Mediaboss Marketing

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

MISSION, Texas The crisis at the southern border, which has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants encountered at the border in recent months and has overwhelmed Border Patrol agents while causing a massive political headache for the Biden administration, shows little sign of slowing down amid concerns that there are further migrant groups on their way.

In a nighttime tour of the border near Mission, Texas, Fox News saw groups of migrants coming across, predominantly families, who were pointed in the direction of nearby processing areas.

SEN. BLACKBURN TOURS BORDER, SAYS CRISIS CANNOT CONTINUE AS SHE CALLS ON BIDEN TO STEP UP

Oct. 8, 2021: Texas law enforcement patrols the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

Border Patrol agents told Fox News that migrant family units were unlikely to be removed under Title 42 public health protections (only 19% of family units were removed under Title 42 in August) and instead would likely be processed and released into the interior potentially at a nearby bus station either that night or in the morning.

"Processing," one frustrated agent told Fox News, echoing a common complaint from agents that they aren't in the field. "Thats all we do, process."

MIGRANT CRISIS COULD BRING 1M PEOPLE TO US-MEXICO BORDER, GUATEMALAN ACTIVIST WARNS

The Biden administration ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) which kept migrants in Mexico as they awaited their immigration proceedings. Separately, they also ended asylum cooperative agreements (ACAs) which meant migrants would claim asylum in Northern Triangle countries instead.

With those changes, the administration has also ended the practice known as "catch and release," something the Trump administration had used a patchwork of policies to end. Now, while single adults are mostly still being removed from the U.S., migrant families are mostly allowed to enter the U.S. -- handed only a Notice to Appear at court or a Notice to Report to a nearby Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.

Republicans have blamed the dramatic changes in policy, including the ending of border wall construction, for the surge in migration. More than 200,000 migrants were encountered in July and August, and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has reportedly warned of a worst-case scenario of 400,000 migrants hitting the border if Title 42 public health expulsions are ended.

The Biden administration, however, has blamed a mixture of Trump administration policies and "root causes" in Central America for the surge.

A sign pointing migrants toward processing centers.

"The downturn in economies, the attendant rise in violence, the downturn in economies made more acute by reason of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the suppression of any humanitarian relief over the past number of years, and the pent-up thirst for relief among many different populations," Mayorkas said in an interview this week. "I think an accumulation of factors contributes to the rise in migration that we've seen."

The dangers for migrants remain significant. Typically, they are dropped off by a smuggler -- who are typically paid around $10,000 per person -- at the Mexico side of the border. They walk across the brush for hours, where they face extreme heat, treacherous terrain and wildlife dangers like tarantulas and rattlesnakes, before they are then met by a smuggler on the U.S. side.

Migrants, however, frequently will get disorientated during the journey or injured, and can get lost. Border Patrol put up laminated signs directing migrants toward the processing centers to avoid more migrant deaths and injuries.

Oct 8, 2021: A fence damaged by migrants illegally crossing into the U.S.

One local official told Fox News that it can be difficult to prosecute smugglers as illegal immigrants are reluctant to testify against smugglers as they will often be offered a discount for repeat crossings.

Meanwhile, ranchers in the area told Fox News how migrants will wreck fences as they climb through their property, that gang activity is up in the area, and warned how deaths of migrants in the area are on their way back up to levels not seen since 2012.

"Its a huge disaster, disaster and Im right there so close to the border," one rancher told Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who visited a ranch in South Texas on Friday. "The drugs are coming across like you wouldnt believe, and they dont stay here -- they dont stay here at the border."

Blackburn also attended a briefing with local officials, including the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). There officials said that DPS alone had encountered 334 gang members from 88 different gangs this year alone, and there have been 35 violent conflicts in the south part of the states -- and that August had seen the highest number yet.

Officials talked about how the situation had been exacerbated by the Haitian migrant surge, where DPS put up a wall of cars to stop the surge of more than 15,000 migrants under the Del Rio bridge.

They are also taking preventative measures to deal with reports of up to 60,000 migrants coming up from Panama, as part of a broader push by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to contain the flood of migrants across the border.

"We dont have any clear information to suggest where they're going to go," one DPS official told the Republican senator. "Ive heard El Paso, I've heard Arizona, I've heard California."

