March 04, 2023

As the West abandons Afghanistan, migrants drown at sea

topic:	Refugees and Asylum
located:	Afghanistan, Italy
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

At least 80 Afghan men, women and children lost their lives last month in a shipwreck off the Italian coast as they attempted to find a new haven. The Afghan migrants, fleeing the Taliban regime at home and feeling neglected by the world, resorted to taking on the ocean waves in search of freedom, but were met with another tragic fate.

Italy - a major NATO ally that was engaged in Afghanistan for decades - has been cracking down on humanitarian organisations that provide support to sea-bound migrants, cruelly allowing these innocent people to drown rather than providing them safe haven.

Let’s look at the bigger picture.

There had been serious warnings of a refugee crisis emerging from Afghanistan when the U.S. handed over the war-ravaged country to the Taliban with the Doha Agreement. Following the treaty, the collective West, mainly European countries, abandoned the country by cutting aid for crucial humanitarian efforts and imposing sanctions on the country’s banking system. Within months, a country with relative stability plunged into a terrible humanitarian crisis.

Some have defended the country’s policy, proffering that unregulated movement across borders is illegal without proper documentation. However, the efforts led by the US to stifle Afghanistan with harsh sanctions has left desperate Afghans with no method of obtaining visas or means of travel, leaving them with no other recourse.

Afghanistan's wealthy neighbours, particularly the Gulf countries, are equally to blame for this human tragedy as they did not grant the migrant workers or refugees the rights they are promised in the West.  

Those seeking to flee include Afghans who performed their duties for two decades with the American and European government, private and non-government organisations should be entitled to a safe evacuation. Afghanistan’s entire middle class is living on borrowed time, spending their entire life’s savings mainly in Pakistan, Iran and Turkey in hopes of getting their promised evacuation. They have even been exploited by human traffickers who collaborate with the authorities in the host countries. 

Of course evacuating everyone is not the solution. 

However, expediting humanitarian efforts inside Afghanistan to provide sustainable livelihood rather than promoting the life-long dependency on charity should be implemented in conjunction with migration assistance. The West must also engage with the Afghan authorities in a much more effective way than outlined in the Doha Agreement so that an acceptable government is instituted in Kabul which can take responsibility for its international commitments and start serving its people.  

Until that is done, the refugees and migrants must receive a much more humane treatment than letting them die at sea.

Image by Aude-Andre Saturnio 

Call to Action

Here's how you can support vulnerable Afghans trapped under Taliban rule

Support now