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As I heard the news out of Afghanistanthe families scrambling to get on American planes, or the thousands of requests for assistance pouring into my officeI was taken instantly back to my childhood. I remembered sitting in a refugee camp in Kenya when I was about 10 years old and overhearing my father and grandfather discuss how we were going to get out. "Only in America can you ultimately become an American," my grandfather said. "Everywhere else we will always feel like a guest."

He was right. I was lucky to become an American, not a guest, and ultimately represent my new home of Minnesota in the halls of Congress. But right now there are thousands of Afghans, many of whom risked their lives to help the United States, who are wondering if they will have that same opportunity to make new lives here.

My family escaped civil war in Somalia when I was just eight years old, but life in the refugee camp was scarcely better. Every week, someone I knew died. Relatives of minea family of sixlost both parents in the span of two weeks. My aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings all contracted malaria.

It was our family's faith in humanity that ultimately saved my life. After nearly four years of survival in a refugee camp, and over a year of intense vetting by the United Nations and the United States, we finally got a golden ticket to come to America. I wouldn't be here today, raising my children in comfort without the generosity of the Kenyan people, the tireless efforts of UN workers and the welcoming spirit of the American people who gave me and my family a second chance at life.

In this critical moment, we must draw upon the best of our history and open our arms to the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. We must, as President Joe Biden said during his presidential campaign, "never turn our backs on who we are or that which makes us uniquely and proudly American. The United States deserves an immigration policy that reflects our highest values as a nation."

For centuries, that has been the American ideal. In the early 20th century, as pogroms swept across Eastern Europe and extreme deprivation gripped the Mediterranean, the United States welcomed over 15 million immigrantslargely from Europeto our shores.

In the wake of the Vietnam War, the Ford administration immediately granted people fleeing the region permission to enter the US legally. Congress then passed and the President signed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act in 1975providing over $450 million (that's $2.3 billion in today's dollars) to help resettle over 140,000 Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao refugees. As the situation remained unstable, we expanded that assistance. By 2017, over 1.3 million Vietnamese immigrants were living in the US. In my home state of Minnesota, the Hmongan ethnic group who fought alongside Americans in Vietnamhave been a vital and flourishing community since they first started coming here in 1975, eventually sending Minnesotans like Suni Lee to the Olympics to bring home a gold medal.

Of course, every new group of immigrants is met with resistance. After an initial wave of Chinese immigration in the mid-19th century, Congress shamefully passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law that wasn't repealed until 1943. After welcoming millions of European migrants at the dawn of the 20th century, nativism took hold and the Immigration Act of 1924 severely restricted immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.

This law would disgracefully remain fully on the books until 1952, barring millions of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, and forever staining our history. In fact, in 1939 these immigration restrictions were used to justify the denial of 900 Jewish refugees who were fleeing Nazi Germany to enter the United States on the MS St. Louis. Many would later die in Hitler's death camps.

It was in the wake of the unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust, and the failure of countries around the world to grant asylum to those fleeing violence, that the United States led the creation of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which declared, "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution." This was later codified in international law in the Geneva Convention, our own laws, and migration laws around the world.

The question we face today is whether or not we will learn from the mistakes of our past. Will we follow the example of Vietnam and recognize the suffering and needs of the Afghan people? Or will we once again fall victim to the nativism and hate that sentenced thousands of people to death in the run-up to the Holocaust?

President Biden has an opportunity to lead a global effort to confront this reality. The President deserves credit for the evacuating over 70,000 people from Kabul in the past week alone, but there are tens of thousands more who need our help. My office alone has received over 5,000 requests from people trying to get family members and colleagues out of Afghanistan just in the past two weeksrepresenting tens of thousands of individuals who are afraid for their lives. Thursday's terrorist attack on Afghans and US service members was yet another reminder of the terror the people of Afghanistan continue to face. Now is the time to redouble our evacuation efforts and do everything we can to get people out who are most at risk.

