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Another week and Afghan family’s plea is still ignored by Clare Daly
10th April 2022
An Afghan family living in fear in Kabul says that MEP Clare Daly is continuing to ignore their pleas for help.
The family was originally interviewed by Extra.ie last January about their plight since the Taliban took control of their country.
Last Tuesday – the day Ms Daly and MEP Mick Wallace tabled a motion in the EU parliament in Strasbourg on women’s rights in Afghanistan – the family contacted the MoS, asking: ‘Please Ma’am, have you heard from Clare Daly?
‘We have still received no reply from her though we have tried again and again
‘We are very desperate as the Taliban are going door to door here now and we are very frightened.’
The family first contacted Ms Daly in mid-March, asking her to assist them to get a visa waiver for Ireland after hearing her impassioned speech to the European Parliament on March 7.
Ms Daly excoriated European governments for helping Ukrainian refugees while ignoring millions of Afghans living under the Taliban.
Addressing the parliament in Brussels, Ms Daly remonstrated angrily about the EU’s response to the war in Ukraine: ‘Meanwhile in Afghanistan… tens of thousands are seeking refuge. Five million children are facing famine, there is a 500% increase in child marriages. Children are being sold to feed families and not a mention of it.
© Provided by Extra.ie
‘My God, they must be wondering what makes their humanitarian crisis so unimportant,’ she said. The speech was retweeted more than 16,000 times and was translated into different arabic languages.
Having seen the video on social media, the mother of the family of eight, six of whom are women involved in women’s education, wrote a lengthy email to Ms Daly on March 16 asking for her help in getting a visa waiver for Ireland.
Despite sending reminder emails, the family has not even received an acknowledgement of their correspondence.
This week, Ms Daly announced her support again on her Twitter feed for Amir Zahiri and Akif Razuli, two Afghan asylum seekers appealing a huge sentence in Greece. Ms Daly and Mr Wallace travelled to Greece two weeks ago, to support the men appealing a joint 50-year sentence for people-smuggling.
Extra.ie has tried to contact Ms Daly for more than three weeks on behalf of the family.
However, the MEP has not responded to any messages.
Sinn Féin MEP Chris McManus did respond to us to say: ‘I saw the story about them in the Mail and, of course, they can write to me. I can’t give people false hope, but I’ll try.’
On Friday, veteran BBC journalist John Simpson tweeted a picture of Ms Daly on Russian TV, where she was introduced as a ‘voice of reason’.
Simpson wrote: ‘This is Clare Daly, an Irish MEP, appearing on Russian TV. In late January, Daly described the Russian troop build-up on the Ukrainian border as being “clearly defensive”, and said there was no evidence that Russia had any desire to invade Ukraine.’
This week, Ms Daly attacked the sanctions on Russia in a speech in the European Parliament. She and Mr Wallace had voted against a motion to condemn the Russian invasion, criticising support of Nato and the EU’s proposals to send vital arms to Ukraine.
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