Afghan fruit pickers jobless

Afghanistan’s festive pomegranate season has begun, but this year thousands of tonnes of the juicy red fruit risk rotting on trucks blocked at Pakistan’s frequently shuttered border — leaving thousands of farm workers jobless.

The pomegranate is renowned for its health benefits, and is one of the most important crops in the country’s south. But the fruit is ripening as Afghanistan finds itself engulfed in a multitude of crises that have metastasised since the Taliban seized control two months ago.