We should not let paperwork and bureaucracy be a death sentence. Much like we did in the wake of Vietnam, we must allow Afghan citizens to emigrate here immediately using national interest waivers and humanitarian parolewhich the administration has the legal authority to do. We must hold the airport in Kabul and lead an international coalition to evacuate every person who is fleeing for their lives in Afghanistan.

We need to call on our NATO allies and neighboring countries to do their part, because we know when America leads with our values, others feel emboldened to do the same. And we cannot make the deadly mistake of sanctioning the Afghan economypunishing the millions of innocent Afghans who have endured so much and making a dangerous situation even worse.

Afghanistan is not the only test. Central America, Haiti, Syria, Libya, and countries around the world are currently facing large-scale human rights crises and need our help. The climate emergency is already fueling extreme weather events, and climate migration is sure to be one of the defining political challenges of the coming century. We should be leading a global migration compact, which would provide global funding to address the migrant crisis and establish clear benchmarks for each nation to take in refugees (I have introduced a bill on just this.) I'm glad that the President allocated $500 million to help resettle Afghans, but we must do more. The reconciliation package should include funding to address this. And we must live up to our promises to increase the refugee cap.

That is the choice our country faces right now. We owe it to the Afghan who risked his life to fight alongside the United States. We owe it to the little girl huddled in a refugee camp, wondering if she will have a shot to ultimately become not just a guest, but an American. I know, because that little girl was me.

The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

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Ilhan Omar: As a refugee, I want America to open its arms to those fleeing Afghanistan - Action News Now

Record low water levels have been recorded in parts of Syria and Iraq following a sustained drought, with more than 12 million people affected.

Carsten Hansen, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of a group of 13 aid agencies that has issued a warning about the deteriorating situation, said the drought will soon become an unprecedented catastrophe. The total collapse of water and food production for millions of Syrians and Iraqis is imminent, he said, adding this would push more people into becoming refugees.

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This plea came amid concern of a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis following the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. In Greece, the authorities have built a border fence designed to prevent their safe and inviolable borders from possibilities for migrant flows.

Given the world is only going to get warmer, it should be obvious that in places which are already too hot and dry people will be forced to move by a lack of water. And in places where it is hot and humid, temperatures can become so high that the human body is unable to lose enough heat by sweating and going outside for long periods can prove fatal.

It may be tempting for some in this country to console themselves that, so far, the ravages of climate change have not been as bad as in other parts of the world. However, this is a false comfort because problems on such a global scale will eventually come to our door.

Greeces Trump-style strategy of building a wall is one easily defeated by the humble ladder and is not going to have much effect if millions of desperate people are forced to flee for their lives.

As this planet-wide storm continues to build, developed countries in temperate regions need to start coming up with better ways of dealing with climate refugees than simply turning them away. It is not only immoral but a policy that will, ultimately, fail.

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Climate change: Walls are no answer to looming refugee crises as millions in Syria and Iraq face 'total collapse' of water supplies Scotsman says -...

This week Sky News has been identifying the gaps in Britain's border defences.

As the number of small boats crossing the Channel breaks new records and European countries brace for a new wave of people fleeing Afghanistan, the issue is rising up the public consciousness once more.

Ministers are meant to be able now to deliver on their promise to take back control post Brexit. So why does it not yet feel like that to some?

The government response to this issue is being led by Home Secretary Priti Patel. Nobody would doubt her right-wing credentials, and interestingly she has had plaudits from across the political spectrum for her handling of the migration aspects of the Afghanistan crisis.

Her answer to the questions around Britain's borders is the Nationality and Borders Bill currently in committee stage in the House of Commons. But does it answer the problems, many of which are caused beyond Britain's borders?

One area of concern is the Mediterranean where people flee from countries like Tunisia, often aided by people smugglers. Sky News' Adam Parsons talked to people smugglers acting with impunity, little worried about the consequences.

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Tom Tugendhat, Tory chair of the foreign affairs select committee told Sky News the answer is to send more Royal Navy vessels to help in the Med.

"Our great strength we have with NATO allies around is that our border doesn't start at Dover, it starts at the southern tip of Italy and Greece - working together and making sure these borders are defended and reinforced is exactly what we should be doing but we need to do more.

