The rape of a 15-year-old girl in the U.K. by two teenage Afghan asylum-seekers has sparked fury among American commentators.
Jan Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, were given custodial sentences at Warwick crown court on Monday after a judge found they raped a 15-year-old girl in Leamington Spa, a town in central England, on 10 May.
Jahanzeb, who came to the UK in January this year, and Niazal, who arrived in November 2024, had both pleaded guilty to rape at an earlier hearing.
Writing on X, U.S. based commentators denounced the incident and called for stronger action on migration.
Why It Matters
There has been increased scrutiny on Afghan nationals in the U.S. after Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national was charged with murder, accused of shooting two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., in November.
Trump said in a video statement released by the White House on X: “The suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth. He was floated by the Biden administration in September 2021 for those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.”
D.C. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed, and Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically wounded in the shootings. Both had been deployed to D.C. as part of an ongoing federal mission that the Trump administration says is intended to address crime.
The Trump administration has said the U.S. should now reexamine Afghans who entered the U.S. in recent years, and has stopped processing immigration requests from Afghan nationals.
Concerns have been raised about the stigmatization of Afghan nationals.
What To Know
Writing on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to a story about the rape saying: “A government that fails to protect its citizens is illegitimate.”
An account called God & Country with over 59,000 followers and the bio “American Patriot” shared an image which said: “Remove all their benefits they will deport themselves.”
Gunther Eagleman, a MAGA account with 1.6 million followers, wrote: “We need to deport them as well.”
American anti-immigration group Immigration Accountability Project wrote: “Exactly why America needs to pass an immigration moratorium.”
The convictions come after President Donald Trump called Europe a “decaying” group of nations led by “weak” people in an interview with Politoco. He said U.S. allies had failed to control migration and end the Russia-Ukraine war.
What People Are Saying
Judge Sylvia De Bertodano said in her ruling: “What you two did on that evening changed [the victim’s] life for ever.”
An impact statement read on behalf of the victim said: “The day I was raped changed me as a person. Every time I go out I don’t feel safe. So much so that I’ve started to avoid it altogether. This has also impacted my education and school life at the worst possible time.”
An impact statement from the victim’s mother said: “We have watched our vibrant, happy and confident daughter shrink down and suffer with anxiety so bad, she is often physically sick.”
What Happens Next
Jahanzeb and Niazal face possible deportation and have been ordered to register as sex offenders.
Jahanzeb was served deportation papers and has been sentenced to a youth detention term of 10 years and eight months. Niazal was sentenced to nine years and 10 months. The judge invited the government to recommend he be deported too.
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