Afghani Asylum Seekers Skyrocket 2021 Winter: Report
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Roshan Amiri
- . December 6, 2021
- . Update: December 7, 2021 2:38 pm
Afghanistan–Afghans have taken over Syrians as EU’s largest group of asylum seekers, as applications can be seen rising sharply post August month when Taliban took over Afghanistan.
Asylum seekers continue to be a huge problem for countries in Europe as most try and cross the borders to make it to safe haven, with children in backpacks, at times.
In the month of September itself, Afghan asylum seekers have counted upto 17,000 in comparison to those filed by Syrians who made 9,100 applications in September. Afghanistan actually broke the record in seven consecutive years.
What had further exasperated the whole situation was the traffic on migration routes that had slowed sharply in the early months of the virus outbreak. These had picked up again amid easing restrictions and political developments in Afghanistan and Belarus. Currently, there are about 56,000 Afghans who have their asylum claims pending at the end of September, amid frustration in some quarters about the slow pace of resettlement.
Other difficult situations to see are the forthcoming winter season that is going to make living conditions difficult for Afghanistan inhabitants while the European governments have raised the alarm over the reported killings and disappearances of former Afghan security personnel.
The alleged actions “constitute serious human rights abuses, and contradict the Taliban’s announced amnesty,” said a statement by 22 governments including the UK, US and Germany. As of now, most Afghanistan asylum seekers have not received the kind of protection that could be due to them under international protections laws for inhabitants.
Statistical information shows that of the Afghans who did receive a decision in Europe, about 90 per cent were either approved as refugees or granted a lesser status known as subsidiary protection. However, the ones seeking asylum now, their numbers are much lesser than those that were experienced in 2015.
Last summer, in anticipation of a flux, EU countries did tighten security arrangements at the borders. But the unprecedented crises in Kabul due to sudden takeover by Taliban pushed the resources, with thousands of people having flown from Kabul in the days after the Taliban victory, with some of the evacuees subsequently granted asylum. Currently, some 1300 children are looking at seeking asylum. Elsewhere, Turkish nationals made 3,000 claims, while about 2,900 Iraqis sought asylum after many were caught up in the border crisis in Belarus. EU leaders sought to shut down the route through Belarus by leaning on Iraq’s government to stop flights to Minsk.
Some Belarusians themselves filed asylum claims in the EU, with about 85 per cent of them accepted. There were sharp rises in applications from North Macedonia, Venezuela, Colombia, Egypt and Armenia.
