Afghanistan Times
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The pain etched on refugee faces on Greek and Turkish shores does not remain there. Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Europe, Pakistan, and Iran are being forced to return home. The minister of refugees and repatriation, Sayed Hussain Alemi Balkhi, said it was initially expected that over a hundred thousand Afghans were to be departed from the European countries in 2017. However, as a result of efforts by the government and other international organizations, only a few hundreds were sent back to Afghanistan during this period. At the same time, two million migrants voluntarily returned home, but not from European countries—it is from neighborhood. Currently, there are two million Afghan migrants in Pakistan, more than two million in Iran, and 1.6 million in Europe, America, Australia, and Arab states. Refugees living in Iran and Pakistan are willing to repatriate due to several reasons—one of it is a bad behavior of the host countries. Those who are in European countries are never willing to come back, but, however 1,300 Afghans have been deported so far—its freezing is a must to prevent humanitarian crisis. An unprecedented humanitarian crisis is likely to be here as a result of sending refugees back to Afghanistan—many of them destitute—return to what is effectively a countrywide war zone, with the Taliban insurgents attacking half of dozen provinces. Moreover, we are already in a severe winter, when essential supplies are even harder to obtain. It is very hard for the government to help these refugees or resettle them in a proper manner, while there are plenty of other challenges remained to be resolved. It is the need of the hour that the man-made humanitarian catastrophe to be stopped. If the refugees flood, this human tragedy will be ended with misery scenarios. In the midst of war and poverty, the European Countries have to speak up in favor of Afghans by accepting them. To understand them better, you need to put yourself into their shoes by receiving green light to make your life more miserable by threatening to deport you to a country where there is no hope, no home, no security, and no job. Would you wait and see whether things calmed down or pack your bags and leave? Surely you do best to convince them to let you live a life away from horror. We are humans, and it is our right to live in peaceful countries by crossing human-made boundaries. European Union would be betray Afghan refugees by sending them back Afghanistan, despite evidences that people are at real risk of serious human rights violations with uncomfortable security situation even more dangerous than ever. Instead of coming together to figure out a permanent policy to handle refugees, EU countries are currently trying to ship refugees back and forth to each other en masse. Currently, Afghanistan itself faces a staggering internal displacement crisis. Our IDPs population will almost certainly exceed two million people. So already too much problems are doing round here—don’t add to these challenges if can’t help to reduce it.
