The Afghanis

The Afghanis

The citizens or occupants of the nation known today as Afghanistan are known to be one of the largest refuge groups in the globe dating back to the early 1980s. The refugee groups formed due to migration, which has happened throughout the history of Afghanistan (Bleuer, 2012:69). For centuries the migration of Afghanis and its neighbors had been based largely on social purposes, which served the interests of all the nations (Erdal et al., 2018: 981). Most of the migration among Afghanis and neighboring countries was based on pilgrimages to holy sites, which were used to mark important religious occasions. Most Afghanis are ardent believers of religion and would migrate to neighboring countries to mark sacred days. Further, migration occurred due to the desire to acquire knowledge through Education. Another basis of migration was due to work or trade or to look for food for livestock, as was typical for the pastoral nomads living in Afghanistan. However, some migrations were forced and, therefore, not voluntary, such as that of the Hazaras. The Hazaras were forced to migrate from Afghanistan in the late nineteenth century due to policies implemented by Amir Abdur Rahman. The Rahman policies targeted the Hazaras and were aimed at state-building and also to force some communities out of Afghanistan (Braithwaite and Wardak, 2013:179). However, Afghanistan had never faced forced mass migration until the Soviet Union invaded the country in 1979. As a result of the invasion, over ten million Afghanis were forced to flee their country between 1979 and 2011 (Majidi, 2017:6). The Afghanis have further continued to flee the country to seek protection away from the violence and also better life in developed and peaceful countries.

At the end of the Soviet Union war in 1989, most of the refugees began to return home to their comforts; however, that was also short-lived. Consequently, a civil war broke out in Afghanistan in 1992 when the Jihadists took over the control of significant cities of the nation, which led to another massive migration of Afghans (Weigand, 2017:359). The Afghanis have therefore formed the second-largest group of refugees in the globe after the Syrian refugees who were displaced due to the Syrian civil war.

The countries that house most Afghanis refugees include Pakistan, Iran, and some European Union countries. International agencies, together with regional blocs, have tried a hand at repatriation, which ensured that almost five million seven hundred thousand refugees returned to their country from Pakistan during the period between 2002 and 2012 (Van Houte et al., 2015: 693). Other refugees amounting to almost one million Afghanis were repatriated from the country of Iran, which occurred for three years between 2002 and 2005. The repatriations formed one of the most significant measures undertaken by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (Van Houte et al., 2015: 693). The reasons behind the current mass migration are the likely risk of outbreak of conflicts that would give rise to violence and massive abuse of human rights. The mass migration from Pakistan has also been occasioned by the hard economic times the country has experienced, as it is one of the poorest in the world. Due to the mass migration from Afghanistan, the refugees from the country make the second-largest number in the globe. The number ranges from two to three million in Pakistan, one to two million in Iran and over two hundred thousand in other European Union countries. The International Committee of the Red Cross 2009 report indicates that almost three out of four Afghanis have experienced the problem of having been forced to migrate from their country of birth. Since the turn of 1979, Afghanis have faced different kinds of both forced internal and external migration, which have led to massive human rights violations.

Human Rights Situation in Afghanistan

Women

In the Afghanistan tumultuous past, the citizens have undergone different kinds of regimes. Initially began with the Soviet occupation, the United States international forces, and then the militant groups such as the mujahedeen and the infamous Taliban. A lot of groups in the country have gone through tough periods of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Violations. The most affected groups include the vulnerable groups’ such as women, children, and the members of the LGBTQ. The women have faced most of the human and gender-based rights violations during the period of the militant’s rule (Bhutta, 2002:349). Initially, before the period of invasion in the 1970s, the Afghani women had lived a relatively better life, which allowed them to go to school and even proceed to the university level. However, after the invasion, the Afghani women experienced dark periods at the hands of the Soviets, Taliban, and other militants. The Taliban, which emerged during the civil war, have been infamous for their human rights abuses. The Taliban ruled Afghanistan for the period between 1996 to 2001, which saw the group impose Islamic Sharia laws on the country. Women were punished just for being born female and were restricted to various stringent rules. The group banned women and girls from joining educational institutions to study or even go to school. Further, women were banned from active employment and were expected to be fully dependent on men for survival and basic needs. The Taliban also curtailed the movement of women as they were only expected to leave the house with a male person accompanying them. Additionally, the group forced women to wear hijabs as a measure for preventing women from showing any part of their skin in public (Newbrander et al., 2014:93). Women were also excluded from accessing health care provisions by men, and since women could not be allowed to work, there was no accessible health care for them (Frost et al., 2016: 71). The Taliban also banned women exclusively from participating in any public event such as politics or mass movements. Women were, therefore, prisoners during the regime of the Taliban, and their movements were only limited to their homes.

