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Save the Afghan people
Many fear for their lives, knowing the Taliban’s murderous reputation and their disregard for human rights, particularly in their treatment of women.
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Evacuees from Afghanistan arrive in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, aboard a German Air Force Luftwaffe Airbus A400 on Aug. 17 in this photo obtained from Twitter account @Bw_Einsatz. (Reuters/-)
T
he world may be watching a humanitarian catastrophe unfold in Afghanistan. It should be preventable, but the global community needs to respond quickly. And that is just the problem; the world is not ready.
The tens of thousands of people in Kabul trying to flee the country following the Taliban’s return to power are just the beginning. Last week’s scene at Kabul airport, with dozens desperately clinging to a United States Army transport plane as it was taking off, embodied the fear many Afghans have for their lives. Hundreds of thousands others, possibly millions, will be fleeing the country over its borders, particularly to Pakistan to the east and Iran to the west.
Their fear of the Taliban is understandable. The group was ruthless and deadly when it came to power in the 1990s, applying a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Many citizens fear Taliban reprisals for having worked for or supported the US-buttressed Afghan government for the last 20 years, and many others who were not directly involved in the war effort fear for their lives, knowing the Taliban’s murderous reputation and their disregard for human rights, particularly in their treatment of women.
Despite the group’s promises to respect lives and the rights of women, many Afghans would rather not take the risk. Staying or fleeing, they could perish either way, but many feel they have a better chance of survival outside of the country. They will invoke their right to seek asylum to avoid persecution, a right recognized under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We have seen this time and time again with conflicts and wars in recent years – in Syria, Myanmar, Venezuela and many others. But many fear that the wave of Afghan refugees will be much larger, perhaps even of the scale seen after the Vietnam war in the 1970s, an episode that resulted in the coinage of the term “boat people”. We do not know how many will try to flee, but we fear it will be chaotic.
The question that must be answered before the waves of Afghan refugees begin is: Who will take them? And the next question is: How many must they take in? Under international law, the 143 countries that signed the 1951 Refugee Convention have an obligation to take these refugees.
But the United States and its allies, including NATO members and Australia, have the moral duty to take as many Afghan asylum seekers as they can. They went into Afghanistan in 2001 and began a military occupation in an attempt to impose liberal democracy in the country. Now, 20 years later, they have given up, lost the war to the Taliban and are leaving behind a big mess. The Afghan refugees, first and foremost, are their problem and their responsibility.
The European Union is already shutting its doors to Afghan refugees, although some individual members have said they will take some. The US is flying out certain Afghans who have been granted special visas. But the country can only air lift so many before the Aug. 31 deadline to end all evacuation operations in Afghanistan.
The refugee intake will likely be a fraction of the total Afghans seeking asylum for the sake of their lives. And the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, which is already overwhelmed with 80 million displaced people worldwide, says it is underfunded by 43 percent.
Is the world really this helpless?