Meanwhile, they have seen a dramatic increase in vehicular pursuits, with some parts seeing a 1000%+ increase in the number of vehicle pursuits -- often packed with illegal immigrants -- in over the same time last year.

The Trump-era border wall remains unfinished after the Biden administration put a stop to it. (Fox News)

Border Patrol agents told Fox that DPS help was invaluable, but also that its the type of thing they should be doing rather than the processing and caregiving duties they are frequently assigned. Both DPS and Border Patrol officials contrasted their respective morales, with DPS agents in good spirits contrasting with Border Patrol agents frustrated with what the federal government is making them do and the limits placed upon them.

Fox also visited the incomplete parts of the border wall, which had been constructed during the Trump administration, but had been put a halt to by the Biden administration. The towering wall sweeps along the border, before ending abruptly.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

On Friday, the administration announced the further cancellation of border wall contracts in Rio Grande Valley and Laredo, days after former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott had warned that it was at one ponts costing the U.S. $5 million a day not to build the wall.

A few days later, Fox News took footage of migrants walking past incomplete border wall construction in La Joya, Texas, something that has been seen numerous times this year.

Fox News' Bill Melugin contributed to this report.

Follow this link:
Border crisis overwhelming officials, communities as ...

On December 4, 2000, the United Nations declared December 18 as International Migrants Day. The U.N. did so to recognize the increasing number of migrants around the world and to reaffirm member nations commitments to migrants freedoms and human rights.

Nearly two decades later, compounding issues around the world have led to over 65 million people displaced abroad or within their own bordersthe most ever recorded by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR). In recognition of the complexity of this issue and the millions of people displaced around the world, we want to highlight what Brookings scholars are saying about the greatest challenges and successes in global migration today.

The state of refugees, migrants, and internally displaced people by the numbers

In an episode of the Brookings Cafeteria podcast earlier this year, Jessica Brandt, fellow in Institutional Initiatives, provided context on the scale of the global refugee crisis and identified steps that the United States and international community should take in order to provide relief. Citing data from a UNHCR report, Brandt pointed out that on average, 24 people per minute, per day worldwide were forced to flee their home in 2015. About 1 out of every 113 people worldwide were either asylum seekers, refugees, or internally displaced, and about half of the worlds refugee population was under the age of 18.

Two-thirds of the worlds displaced population actually remain within the borders of their own country, as Elizabeth Ferris, nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program, points out. In June, Ferris unpacked the numbers of global refugees, and noted that the internationally displaced populationwhich accounts for most of the growth in overall global displacementhas grown from 25 million in 1992 to 40.3 million in 2016 (although at least some of that increase is likely due to greater awareness of internal displacement and better tracking).

The Syrian civil war

After almost 7 years of civil war, half of Syrias population has been displaced, creating over 6 million refugees, about a third of the worlds total refugee population. Turkey hosts half of these refugees, with large numbers in Lebanon and Jordan, too, the frontline states on Syrias border. Lebanon hosts more than 1 million refugees, which amounts to more than one in five people in the country. In Jordan, that number is one in ten at least.

According to Brandt and co-author Robert McKenzie, large flows of displaced people into these neighboring states causes real strains. They note the sheer scale of the refugee crisis poses unparalleled humanitarian, economic, and political challenges in an already fragile region.

Many of these refugees have limited access to labor market opportunities, education, and other public goods and, according to Brandt and McKenzie, are often forced to work in the grey economy where they are vulnerable to exploitation. They write that lack of resources available for refugees, compounded by a myriad of legal, bureaucratic, and administrative challenges, makes it difficult for international NGOs to provide humanitarian assistance on-the-ground.

Just last week, Brookings hosted an event with a young Syrian refugee, Saria Samakie, who candidly discussed his story and experience as a refugee in America. In the short clip below, Samakie answers a question from the audience on when and under what conditions he believes people will begin to return to Syria.

Other crises around the globe

While Syria is understandably a focal point in the refugee crises, there are many other parts to the worlds migration story. We should not overlook the people attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar fleeing religious persecution into Bangladesh and India, and thousands of Dominicans stateless in the Caribbean, about each of which Brookings scholars have written.