Physical abuses on women involved public flogging and even physical beatings received for showing their skin in public. Women were beaten in case they were found guilty of attempting to study, which was against the Sharia laws. Further, the crime of adultery was punishable by stoning to death for the offender while the male counterparts would go free. The UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) has also reported that women are killed in Afghanistan as a way of honor-killings. Such cases never make their way to court as they are solved through mediation, therefore, entrenching the human rights abuse in the country. The Afghani women and girls are also still subjected to invasive vaginal and anal examinations, which are done to determine whether they are still virgins. The operations are carried out by government doctors, and women found guilty are subjected to various torture mechanisms such as stoning and flogging. Afghani women with disabilities have also been on several occasions, been denied access to health and educational services. They have been further faced with sexual harassment in their quest to get the social services from ministries of labor, Education, and Social Affairs. Women also face multiple cases of domestic violence, which often lead to their deaths and are not reported to the authorities since the government never pursues most of the cases. The Human Rights Watch conducted interviews on women in prison and found out that most of them were imprisoned for running away from abusive domestic relationships. The Human Rights Watch concluded that there were gross violations of women’s rights in Afghanistan, even from the government authorities.

Children

A 2018 report by Save, the Children International Afghanistan Country Program, details the children’s rights issues ongoing in the country. The human rights situation involving the children includes the children in armed conflicts, internally displaced children, access to health care, and children living in poverty. The report shows that schools used with children are most susceptible to attacks from militant groups resulting in massive deaths. Most schools in Afghanistan, therefore, remained closed due to persistent attacks from the Taliban groups, thus denying the children access to Education. The report also shows that up to four million children are out of school with the girls making only fifteen percent of the children that manage to go to school. Sixty percent of girls in Afghanistan are currently out of school, with most of them staying in makeshift homes devoid of access to healthcare and other social services. Afghani children as young as five years are engaged in hazardous jobs for long hours trying to provide for their families. Such engagements compromise their education time and leave most of the population illiterate. Human Rights Watch report (2016: n.p) indicates that children in Afghanistan are involved in carpet industries, metal factories, agricultural sector, and mines. Such occupations by children leave the vulnerable to abuses and health complications that might lead to death. Trani J. et al. (2012: 345) highlights the poverty situation in the country using a multidimensional approach, which shows that children in both urban and rural areas in Afghanistan do not meet requirements that show that they are living well. The children do not meet any of the ten dimensions mentioned.

The continued and protracted war in Afghanistan has had significant effects on children. The wars have affected children at different aspects of life, with most of them being forcefully recruited by the militants as child soldiers (Save the Children Afghanistan, 2018: 71). Further, the war has also disrupted the normal dispensation of basic services to children in the country. According to a report by The UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), militant groups such as Taliban and ISKP have continued with their spirited efforts of recruiting children into their ranks despite the criminalization of the same by the government. UNICEF (2015: n.p) reported that children are recruited by militant groups for different activities in their groups. Some of the activities include suicide attacks, active combat, and also the use of the children as spies in battlefields. The children are also further used to prepare Improvised Explosive Devices, which sometimes end up killing them in the process ( UN 2008: n.p). Such activities have put the children at a very high risk of losing their lives in one way or the other. In the recent past, the problem of recruiting child soldiers was so widespread that even the government forces were involved in the process. However, the government has tried to crack down on the activity and has since reduced the number of children being recruited as child soldiers. However, eighteen percent of Afghani children are still vulnerable to recruitment as army soldiers, a number that is still very significant and alarming, according to UNICEF.