"It's not about being kind to Italians. It's about defending ourselves further out."

The Nationality and Borders Bill tightens the penalties for people smugglers in an attempt to tackle the problem.

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Another issue comes when migrants who have made it to the EU then try and cross the Channel to Britain. Sky News' Michelle Clifford found that while French authorities would stop anyone still on land who looked like they would be attempting to cross the Channel, they would not stop boats once they were in the water, even when it was under French control.

They blame international law, though many in Britain including MPs on the home affairs select committee claim the French are wrongly interpreting this.

Tim Loughton, Tory member of the home affairs select committee, said the French interpretation was "completely wrong".

He added "We have evidence from maritime international lawyers - they made it clear that French authorities have power to intercept and repatriate passengers on boats, but actually have an obligation under international law - people on boats guilty of trying to enter UK illegally and paying organised crime to facilitate that journey, that would give grounds to French authorities to apprehend people, that is only what is going to stop that horrendous trade - people paying money to people smugglers, highly likely with them being taken backthat could stop that miserable trade stone dead."

Asked why the British government hasn't succeeded in convincing the French they're wrong, he said: "It's all excuses, we made it clear - the French claiming it's a different interpretation, that's wrong - also internal politics going on, a big row with those who run Calais and the federal government. They're each trying to make it each other's problem."

The Nationality and Borders Bill will mark a serious attempt to block illegal immigration, alongside the new post Brexit points based entry system.

It will make it easier to return some illegal asylum seekers more quickly, make some asylum seekers apply before they reach UK shores and give border officials powers to turn back boats in UK waters.

But this does not - and cannot - stop Britain being an attractive country for economic migrants and asylum seekers.

Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch, said that Britain would remain a country many aspire to live in so more had to be done to turn back illegal arrivals.

"Britain is an attractive country, so is France, US - most people wanted to go to the US first, we are part of a wider picture of prosperous civilised fun countries.

"A lot of those coming are young men who want a better life - we are part of the story, in a way we have to create the opportunity for a lot of Afghans to want to come here."

But he added that once here, many were treated generously with little chance of being sent back.

"One of the principle reasons why the traffickers are able to sell Britain as the destination of choice is that having arrived here there's very little chance of being sent back - very few people who apply for asylum and fail actually are sent back.

"That is a huge factor, while they're here, we look after - hotels, detention centres that have been used - even these are not bad accommodations, there is a bit of money given for people to spend.

"Once you're in the system you're looked after - people see messages coming across, it is all made to be very attractive."

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Migrant crisis: Tough new laws are planned, but the problems start far beyond the UK's borders - Sky News

Although Europes ongoing migrant crisis experienced a peak in 2015, the consequences of the pressure borne by European nations at the time particularly by the Mediterranean countries whoreceiveda majority of asylum-seekers are increasingly being felt today. In an attempt by the European Union (EU) to reduce migrant arrivals, a growing number of member states have begunadoptinganti-immigration policies, with little regard for the migrants consequently affected. In the case of Libya, European countries recently signed anagreementwith the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG), agreeing to provide financial and material support to the LCGin exchange for Libya taking on the responsibility of seizing and returning migrant boats leaving from their coast. This allows European nations to purposefully disregard the obligation they have to uphold international law, which states that they cannotreturnrefugees to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom, as declared under the1951 Refugee Convention. The core principle of nonrefoulement is thus technically respected since the signatory members are not those directly refusing refugees access to safety.