After Syria, more refugees come from Afghanistan than any other country in the world. Many are in Pakistan, but in a recent analysis, Brookings Nonresident Fellow Madiha Afzal explains how over 600,000 have already repatriated back to a country that is still under attack by the Afghan Taliban. According to Afzal, this voluntary repatriation is often enforced through police extortion, bribery, and the confiscation of legal documents, and supported by Pakistans narrative that Afghan refugees are economic burdens, criminals, and terrorists.

Cities are on the frontlines and should be part of the solution

Now more than ever, refugees are going to cities and they are staying longer. Cities would like to step up and play an even bigger role in the U.N.s global compact on migration, but President Trump wants out, in the words of Jessica Brandt.

Brookings Centennial Scholar Bruce Katz and Jessica Brandt explain that many of the elements critical to an effective emergency response, as well as to long-term integration, are designed, delivered, and financed at the local level. Those elements include housing, healthcare, education, skills training, and social services of every sort.

Today, roughly 60 percent of the worlds 22 million refugees and 80 percent of the worlds internally displaced population reside in cities rather than in camps. This puts a heavy strain on cities, especially as the length of displacement increases. During the early 1990s, the average length of displacement was nine years. Today, it is roughly 20. At the end of last year, more than 11 million refugeestwo-thirds of the global totalwere in a protracted situation.

Brandt explains that cities need a seat at the table when developing an approach to the refugee and migrant crisis. She also argues that the UNHCR should incorporate towns and cities with sizeable refugee populations into the testing and development of new approaches. UNHCR should also encourage U.N. member states to engage in meaningful collaboration with municipal authorities by facilitating the flow of technical expertise and resources to towns and cities. Likewise, Brandt recommends that the international humanitarian community should develop ways to source innovative approaches to refugee integration directly from cities.

The politics of migration and the refugee crises

In his first year in office, President Trump has tried on multiple occasions to fulfill his campaign promise of a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. Brookings experts have written extensively (here, here, and here) on the different renditions of these travel bans, issued via executive order, as well as their battles in court. As it stands today, the Supreme Court has granted a full stay on the third version of Trumps executive order while its legality is being challenged in appeals courts.

Brookings scholars rebutted arguments that these orders are necessary to ensure the safety and security of Americans. As Brandt explained on the Brookings Cafeteria podcast in March, America already has an extremely thorough vetting system for refugees, and of the nearly 860,000 refugees resettled by the United States since 9/11 only three individuals have been convicted on terrorism-related charges (all were for plots outside of the United States and none were successful).

Nonetheless, Americans are split in their support for refugee resettlement within the United States. A survey conducted during the 2016 presidential race by Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Shibley Telhami showed that only 59 percent of Americans support the United States taking in refugees from conflict-prone areas in the Middle East after they have been screened for security risks. Studies also show that Europeans are more likely to be opposed to immigration than people from any other continent.

In contrast with some of President Trumps assertions from the campaign trail, David M. Rubenstein Fellow Dany Bahar illustrates the positive link between immigration and economic growth. Bahar explains that while immigrants represent about 15 percent of the general U.S. workforce, they account for around a quarter of entrepreneurs and a quarter of investors in the United States, and that over one-third of new firms have at least one immigrant entrepreneur in its initial leadership team.

Continued here:
Problems and solutions to the international migrant crisis

Of all the privileges that exist, the nation-state privilege is probably the most important, yet it is by far the privilege we talk about least.

The answer to the question of where you were born, and where you are resident, is decisive for your access to medical care and consumer goods, life expectancy and mobility. It is still better to be a half-Muslim, half-Jewish, Black, non-heterosexual, disabled resident of Tilburg, wool capital of The Netherlands, than a member of the middle class in, say, Helmand province in Afghanistan.

The extent of your right to mobility depends mainly on which passport you happened to hold, most likely through birth. Have a Dutch passport? You can travel to almost 170 countries without a visa. Those who have to travel with a Pakistani passport can travel visa-free to less than ten countries, from Haiti to The Gambia.

In his recently published bookthe German sociologist Steffen Mau describes how borders, as we know them, have only existed for a few centuries. In our own time, he explains, borders are increasingly functioning as sorting machines, separating 'desirable' from 'undesirable' human beings.

