Afghan Reporters Denied Visas To London Conference On Afghanistan

Last week, the International Conference on Afghanistan was held in London (here’s a link to a wrap-up.) Hundreds of reporters from dozens of countries covered the event, which featured addresses from UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

But journalists from Afghanistan were desperately underrepresented, with only five Afghan reporters attending the conference. It wasn’t for lack of interest.

Editors and reporters in Kabul tell me that 18 journalists applied for visas to cover the conference, but 13 of the applications were rejected.

The British Home Office and UK Border Agency, through interviews and a written statement, say that the visas were rejected for sound reasons,  specifically because many of the journalists lied in their applications.

“I can assure you that [the applications] were all assessed and rejected for valid reasons,” Cubby Fox, spokesperson for the Home Office in London told me. These reasons included “a mutilated passport [and] not declaring their previous travel immigration history.” Fox says that some of the journalists lied on the official visa form, saying that they had never been to the UK, when in fact they had visited at least once before.

But Afghan journalists are skeptical. It’s easy enough to imagine one or two journos fibbing on the application, but all 13?

Danish Karokhel, editor-in-chief of the Pajwok news service (whose own visa application was granted) says the real reason that the visas were denied may have been the British government’s fear the Afghan journalists wouldn’t leave the UK after the conference ended.

“I think one of the reasons they did not issue the visas is that [the British] were worried that some of these journalists would escape Afghanistan and not come back,” he says. “I think that is the main reason…”

Karokhel told me he’s seen it happen before.

“We’ve had several cases of Afghan journalists that go abroad and don’t come back,” he says. “About two years ago there was a journalism conference in Germany. 12 Afghans went and just four came back…The embassies don’t trust us anymore.”

Most galling to the Afghan reporters who were allowed to attend, there were three delegations of reporters from Pakistan, more than 20 people, according to one conference attendee.

“It was an Afghan conference and there were just five Afghans there,” says Karokhel. “It is important for Afghan media to participate in such conferences. It would have positively affected all Afghan media.”

(I wrote a more complete version of this story for the Afghan magazine Killid Weekly. When that version goes online, I’ll try and post it here.)