Since the fall ofLibyan leaderMuammar Gaddafis authoritarian regime in 2011, the country hasfacedworsening political instability. With no central government and rival militias dividing the nation, smuggling businesses based out of Libyan ports havethrived. The flow of migrants leaving for Europe through the central Mediterranean route usually Libya to Italy hasrisendrastically in past years. While all of Europe felt repercussions from the exceptionally high influx of migrants in 2015, seeing over 1.3 million arrivals from multiple war-torn countries in North Africa and the Middle East, Italy has been especially affected. Proximity to Northern Africa via the Mediterranean Sea has made it one of the most accessible European nations; as a result, Italy has continuouslyreceivedbetween 120,000 to 180,000 migrants each year since, with numbers only dropping after their agreement with the LCG in late 2017. At this point, with the EU refusing to help migrants andremovingmost of their naval forces from the Mediterranean, non-governmental organizations wereforcedto play an even more significant role in aiding refugees despite the struggle they faced in safely carrying them to shore. Frontiers were often closed, and ships full of refugees abandoned, causing more migrants to die at sea. Today, nearly twice as many migrants have died at sea in 2021 compared to 2017,risingfrom 1 in 42 deaths to 1 in 22. This marks an exorbitant increase, considering that the number ofarrivalsduring this time shrunk from 119,370 to 19,060 people.

The disproportionate impactof the crisis on Mediterranean countries spurred drastic anti-migration policies in 2018, beginning with the Italian governments closed ports approach that blocked NGO ships carrying migrants from docking at their ports. This was largely a response to the EUs system for verifying asylum claims, known as theDublin system, which makes nations responsible for such procedures on receiving the migrants. While bearing the brunt of the migrant crisis, coastal countries began to find ways to prevent arrivals on their territory. While Italy recentlyoverturnedits closed port policy, the EU is still far from providing a sustainable system forsharingresponsibilities amongst countries to support migrant arrivals. In a vicious cycle, a nationalistic approach to immigration has led far-right parties togain tractionin nearly every European nation, solidifying a widespread belief that migrants threaten European unity. Such thinking only reinforces the far-rights rhetoric, despite the true crisis at hand being a humanitarian one, revolving around the increasing number of migrants facing deadly or inhumane conditions, both at sea or within the repressive regimes from which they attempt to escape. The lack of solidarity with coastal countries shown by other EU member states has fueled Italysexteriorizationof border management, as exemplified by their agreement with the LCG.

By helping the LCG capture departing boats and ignoring theappallingconditions in Libyan detention camps, EU members are exacerbating the inhumane conditions experienced by migrants. By June 2021, 13,000 people had been forciblyreturnedto Libya,exceedingthe total brought back in all of 2020. Considering that the International Organization for Migration (IOM)reportshigher numbers of asylum-seekers attempting the passage this year, the final tally will likely be much higher. Nonetheless, many migrants continue to crossdespitethe blatant dangers awaiting them because any alternative seems better than being stuck in Libya, where horrifichuman rights violationsare experienced daily by those in detention camps. Detainees face constanttorture, from sexual violence to forced labour, andremaintrapped unless they escape or pay exorbitant ransoms for their freedom. One survivors account detailed conditions in theZintandetention centre, where approximately 700 migrants were held in overflowing and filthy living quarters; prisoners had no access to clean water and faced frequent malnutrition as food was withheld as a form of punishment.

European governments and even NGOs within Libya (often backed by the same EU funds that finance the LCG) have failed toadequately addressthe humanitarian crisis at hand, likely because of their role in engendering it. Many asylum-seekers, and even certain aid workers, havestatedthat there is little to no substantial assistance from the international community. They remain in the same conditions and continuously feel alone in dealing with the abuse they face, further highlighting how rare the prospect of support from European nations is today. Fear that the consequences of the 2015 migrant influx will recur, againspreadingcertain nations resources thin, is cited for the rise in support for anti-immigration policies.

However, the migrant issue remains rooted in the EUs system for receiving asylum-seekers, which has a major shortcoming in its uneven division of responsibility among all union members. Should better migrationmanagement practices [and] better migration governance tactics be adopted, as stated by the IOM, accommodating the number of arrivals to Europe each year would be a feasible task. By spreading the demands for refugee support, both financial and other, among all member nations, the integration of migrants could become both smoother and more beneficial to refugees and states alike. The human cost of this refugee crisis has long come second to other factors motivating the EUs decisions, a trend which desperately needs to change to reverse the recent trends of rising migrant deaths.

