Afghanistan: A Month Later
What a Mess! Where can Afghan Refugees Flee? What Will Happen to Them?
Many Afghans fled their country in a mass exodus after the U.S. pulled out troops when the Taliban took over this August. Where are they? What countries have taken in refugees?
Erdogan says Turkey has already taken in 300,000 Afghan refugees in recent years, but is now closing its borders. He criticizes the U.S. for not taking more refugees. As of today, CBS reports that Turkey is not taking in any more Afghan refugees. “Turkey builds a wall to keep out Afghan refugees”, by Pinar Sevinclidir.
Pakistan has already taken in 1.4 million Afghan immigrants in recent years, and has become home for some three million Afghans since the USSR invaded in 1979. It now claims that it has shut its border to the current wave of refugees fleeing Afghanistan, saying that it cannot take one more. When asked by the U.S. to keep its borders open to fleeing Afghans, one Pakistani posted on Twitter, “Why doesn’t the U.S. keep its borders open to Mexico?”
Iran has also absorbed 951,000 Afghan immigrants in recent years. Hussein Ghassemi, an official with Iran’s interior ministry, reported in August that they were setting up emergency tents in three provinces that border Afghanistan. However, this has been denied by the Iranian government. In news coverage as of September 1, it has reportedly closed its borders to Afghan refugees in this current crisis.
How many Afghan refugees have been given asylum in the U.S.? Apparently the United States is only accepting those Afghans who have previously worked for the government. According to a September 1 article by Christina Wilkie, “23,876 at risk Afghans have already arrived in the United States.”. They are being housed temporarily at military bases: Fort Lee, Fort Pickett, Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, Fort Bliss in Texas, and Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
In a State Department briefing by Ned Price, a questioner stated that there are some 49,000 Afghan refugees presently being housed at U.S. air bases. This is the number given in a New York Times article on September 16, “Thousands of Afghans on American Military Bases Await Resettlement” by Jennifer Steinhauer and Eileen Sullivan.
As the international community scrabbles to respond to the ongoing diaspora of Afghans fleeing their country, (estimated to be as many as 500,000 this year), a few countries have made commitments to receive refugees: Germany - 10,000, Canada - 20,000, U.K. - 20,000, Australia - 3,000.
Austria already has 40,000 Afghan immigrants, and says it will accept no more because of integration problems. In fact, it has joined with Serbia to prevent Afghans from coming to the European Union, insisting that countries neighboring Afghanistan should take them in instead.
Tajikstan is a neighboring country that has taken in 1,000 Afghan refugees, but says it needs financial help to take in more. Uzbekistan has said that they may come in only temporarily, on their way to a third country. Tajikistan has taken in 3000 Afghan families in recent years, but says it lacks the infrastructure to accept more.
In an Al-Jazeera article August 19 by Mansur Mirovalev, “Afghanistan’s Central Asian Neighbours Panic, Reject Refugees” officials in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan expressed fear that terrorists could mix with refugees and undermine security in their countries. For this reason, Russia has said that it will not accept any Afghan refugees. It has also been a concern for Iran and other countries as well.
In an article on the Middle East Institute website, “The Afghan Refugee Crisis: What Does It Mean for Iran?”, Fatemeh Aman analyzes Iran’s mixed history of accepting Afghan refugees.
“Iran has always been a preferred destination for Afghans escaping Afghanistan. However, due to an economic downturn and now the COVID-19 pandemic, many Afghan refugees with means have left Iran in recent years for Europe. In the past, Iran has employed seasonal workers.”
Iran has closed its borders to Afghan refugees today. There are about 780,000 registered Afghan refugees and 2.3 million undocumented Afghans who live in Iran, 55% of them in Tehran, Isfahan, and Razavi Khorasan. There has been discrimination against Afghans in general and undocumented ones in particular.
For those Afghans fortunate enough to be granted asylum in the U.S., their refugee status could change quickly once they find a job. Hamdi Ulakaya, CEO of Chobani (known for its yogurt), created a Tent Coalition for Afghan Refugees some five years ago, that has enlisted over 30 companies to provide jobs for Afghans who have fled to the U.S., including large companies such as Amazon, Uber, the Gap, Mastercard, and UPS.
There is grave concern for the plight of Afghan refugees, even though most countries are not prepared to take in many of them. The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) put together a plan to address the Afghanistan Situation, the Regional Refugee Preparation and Response Plan, setting forth a summary and interagency funding requirement for July- December 2021. They estimate that there are 558,000 displaced Afghans in 2021, 80% of who are women and children. The majority of those were uprooted internally by Taliban fighting. However, many of them are leaving Afghanistan now, any way they can.
Despite so much dismaying news, you also hear of heartening stories of support, such as The LEGO Foundation and KIRKBI, the owners of the LEGO Group, who contributed $4.7 million to support UNHCR’s emergency response in Afghanistan.
However, the situation for hundreds of thousands of Afghans looks bleak, as they may never find a haven. The U.S. has frozen financial assets in the Afghanistan government to prevent the Taliban from having access to the money. However, this impacts services to the people of Afghanistan, creating an even greater humanitarian crisis.
China has criticized the U.S., saying that it should unfreeze the frozen assets (reportedly $9.5 billion in central bank assets), and not use it as a bargaining chip. In an article by Laura Zhou in the South China Morning Post September 15, “Ambassador to Kabul, Wang Yu, tells acting Afghanistan Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi that China welcomes Taliban guarantee to safeguard its investments. Beijing has pledged US$31 million worth of aid, including food and coronavirus vaccines”.
“The US should give up the path of sanctioning, and should not create obstacles for the peaceful reconstruction and economic development of Afghanistan,” Zhao said.
Although I realize that opposing interests and geopolitical considerations between the U.S., China, Iran and other countries makes the plight of Afghan refugees a political football, I stand with China in their demand to unfreeze the central bank assets of Afghanistan. Sanctions only hurt the poorest of the poor the most, and the U.S. must find more humane ways to deal with the aftermath of the military pullout and takeover of the country by the Taliban.