Six years have passed since the world was shocked by the cadaver of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose family was trying to flee war-torn Syria to Canada. However, their dinghy capsized and Alan drowned with his mother, brother and many others on board.
Alan’s family had applied to migration to Canada several times but their requests were turned down, which forced the father to attempt like thousands of other Syrians to cross the Mediterranean Sea in rubber dinghies to escape their country that had become a theatre of war between world and regional powers.
Alan’s death prompted many governments to revise their procedures for receiving war refugees and asylum seekers from conflict zones.
The plight of the refugees encapsulated in the image of innocent Alan made some countries such as Germany to open their borders and take in 800,000 refugees from Syria. However, other European countries closed borders and prevented dinghies from landing on their shores lest they affect their demographic structure.
The UN warned against the escalation of the refugee crisis worldwide as the number of displaced persons exceeded 82 million at the end of 2020. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of refugees in the world had doubled since 2010.
Unfortunately, the refugee crisis will grow now that the Taliban are back in the top seat of Afghanistan after the pull-out of American and other foreign forces from the country.
The lightning advance of the Taliban over 10 days had prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in the provinces. Some sought shelter in the capital Kabul hoping to enjoy the protection of American and government forces while others headed for neighbouring countries.
Despite the rosy words the Taliban leaders made on reaching Kabul on granting amnesty to all employees and translators who worked with the Americans and former authorities of the Kabul government, thousands of Afghans attempted to flee the brutality of this fanatic movement and headed to the capital’s airport to catch with any of the flight or military aircraft used for the evacuation of foreign troops and diplomats.
The image of a moving American jet stuffed with hundreds of Afghans while many others were running alongside the plane trying to escape the country must have shocked the world, opening the debate on how to save the Afghani people from Taliban insurgents who would commit their atrocities against those who oppose their fanatic ideology.
The US and the UK, which joined its transatlantic ally in this 20-year war, announced plans to provide Afghans safe havens.
President Joe Biden has signed off $500 million in aid relief to Afghan refugees. He also promised shelter to some Afghans who assisted the US mission over the last two decades. The American president also started contacting some countries to take in Afghan refugees.
Meanwhile, the British government announced plans to re-settle 20,000 Afghan refugees in the UK over the next five years and to give priority to women, children and religious minorities.
Both the British and American governments know well that these generous offers will not be enough for rescue the Afghan people most of whom will suffer much under the fanatical Taliban regime.
If they do not turn their country into a refuge for the likes of al-Qaeda, Taliban insurgents would work to realise their illusory of restored Islamic Caliphate and enforce sharia law according to their extremist perception.
Defending his decision to withdraw US military personnel, President Biden claimed that the American mission in Afghanistan has never been about nation building, but about staving off possible terror attacks against the US.
The democrat Biden administration was not the one that took the decision to go to war against the Taliban in 2001. Nor was it the one who negotiated with the movement on ending American presence in Afghanistan to ensure the return of this fanatic group to government. However, this administration seems to continue supporting the so-called political Islamists and use them to destabilise many countries and cause the displacement of more people in our world.