The challenges faced by North African migrants looking for a better life in Europe, from the dangerous sea crossings they attempt to the cruel treatment they face if returned to Libya, are unfortunately largely due to the EUs continuous contributions to repressive regimes and actors. The role played by European nations in this crisis is far from the first and will likely not be the last. In Turkey, the EU has long beenprovidingbillions of euros in funds in exchange for the Turkish government to block the migratory route coming from Turkey towards western European nations. Considering the influence and resources of the European continent, it is lamentable that they choose to utilize their capacities to further the humanitarian crises seen in war-torn and transit countries instead of addressing the systemic violations of human rights seen abroad. Instead, developed nations continue to benefit from the suffering of the less fortunate despite a legal obligation to uphold international law. Their eagerness to find loopholes in longstanding agreements shows that the moral side of their duty is dangerously ignored, with decisions being made at the expense of the vulnerable populations they are supposed to be protecting.

Featured image Refugees on a boat crossing the Mediterranean sea by Mstyslav Chernov is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Edited by Grace Parish.

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The EU's Deal With Libya's Coast Guard: Funding the Continuation of the Global Refugee Crisis - The McGill International Review

VAN, Turkey In the days before the Taliban took Kabul, an Afghan woman was doubled over sobbing on a bench in a bus station in eastern Turkey, her children wailing at her feet.

Fourteen Turkish security and migration officials swooped down on her and other Afghan asylum seekers as our reporting team was interviewing them, part of an intensive crackdown by Turkey to apprehend Afghans crossing from Iran by the thousands and to prevent journalists from reporting on their plight. As her husband tried to gather their belongings, the woman clutched her stomach and retched. After prolonged questioning, they were escorted to a police vehicle.

We came out of despair, another Afghan, Gul Ahmad, 17, said. We knew if the Taliban had taken over they would kill us either in fighting or they would recruit us. So this was the better option for the family.

Even before the past weeks harrowing scenes of Afghans thronging the Kabul airport to escape the Taliban, many thousands had been steadily fleeing their country over land, making their way some 1,400 miles across the length of Iran to the Turkish border. Their own desperate efforts to escape the Taliban have played out in quieter, though no less painful, tableaus at remote border crossings like the one in the eastern city of Van.

In recent months, as the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan was collapsing, 30,000 Afghans were leaving Afghanistan every week, not all but many across the Iranian border, according to the International Organization for Migration. They have moved to the top of the list of asylum seekers trying to make their way to Turkey, and then to Europe, supplanting Syrians as the largest group of new migrants arriving, even as overall migration numbers have dropped since the high of 2015.

Now that the Taliban are in power, there is every indication that those numbers will swell still further, as people have started selling property and talking about permanent exile.

Many Afghans interviewed in recent weeks said that they had crossed in large groups sometimes hundreds strong but that only a small number had succeeded in evading Turkish border guards. Thousands of Afghans were massed in the border region in Iran, they said.

As the globes recent violent upheavals have displaced millions, whether from Iraq, Syria or parts of Africa, the timing of the final chapter of the war in Afghanistan has left Afghans at the end of the line, and very likely with no recourse.

As in Europe, the public mood in Turkey has turned against immigrants and refugees, sometimes resulting in violence, such as knife fights and a recent attack on Syrians homes in the capital, Ankara. The scale of the pushback by Turkey has increased dramatically since last month, said Afghans, human rights monitors and even government officials.

For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, the burden of hosting so many refugees 3.6 million Syrians and more than 300,000 Afghans, among others has become a burning political issue, especially as the Turkish economy has worsened. He has made clear he has no intention of opening the door to more Afghans.

When photographs emerged on social media of columns of Afghan migrants walking through Iran toward Turkey in recent weeks, opposition politicians accused Mr. Erdogan of negotiating a deal with the European Union, as he had done for Syrian refugees, to host the growing number of Afghans who are arriving.

Mr. Erdogan has often used the migrant threat as leverage in negotiations with the European Union, while his police have long conducted ruthless operations to control the numbers of migrants and perceptions at home. But he has also railed against Western nations for expecting less developed countries to bear the migrant crisis.