Covid may have made traveling somewhat more difficult for those with nation-state privilege, but with airlines predicting a return to the 4.5 billion passengers of the peak year of 2019, even if it takes a few years, that obstruction will also be temporary.

The bottom line is that the world can be divided in two: those who hold passports for superhumans (say, a U.S., UK, Australian, Canadian, or EU passport) and those who hold passports for the damned with the stateless condemned to even lower circles of torment.

Anyone who wants to understand anything of what has been called the migration crisis should keep this in mind. Because it elucidates how the distinction between so-called 'real refugees', 'economic refugees' and those whom Dutch right-wing politicians have called 'fortune seekers,' is wafer thin. When it comes to the reasons why people leave home and hearth, existential poverty is hardly distinguishable from the threat of war and persecution.

No matter how far back we go in human history, there were always compelling reasons for leaving family and homeland behind, if only because God compelled it. For example, God seems to have told Abraham: "Go from your country, your people and your fathers householdto the landI will show you."

Migration is not a crisis unless we are willing to call most of human history a crisis. The fact that we in Europe have come to use the term "migration crisis" is partly because casting migration in a hostile light is still one of the most effective propaganda instruments of right-wing extremist parties.

Whether Merkel's Willkommenskultur (her refugees welcome stance) contributed materially to the rise of the far right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is unclear, but what is certain is that Merkel realized that the refugees and migrant issue as used by far-right parties could contribute to the disintegration of the EU. Eastern European member states, in particular, hold on to the old story of a homogeneous people rooted in an almost mythical way to the land on which they live.

Merkel's biggest task during her years as Chancellor was to keep the EU together without shaking her power base in Germany itself. The fact that she had to conclude an agreement on behalf of the EU with a semi-dictator like Turkeys Erdogan was of secondary importance. Erdogan did the dirty work for the EU; he had to keep refugees (read: migrants) away from Europe's external borders in exchange for cold cash. Merkel was not exercised very much about the plight of refugees in general, those tucked far away in Greece, for instance, as described in Ralph Bollmann's excellent biography.

Alexander Lukashenko, dictator of Belarus, saw that there was good business to do with the EU when it comes to refugees. Unlike Turkey and Libya, he didnt so much want cash to rid Europe of an artificial problem as much as he wanted the lifting of personal and national sanctions imposed after he forced a Ryanair flight to land in Minsk in May of this year, in order to arrest a Belarusian dissident.

Whether Lukashenko acted on Putin's orders, and whether there is a connection between the refugees in Belarus and the threat that Russia will intensify the war in and against Ukraine, is hardly relevant to a better understanding of the 'migration crisis.'

Far more pertinent is the fact that the EU can be serially blackmailed by the threat of a refugee influx, because of the fear that the far right will gain more popularity as soon as refugees are back on the front pages of European newspapers again.

In order to increase the pressure on the EU, Lukashenko invited Iraqis, among others, to fly to Minsk for a fee of $3-4000 and stay in a hotel for a few days, with the implicit promise that they could then wander on down into the EU. The average income in Iraq is about $4000 a year. Within the domain of the damned, it is always the slightly privileged who make the crossing they have the means and the mental and physical strength to do so. For those left behind, the hope of a better life is usually the hope of an afterlife.

The Polish-Belarusian border, where those refugees were stranded, is in a region historian Timothy Snyder has described as "bloodlands"; places where both Hitler and Stalin committed their greatest mass murders. They have seen it all before.

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, has stated that the EU will not finance barbed wire and walls to mark and fortify its external borders. But the Polish parliament has already allocated 350 million euros to build a wall with or without money from the EU. A wall that, if it will even be built, will be visual noise, but with only symbolic effect. Whoever has the burning desire for a better life will always find holes in a wall.

Can people be asked to share their nation-state privileges with the less privileged? In theory, yes, of course, but in practice, I fear that the vast majority of people are not willing to make any sacrifices for more justice.

It is true that the sacrifice can be forced, but in democracies there is a danger that this enforcement will be punished in the next elections. Bertolt Brecht already wrote that it is a pity that the government can be dissolved, but the people cannot. Since we are still left with imperfect peoples, the idealist must choose: remain theoretically idealist, become a dictator, or try to convince the people although past results arent very encouraging.

