture alliance

The abrupt departure of thousands of undocumented Afghans has left Bibi Jawzara, an elderly Pakistani woman, "really worried."

For decades, she has relied on Afghan migrants to tend her farm in the southwestern province of Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan. But with Pakistani officials launching an effort to expel some 1.7 million undocumented Afghans last month, the septuagenarian has been struggling to find skilled workers to prune and fertilize apple trees and grapevines on her land.

"The crucial fertilizer time is upon me but I don't have enough workers for this job," she told DW. "As my sons and grandsons live in cities for business and education, Afghan refugees cared for our orchards for years. But now as they suddenly left for home to avoid deportation, we find ourselves in a real predicament."
Afghans going back after decades in Pakistan

Jawzara used to employ members of five Afghan Pashtun families, who fled their country after the Soviet invasion in 1979. Refugee women used to do chores in her house and men worked in fields, with the Pakistani woman and two of her sons supervising and helping them.

Even with new generations in the small community born and raised in Pakistan, they tended to live on Jawzara's farmland and be dependent on their employer for food, health care and other needs.

But the recent anti-immigrant clampdown has changed everything.

Pakistan: 'Afghan Shah Rukh Khan' fears deportation  02:38

Most undocumented Afghans in Pakistan were living in Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces — both bordering Afghanistan — and never felt residency documents were necessary, with their lives limited to their areas.

Earlier this year, the Pakistani government declared the presence of undocumented migrants to be both a security and economic challenge. Hundreds of thousands have already been expelled or left on their own.

And, despite Pakistani officials pledging that 2.3 million legal Afghan migrants were free to remain as long as their papers are valid, more than a few documented migrants also returned to their home country. They feared that Pakistan would soon try to deport them as well, and warned that the authorities look determined to send all Afghans — whether documented or undocumented — home.

Afghan workers, Pakistani employers caught 'off guard'

Afghan laborers have a reputation of being cheap, skilled and hardworking. They are also in a vulnerable position due to their living on foreign soil. The mass exodus has now sparked labor shortages in sectors like agriculture and mining in Pakistan's border areas.

"Orders for [undocumented] migrants to leave caught our Afghan workers, as well as us, off guard. Neither were they mentally prepared to go away on short notice, nor did we have any idea of what to do without them," said Jahangir Shah, who owns a coal mine in Balochistan's Duki district.

Afghans make up 60% of Shah's employees. The repatriation effort, according to the mine owner, forced him to briefly suspend mining operations. Even after the work was resumed with extended shifts, production was very slow due to labor shortages. Shah fears production targets will not be met.

"Our bids to return to normal face challenges, especially the unavailability of skilled workers," he told DW, adding that workers from other areas are "not coming in despite offers of better payment."
Trouble for Afghanistan

Pashtuns are the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan, with millions of them also living in Pakistan. Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen, a Pashtun serving as a senator in Pakistan's Balochistan, warns that almost 80% of workers in the mines and farms across the province were Afghan people.

Deported Afghans cross Pakistan border confused and angry  02:23

The exodus of Afghans will also stop remittances from Pakistan into Afghanistan, harming the latter's economic development, he said. The war-ravaged country is already facing a massive crisis following the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Tareen echoed the concerns of many activists and international organizations, noting that Afghans were given very little time to return to their home country despite spending years or decades on the other side of the border. Speaking with DW, he questioned the Pakistani government narrative that most departures were voluntary.
'Doom scenario' for local mining industry

Various political parties and trader associations have been protesting government policies since October 20 by staging a sit-in in the border town of Chaman. They have opposed visa restrictions in the wake of the anti-migrant clampdown.

Protesters in Chaman rejected the government's decision to boost border controls

Mohammad Usman/DW

Pir Muhammad Kakar, general secretary of the Balochistan chapter of the Pakistan Workers' Federation, pointed out that more than half of Afghans working in the province's mines had left, causing a "doom scenario" for the local mining industry, the largest income generator for the province.

Kakar said mine owners recently met caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti — himself a Balochistan native — who pledged to ensure that Afghan mine workers aren't unduly bothered. The minister also promised a proper policy to enable the workers to continue their employment, but this promise has yet to be fulfilled, according to Kakar.

Edited by: Darko Janjevic

Decoding China: How Agnes Chow became an enemy of the state

Dang Yuan
12/08/2023December 8, 2023

Agnes Chow is one of Hong Kong's prominent pro-democracy activists. She fled to Canada amid Beijing's tightening clampdown on dissent, and now cannot return.

Agnes Chow became politically active when she was 17, during the so-called Umbrella Revolution in 2014

Vincent Yu/AP Photo/picture alliance

John Lee, Hong Kong's chief executive, served as a police officer in the city for over three decades before entering into politics. During his various stints as a senior official in charge of the territory's security, Lee won the trust of the central government in Beijing and, with its approval, ascended in July 2022 to the post of chief executive, the official title of the head of government of the Chinese Special Administrative Region.

Lee is now personally devoting his attention to an ongoing investigation into pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow. "Unless she surrenders, she will be hunted for life," he said. The announcement immediately received the backing of Beijing.

"We support every effort by the Hong Kong administration and judiciary to fulfil their legal duties and apprehend the suspect," Wang Wenbin, a Chinese government spokesperson, said on Wednesday.

