As a result of America’s abandonment of Afghanistan and its Afghan allies, refugees are seeking to flee the country in fear of the brutal Taliban. It raises the question: Will America save Afghan refugees?
To date, the Biden administration has talked about a welcoming refugee policy but has yet to implement one. With the crisis in Afghanistan, the time to act is now, note experts.
“The Biden administration’s blind eye to Afghan nationals is a stain on the United States,” said Ali Noorani, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, in an interview. “Once the Biden administration announced the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, it was not hard to predict the collapse of the nation. What is astonishing is the utter lack of planning by the administration to develop and execute a plan to protect the lives of tens of thousands of Afghan nationals who worked with our military. Men, women, children whose only crime was to help our troops will be killed as a result.
“The administration needs to evacuate as many SIV [Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans] applicants, their families and those eligible for protection to Guam—or another U.S. territory—immediately. While it will be too late for many stranded across Afghanistan, such an operation will save the lives of a few. Furthermore, the U.S. needs to rally the international community to prepare for what will likely be a massive surge of Afghan refugees. It is past time to see, with both eyes, what has happened as a result of this failure.”
There are at least three categories of Afghans most in need of protection from the Taliban. First, as Ali Noorani points out, are those individuals who worked with the U.S. military. Dan Lamothe of Washington Post reported on August 15, 2021, “The U.S. government have likely rescued less than 2,000 Afghan interpreters and their family members at this point.” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, estimated there are “88,000 allies and family members in the Special Immigrant Visa application process.”
A second group includes men and women who worked with U.S. and Western governmental or nongovernmental organizations in capacities that put them at significant risk. Third, are Afghans whose actions or political opinions make it impossible for them to live safely under Taliban rule.
On August 13, 2021, Refugees International President Eric P. Schwartz argued for establishing a “humanitarian land corridor” to Pakistan to help those fleeing the Taliban. Events may have overtaken this recommendation. “The rapidly developing situation in Afghanistan, including the imminent siege of Kabul, requires swift action and humanitarian diplomacy from the United States and its international partners to protect civilians and ensure safe passage out of the country for those who need it,” he said. “This will require a massive evacuation effort for those Afghans most at risk and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor out of Kabul.”
The closest analogy to the situation in Afghanistan is the end of the Vietnam War. “After the fall of Saigon, nearly a million South Vietnamese fled across the sea as so-called boat people,” said Schwartz. “The United States resettled many hundreds of thousands in the United States, and more through an ‘Orderly Departure Program.’ We owe Afghans the same degree of decency.”
As detailed in the book Honorable Exit by Thurston Clarke, the United States was also unprepared to help refugees when the Vietnam’s government fell. However, in the first year of its resettlement plan, the United States resettled 120,000 refugees from Vietnam and the region. “During the next 25 years, they were joined by another 1.3 million Vietnamese,” writes Clarke. “Some were boat people; others left under the United Nations Orderly Departure Program, a plan instituted to alleviate the horrors experienced by the boat people.”
In Northern Virginia, one can see the contributions Vietnamese refugees have made to America. Amy Truong came to the United States at age 17. In Vietnam, her father owned a store similar to a Home Depot. Communist authorities confiscated the store soon after the takeover. “They took everything from our family,” said Amy.
Members of her family escaped the country at different times. A boat destined for Hong Kong carried Amy’s mother, father, aunt, sister and 14-year-old brother. Her brother died on the boat. On a separate boat, Amy traveled with three sisters. She spent months in a refugee camp in the Philippines before being accepted as a refugee to the United States.
In America, Amy has worked as a hairdresser and home health aide, and has raised two children. One son, Andy, works as an emergency medical technician (EMT). The other son, Long “Junior” Dinh, worked as a Fairfax County police officer. He was severely injured in the line of duty during a head-on crash while pursuing a suspect. So badly damaged was his vehicle, Dinh had to be cut out of the police cruiser and rushed to the hospital.
Dinh survived the crash, and after several surgeries and extensive rehabilitation he is married and living a normal life. He told his mother the reason he joined the police force: “I want to give back to America.”
Analysts will debate the Biden administration’s actions in Afghanistan. Having made the decision to withdraw, the Biden administration must fulfill an obligation to those abandoned to the Taliban and, together with our allies and those in the region, offer a place for Afghan refugees to live their lives in safety.
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America Must Save Afghan Refugees From The Taliban - Forbes
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