LGBTQ

The LGBTQ group forms the most vulnerable people in the Afghani society due to the strict Sharia laws against homosexuality. The Sharia laws see homosexuality as un-Islamic and very immoral, and anyone found engaging in such acts are condemned to death by stoning (Rehman, 2013:1). In extreme cases, the sentences for homosexuality is death by hanging. The human rights abuses occurring in the LGBTQ group is extreme so much so that most of the homosexuals do not have the freedom of expression. Most of the members of the LGBTQ groups have been forced to flee the country due to the abuses that they get, especially from the government. The Sharia laws stipulate that people engaged in same-sex relationships should be sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison. The laws in Afghanistan do not provide any punishment for people who harass or discriminate against others based on sexual orientation (Simmons, 2014:160). The members of the LBTQ community, therefore, have no support system when it comes to defending their rights in the country. The human rights reports from the US State Department show harassment of homosexuals by Afghani government agencies without any protection from the government organs. The lack of protection of the LBTQ community has led to human rights abuses meted out on innocent civilians.

Asylum Status of Afghanis in the UK

In the United Kingdom, the Home Office has been in charge of managing the growing number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan. However, due to the strict rules, the Home Office has been rejecting the applications from Afghani asylum seekers (Home Office 2008: n.p). The denial of entry into the United Kingdom has resulted in most of the refugees returning to their war-torn country, which has led to a massive number of deaths in Afghanistan. The people who have sought refugee status in the United Kingdom who are over two thousand have been deported by the Home Office back to Afghanistan. Vulnerable groups such as the LGBTQ community have faced rejections of their asylum applications based on their gender orientation. The danger with the deportation of the members of LGBTQ is that they face the risk of death back in Afghanistan, where the laws on homosexuality are stringent. The deportation of refugees has, therefore, opened doors for other people to take advantage of vulnerable refugees (Salt, 2000:38). There has been a rise in human trafficking in the United Kingdom due to the strict asylum rules. The human traffickers have targeted mostly women and children whom they charge extreme fees to get into the United Kingdom illegally. Such modes of trafficking are hazardous and pose real threats to those being trafficked. Most of the human traffickers use crude items to smuggle refugees, such as washing machines and inside freezers (Papadopoulou, 2004: 167). Most of the refugees spend so much time seeking asylum in the United Kingdom that, in the end, they opt for the expensive way of traffickers who take advantage of them (Koser 2000:91). Most of the refugees have died in the process of smuggling with the highest number of deaths being recorded amongst women and children. Most asylum seekers prefer the United Kingdom due to the assumption that most of the people from Afghanistan have already acquired a safe entry into the country, so it would not be hard to settle in society. The change in policies in the United Kingdom immigration systems, coupled with the withdrawal from the European Union, has toughened rules for asylum seekers.

Conclusion

Afghanistan has experienced forced migration due to persistent conflict the country has been experiencing in the past decades. The groups that have mostly suffered through the bloody change of regimes have been vulnerable groups such as women, children, and the LGBTQ. The forced migration has resulted in over ten million Afghanis migrating from their country to other foreign countries. The Afghani refugees now form the second largest group in the world after the Syrian refugees. The countries that have been hosting the Afghani refugees in record numbers include Pakistan and Iran. The United Nations had undertaken a measure to ensure the repatriation of Afghanis back into their country. The resettlement program formed one of the most significant moves the UN had undertaken. However, due to constant war outbreaks and the failing economy, most Afghanis still find themselves migrating from their country to find better lives elsewhere. The process of migration has seen the rise in human rights violations, with mostly women and children being on the receiving end of torture and abuses. The drug traffickers in the United Kingdom also have extorted money from vulnerable groups with the promise of landing them into the UK. The laws of immigration in the country have therefore denied more Afghanis chances to enter the country.