Ironically, Lukashenko's actions seem to have strengthened the unity of the EU. Merkel, before she left office, already complimented Belarus' EU neighbors for their actions. The EU is, of course, a community of values and standards, but east of Berlin and south of Palermo those values and standards are gone, because values and standards, like the weather, are a relatively local matter.

As to whether the human sacrifice of the refugees in the Mediterranean and along the Polish-Belarusian border, as well as the flimsy deals with Turkey and Libya, were a reasonable price for preserving the EU, future historians will determine. It is certain that the abuses of, for example, Frontex, the EU border police (such as pushbacks and violations of international law), about which among other outlets Der Spiegel has reported, are nowhere to be found in debates on essential themes, anywhere.

Since there is no police force at the borders to enforce international law, international law does not exist out there, on the periphery of the EU's community of values and standards.

Stopping relatively small numbers of refugees and migrants is in fact the preventive expulsion of the scapegoat, before that scapegoat has been able to reach the center of the community. In his ever-inspiring study "The Scapegoat," French literary scholar and historian Ren Girard argues that the myth always conceals "collective violence" against "a real victim." The blame for the crisis is projected onto the victims of the persecution, and they must therefore be expelled before they can pollute the community.

Little has changed about that. Behind the myth of the migration crisis hides collective violence against real victims. The perpetrators of that violence, who in Germany attack refugees and asylum seekers on a regular basis,and the profiteers off the refugees misery, try to cleanse themselves by means of that myth. But international humanism also has its mythical sides and is, in any case, powerless without a world police, which will not come into being, for now.

The community of values and standards called the EU, which wanted to outsource warfare to America, makes modest human sacrifices in order not to endanger its own survival too much. That is the truth of the 'migration crisis.' The rest is mythology.

Democracy, the rule of law and the international community are what should save us. But they are gods in which fewer and fewer people believe.

Arnon Grunbergis the author of the recent novels "Occupied Territories" and "Good Men." As a reporter he has been embedded with, among others, Dutch and German troops in Afghanistan and American troops Iraq, in a nursing home in Flanders, a circus in Amsterdam, a massage parlor in Romania and slaughter houses in Germany and the Netherlands. He was born in Amsterdam and lives and works in New York.Twitter:@arnonyy

See the original post:
Superhumans, scapegoats and the far right: Busting the myth of Europe's 'migrant crisis' - Haaretz

Editor's Note: Some last names are being withheld to protect the identity of people.

Kasia Wappa is helping migrants by hosting them in her house. Her family has lived in the region for generations. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

As the migrant crisis evolved in November near the border of Poland and Belarus, photographer Kasia Strek spent several days documenting what she saw.

"Migrants in the woods feared everyone, which did make reporting particularly difficult," Strek said. "Especially that as journalists, we were already banned from entering the state of emergency zone established by the Polish authorities, right beside the border with Belarus, where most of the crisis was actually taking place."

According to Strek, people came from all over Poland to help the migrants at the border on their own.

Mohammed is from Syria. He spent the last four years in Turkey, before trying to get to the European Union. Before leaving Syria, he survived a bomb attack when he was praying in a mosque, which injured his head, an arm and a leg. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Blend, a Kurd from Iraq, considers himself lucky. He has only spent 14 days in a camp on the Belarusian side of the border and five days in the woods after crossing to the Polish side. When his kidney problems started to become unbearable because of lack of food and water for the last days, and he couldn't walk longer, volunteers from Polish aid organizations arrived to help. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Blend, a Kurd from Iraq, considers himself lucky. He has only spent 14 days in a camp on the Belarusian side of the border and five days in the woods after crossing to the Polish side. When his kidney problems started to become unbearable because of lack of food and water for the last days, and he couldn't walk longer, volunteers from Polish aid organizations arrived to help.

Since September, a wave of migrants from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries have been camped in the sprawling Biaowiea Forest at the border in freezing temperatures.

They were hoping to cross into Poland. Belarus has been accused of encouraging migrants to fly to its capital Minsk, before pushing them toward the border with Poland, and even encouraging them to clash with Polish authorities. It's a charge that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's regime has denied.

Here is what the photographer saw.