Europe, which has become a center of attraction for millions of people, cannot stay out of this problem by firmly closing its borders in order to protect the safety and prosperity of its citizens, he said in a televised speech last week. Turkey has no duty, responsibility or obligation to be Europes refugee depot.

Aug. 27, 2021, 5:23 a.m. ET

Mr. Erdogan warned Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany by telephone Sunday that his country will not be able to shoulder the additional burden in the event of a fresh wave of migration from Afghanistan. Turkey, he reminded Ms. Merkel, has already taken in five million refugees.

Afghans interviewed in Van said Turkey had tightened security along its border with a widespread and often violent police operation in recent weeks, turning away Afghans regardless of their requests for asylum.

In a single operation in July, more than 1,400 Afghans who had crossed into Turkey were rounded up and pushed back by Turkish border guards and military police, according to a statement from the office of the governor of Van.

Hundreds more, including women and children, have been detained in towns across eastern Turkey as they have tried to make their way deeper into the country.

Such expulsions are against the international convention on refugees, said Mahmut Kacan, a lawyer in Van who specializes in refugee and asylum cases.

Few Afghans know their rights under international law, he said, but Turkey does not abide even by its own laws, since migrants should be entitled to an appeal process before being deported.

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban arose in 1994 amid the turmoil that came after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including floggings, amputations and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Heres more on their origin story and their record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These arethe top leaders of the Taliban, men who have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to govern, including whether they will be as tolerant as they claim to be.

What happens to the women of Afghanistan? The last time the Taliban were in power, they barred women and girls from taking most jobs or going to school. Afghan women have made many gainssince the Taliban were toppled, but now they fear that ground may be lost. Taliban officials are trying to reassure women that things will be different, but there are signs that, at least in some areas, they have begun to reimpose the old order.

The Afghan family detained recently in the Van bus station was sent to a migrant facility and then was expelled back to Iran within days without due process, according to another Afghan, Abdul Wahid, who was detained at the same time.

In an interview before they were apprehended, the husband, Najibullah, 30, said they had made the arduous three-day trek with their 1-year-old twins into Turkey three times in recent weeks, only to be pushed back each time. The children had dramatically lost weight, he said.

His wife, Zeineb, 20, seemed badly shaken by the experience. It would have been better to stay and die in Afghanistan than make this journey, she said. They only gave their first names out of fear because of their undocumented status in Turkey.

The family, ethnic Uzbeks, had left home two months ago partly because the Taliban had seized control of their district in northern Afghanistan. We had nothing, Najibullah said. They would order us to prepare them food. We could barely feed ourselves.

Mr. Wahid was deported after spending four days in a migrant center, and sent a telephone message from Iran about what had happened.

Mr. Wahid had been living in Turkey and had come to Van to help his wife and two children try to enter the country from Iran. They had crossed the border 10 times in recent weeks to try to join him in Istanbul, where he was working in a textile factory, he said, but each time they entered Turkey, police caught them and sent them back. Once they were detained in Tatvan, a town more than a hundred miles from the border, he said.

My wife asked them for asylum, he said. She said she wanted to send her children to school. Initially they said OK, then they deported her.

Many of the Afghans interviewed said that they were looking for economic opportunity but that the Taliban advances and killings had pushed them to leave. Two out of a dozen interviewed over two days recently said they had family members who had been killed by the Taliban.

A teenager, Ilias, 15, wearing a bright yellow T-shirt and black jacket, said he had fled with three friends from his home village in Daikundi in central Afghanistan after his father was killed by advancing Taliban forces three or four months ago.

The Taliban started to attack our area and people started to defend my village, and thats when my father was killed, he said. We three are from the same area and we managed to get out, he said, gesturing to his companions.

They were stopped by the Taliban on the way and questioned, robbed by human traffickers in Iran, and arrived in Turkey without food or money to continue their journey.

Excerpt from:
Afghan Refugees Find a Harsh and Unfriendly Border in Turkey - The New York Times