Fight for freedom

Chow celebrated her 27th birthday last weekend, not in her hometown of Hong Kong, but in the Canadian city of Toronto.

She has been studying there since September 2023 and recently announced on Instagram that she would not be returning to Hong Kong to face the criminal proceedings.

"Freedom without fear is priceless," the student wrote. "The future is uncertain, but I don't have to worry about being arrested. I can say and do what I want."

Chow is facing numerous criminal proceedings in Hong Kong, on accusations ranging from endangering state security to undermining the principle of "one country, two systems," which was agreed when Hong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

Exiled Hong Kongers cling to hopes for democracy  03:14

Under the framework, Hong Kong would keep some autonomy and freedoms, as well as a separate and independent judiciary, for 50 years following the handover. Safeguarding this special political arrangement was Chow's primary concern.

"It seems that the governments in Beijing and Hong Kong were not prepared for this step. They are now trying to use Chow as a precedent to intimidate others," said Sophie Reiß, China expert at the Berlin-based research institute MERICS.
Call for genuine democracy

Chow became politically active when she was 17, during the so-called Umbrella Revolution in 2014.

As a secondary school student representative, she took to the streets protesting a decision by Beijing to allow only candidates vetted by the Chinese government to participate in the city's elections.

The demonstrators called for genuine democracy in Hong Kong by reforming the electoral system and holding direct elections, as stipulated in the territory's Basic Law, even though it does not specify the exact time frame for direct elections. The mass protests, however, failed to get Beijing to change its policy.

In 2016, a new party called "Demosisto" was founded in Hong Kong by young activists in the pro-democracy camp.

Chow was then 20 years old and became the newly formed outfit's deputy general secretary. Demosisto was not just a protest party, it adopted a wide-ranging program to fight poverty and promote equality, as well as introduce taxes on vacant apartments and a direct vote to elect the chief executive.

At the beginning of 2018, Chow contested in the by-elections for the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo), which is the territory's legislature. The by-elections became necessary because Beijing had expelled six democratically elected representatives for deliberately falsifying the oath of office and thus allegedly not swearing allegiance to China.

Bounty on Hong Kong activists 04:23

But authorities disqualified Chow, claiming she wasn't a "patriot" as her party did not "honestly" support Hong Kong's Basic Law and the constitution of the People's Republic, even though she had declared support for the Chinese constitution in writing by signing the electoral application.

Criminal proceedings on the mainland

In 2019, the Hong Kong government wanted to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure and proposed an extradition law that would have allowed Hong Kong criminal suspects to be sent to the mainland for trial.

Hundreds of thousands protested against the bill for months. The authorities clamped down on the demonstrators. Due to increasing police violence against the demonstrations, protest leaders, including Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, called on Hong Kongers to besiege the police headquarters on June 12, 2019.

Several thousand activists responded to the call.

Two months later, Chow was arrested for "incitement to participate in illegal assemblies."

She pleaded guilty. A court in Hong Kong sentenced her to ten months in prison in December 2020.

In total, Chow spent six months and 20 days behind bars. When she left the maximum security prison "Tai Lam Centre for Women" in Hong Kong, she was celebrated like a hero by those waiting for her.

The massive public pressure forced the Hong Kong government to quietly withdraw the proposed extradition bill.

But this success was short-lived.

New security law curbs Hong Kong's freedoms

Not long after the withdrawal of the extradition bill, Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong — a remarkable move by the central government, in apparent violation of the principle of "Hong Kong administration by Hong Kongers."

The national security law criminalizes "secession," "subversion," "collusion with foreign forces to intervene in the city's affairs" as well as "terrorism."

Chow announced her resignation from the Demosisto party on the same day. The outfit was also dissolved at the same time.

"The security law was the decisive step towards ending the idea of one country, two systems," wrote Moritz Rudolf, of the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). "With the security law, the Chinese leadership is now creating facts. The move comes at the expense of individual liberties and accelerates the spread of socialist legal concepts in Hong Kong."

Hong Kong’s quiet opposition  06:09

"The case of Agnes Chow has received an extraordinary response because a young activist has, to a certain extent, run rings around the Chinese government," said China expert Reiß. "She is drawing international attention to her case and also to the situation in Hong Kong under the national security law, which is unlikely to go down well either in Hong Kong or in Beijing."
Quo vadis?

Agnes was arrested by Hong Kong police in August 2020. She was accused of engaging in "hostile activities with foreign powers" using social media platforms. Her call for foreign sanctions against Hong Kong was cited as evidence. All of this is said to have happened after the security law came into force.

She was released on bail in 2021, after spending more than six months in jail, on the condition she check in with police regularly. She also had to post a bail amount equivalent to about €3,000 and a personal guarantee worth €27,000.

However, Chow said in a recent social media post that she will no longer respect the bail conditions, and will remain in Canada. She pointed to Beijing's tightening crackdown on dissent and protesters in Hong Kong as the reason behind her decision.

Reiß, the China expert, shares Chow's view. "Laws, legal proceedings and personal reprisals are used to put activists under pressure, even those who are abroad," he noted.

"The democracy movement in Hong Kong has largely been suppressed through intimidation, changes to the law and institutional discrimination. At the moment, there is no sign of the situation improving in the foreseeable future."

"Decoding China" is a DW series that examines Chinese positions and arguments on current international issues from a critical German and European perspective.

This article was translated from German.