Kasia Wappa prepares to enter a local forest trying to find people who asked for help. This was known as a "silent intervention." It was organized with Grupa Granica, an activist group. They give people food, warm clothes, power banks to charge their cellphones and medical help so they can continue their journey. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Left: Sangat talks to his father in Baghdad for the first time after leaving Minsk weeks earlier. When he was found by one of the local activists, he was completely wet and hadn't had any food or water in two days. Right: Sangat developed a condition known as trench foot. It is very often seen among migrants trapped in the forest at the Belarus-Polish border. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Kamil Syller is a lawyer who lives very close to the Belarusian border. He and his family prepared beds for people who might need help. And they use a "green light" to indicate homes in the area that can help provide shelter to refugees. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Ammar Alshtewy left Syria running for his life as he refused to join the military and participate in armed conflict. He is a refugee in Belgium where he lives with his wife and two daughters, but when he learned that his mother and younger sister, who did not tell him that they were coming, got trapped at the Belarus-Poland border, he came to meet them. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Employees and volunteers from Ocalenie Foundation, one of the main organizations helping at the border, look at their supplies during a briefing between shifts in their temporary office in Sokolka. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Maciej Jaworski and Patryk Tamberg live in the restricted zone around the Belarus-Poland border. After accidentally meeting migrants in the forest nearby, they decided to do their best to help. They look in the areas known to be frequented by migrants in the forest hoping to bring them aid. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Clothes, documents and sleeping bags left behind by migrants in the woods near Narewka, Poland. The spot is known to be a meeting place with drivers, who try to bring migrants to other countries in the European Union. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Activists from the Ocalenie Foundation prepare their car for an intervention, by packing clothes, food, water and power banks for charging cellphones, among other supplies. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Police control cars looking for smugglers in Narew, near the Belarus-Poland border area. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Five men from Iraq were caught on the border of the forest when they were asking for food and water. They were kept in the police car until border guards arrived. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

In November, at least three military camps were installed in Dubicze Cerkiewne, a small village near the restricted state of emergency zone. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Polish politician, Katarzyna Kretkowska, speaks during a demonstration with migrants in Hajnowka, Poland, organized by the group Mothers at the Border. People came to protest how the government was handling the crisis and to show support for those helping people trapped in the forest. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

A nationalist march was organized in Bialystok to thank Polish security forces for protecting the borders. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

A funeral for Mustafa Mohammed Murshed Al-Raimi, from Yemen, who died after crossing the Belarusian border into Poland. His brother came from Yemen for the occasion. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Left: After illegally crossing the border with Belarus, migrants were buried in a provided area at the cemetery in Bohoniki, Poland. Funerals were organized by members of the Tatar community, a Muslim ethnic minority group in Poland. Right: Natalia Boryslawka, a volunteer at Ocalenie Foundation, cries at the funeral of Mustafa Mohammed Murshed Al-Raimi. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Kasia Strek is photojournalist based in Paris, France and Warsaw, Poland. Follow her on Instagram @kasia_strek.

Continue reading here:
This photographer captured how activists helped migrants at the Poland-Belarus border - NPR

Following the fall of Kabul, the United Nations aid agencies, worldwide charities, Western diplomats and government officials became united to warn the world about an unfolding humanitarian crisis resulting from the Taliban returning to power.

South Asia is indeed heading toward a colossal humanitarian crisis especially emerging from the events in Afghanistan. Many experts believe that the coronavirus-hit economies will continue to face new challenges like refugee crises across the globe in 2022.

In an article for the Middle East Institute, researcher Roie Yellinek called it the politics and the geopolitics of Afghan refugee crisis. A number of Save the Children reports have revealed new challenges in freezing winters for refugees across the globe.

The question arises on how many Afghan children will be able to resist harsh weather conditions, insufficient food supplies and lack of medication. For many Afghans, like Africans and Central Americans, poverty, war and hunger have left little hope to survive in their own countries.

Not a single day passes that I don't read or watch news reports of migrants voyages to Europe in search of a better life. A report by the Pledge Times quoted Save the Children, saying more than 1,300 migrants died at sea in 2021, whereas 28,600 migrants were saved by the Libyan Coast Guard.

Since the fall of Kabul, I have reviewed a series of articles in the global media featuring the struggle of ordinary Afghans in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Strange though, most sections of the Western media are full of glamorous stories that show images of Western cities and their residents holding placards with captions, Welcome to Yorkshire while at the same time, British Home Secretary Priti Patel, a daughter of migrant parents herself, has turned out to be extraordinarily tough both in her speeches and overall stance on migrants, nearly placing her in the racist category.

In contrast, I can count dozens of stories published in the mainstream Western media print, broadcast newspapers and television channels that blame neighboring Muslim countries for not doing enough to accommodate the Afghan refugees.

These news reports suggest a single theme that Europe is humanitarian and how ordinary Europeans are anxiously waiting for Afghan refugees in their cities to start new lives.

The reality, however, is quite grim because Europes treatment of refugees doesnt equate with all those past and recent campaigns that portray Europe as a custodian of human rights, democracy and peace.

Most of the articles in the Western press on Afghan refugees show that the West is welcoming and accommodating to Afghan refugees, while it is the neighboring Muslim countries that are cold and unwelcoming to Afghans.

Look at The Washington Post headline: As some countries welcome Afghan refugees, others are trying to keep them out. Correspondingly, Foreign Policy wrote that Afghan refugees get a cold welcome in Pakistan. Whereas Iran is deporting, and Turkey is reluctant to take more Afghan refugees.

Even before the fall of Kabul in 2021, the coronavirus-hit economies in Turkey, Iran and Pakistan were hosting millions of Afghan refugees without mandatory support. Now that the international community has turned its back on the Afghan refugee crisis what can they do?

Two decades ago, I visited Istanbul to report on the 15th Turkish general elections held on Nov. 3, 2002, for Daily Pakistan. I managed to escape my busy reporting schedule to discover Istanbuls history, culture and amazing evening life around the old city in the Sultanahmet district. One rainy and freezing night, I had met a local taxi driver and his Pakistani friend who showed me a small migrant camp full of South Asians ready to go to Europe.

A small room was packed with youngsters mainly from South Asia who were desperate to go to Western Europe through Greece. There, everyone had an emotional story to tell me, but everyone was fearful as they may not see daylight again due to potentially drowning at sea on their impending journey. Many had reached Istanbul through the Iranian mountain range called Chaand Tara in Urdu (which translates to "as high as the moon and stars" in English).

I broke down into tears after listening to their heartfelt stories of struggle, injustice and ill-treatment at home and en route to Europe to make it to a new homeland. I couldnt turn away from the tales of the suffering of young people and wept after learning how many of them had to pay a huge price for this journey, leaving everything behind.

Unfortunately, like the arms trade, human trafficking is a profitable business that benefits many fat cows. Its not a secret anymore, many in the streets of Pakistan's Quetta city and Iran's Zahedan know a way to Europe through Istanbul, be they Afghan refugees or poverty-hit jobless youngsters from Asia.

Why is the migrant crisis emerging around the globe? One after another humanitarian crisis has unfolded in recent years that disturbed bilateral relations between Europe and Turkey.

For the current Afghan refugees' crisis, like Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, the reason is pretty simple as it has resulted from regional military conflicts. Unfortunately, the bitter truth is that competition for regional hegemony between Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and some Middle Eastern countries have led to wars.

Two decades on, migration is still a challenge for Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. Despite the best efforts by these countries' governments, migration continues to affect diplomatic ties between Europe and Turkey.

At present, Turkey is hosting the world's largest refugee population of around 4 million, while neighboring Pakistan is home to 3.5 million Afghans along with Iran that accommodates 780,000 Afghans. Besides, according to a BBC report, an estimated 3.5 million Afghans are currently internationally displaced within the country.

The real challenge ahead is how to avoid a mega-disaster resulting from a failing economy in Afghanistan that leaves no choice for Afghans other than to leave. If the world community is serious about resolving the refugee crisis, it should discourage and halt arms supplies to rebel groups, stop private military and affiliated groups such as Blackwater and warlords, and avoid interfering and intervening in other countries' domestic politics. Imagine, a day when the world's major powers stop imposing their style of democracy, controlling poor nations through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and avoiding taking natural resources through unfair means. We would have no humanitarian crisis, nor people leaving their motherland to become second and third-class citizens in faraway places.

The Daily Sabah Newsletter

Keep up to date with whats happening in Turkey, its region and the world.

SIGN ME UP

You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Originally posted here:
Is the world failing the Afghan migrants challenge? | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah