Pakistan has begun arresting and deporting Afghan refugees who missed Wednesday morning’s deadline for them to leave, a government minister has announced. At least 200,000 people have already returned to Afghanistanvoluntarily, said Pakistan’s acting interior minister, Sarfraz Bugti.

The crackdown on unregistered foreigners, part of Pakistan’s new anti-immigrant policy, affects some 2 million Afghans thought to be in Pakistan without documentation.

Bugti said: “There will be no compromise against illegal refugees. We have the data on who are staying illegally in Pakistan. We are going door to door, and we have done geofencing. We will detain and deport them. We have arrested dozens across the country so far, including in the capital.”

Afghans would be put in buses, trucks or whatever was available to transport them to the border, said Bugti, and authorities would be tracking them to ensure they did not return. He attacked the west for not doing enough to help relocate Afghans at risk from Taliban retaliation if they return.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/nov/01/pakistan-starts-mass-deportation-of-undocumented-afghans

The post Pakistan starts mass deportation of undocumented Afghans first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Unfortunately, with legal, language, and recertification barriers cited as common constraints, these individuals often struggle to access the labor market.

In a report released last year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees highlighted the importance of “employment and employability to successful integration” into the society of the host country.

For refugees, “successful economic adjustment remains one of the most pressing challenges,” the report said.

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That said, with President Joe Biden’s commitments to welcome an additional 75,000 Afghan and 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, the United States is in increasing need of programs to connect newcomers with stable, well-paying jobs.

Biden, along with other officials from the U.S. State Department, has pleaded with private citizens and organizations to support these resettlement efforts.

“We urge more governments to engage the private sector, NGOs, faith groups, universities, youth, and other parts of society in resettling refugees,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a video statement during a UNHCR event on Monday.

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“The more we can make our communities partners in these efforts, the more fully we can integrate refugees into the fabric of all our nations,” he added.

The U.S. refugee admissions ceiling was raised to 125,000 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, double the number from the year before, according to the U.S. State Department. In response, the government has launched innovative solutions such as Refugee Cash Assistance, Refugee Medical Assistance, and the Community Sponsorship Hub to support the influx.

The Tent Partnership for Refugees, a non-profit organization, which focuses on mobilizing the global business community to include refugees, has created a unique approach to the job-training challenge.

Building on an effort launched in 2021 that focused specifically on Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, leaders at the Tent Partnership have spent months rallying a group of 103 companies to commit to reducing barriers for refugees looking for jobs and helping them integrate into the U.S. economy.

Headlined by major companies like Delta, Pfizer, and Marriott, the Coalition for Refugees in the U.S. has agreed to provide mentorship and training opportunities to all refugees in the country, regardless of their place of origin.

Gideon Maltz, executive director of the Tent Partnership, called the program “unprecedented and extremely significant,” telling Newsweek he sees it as a welcome shift from previous efforts to support refugees.

“At the height of the Syria crisis in 2015, we saw a lot of companies do token, in-the-moment things to help,” he said. “They might have sent an in-kind donation or wrote a check, but they never really engaged or invested in the issue.”

Maltz said that the Coalition focuses on creating genuine, long-term engagement from the private sector. To accomplish that goal, Tent leaders seek to connect with the spirit of charity and generosity of participating companies, and also emphasize the economic benefits that comes from employing refugees.

Tent recently released a survey conducted with the NYU Stern School of Business that found that 63% of U.S. consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that are involved in helping refugees, a number that exceeds the percentage that back brands selling environmentally friendly or fair-trade products.

And with 11.4 million job openings in the U.S., Maltz also noted that hiring refugees is already helping states across the nation.

“In states with labor shortages, we have seen governors of both political parties increasing the admissions of refugees in the last year, partly because they need to,” he said.

“To get to a place where there’s broad public support for America to bring in more refugees,” he said, “we have to highlight and emphasize the amazing contribution that refugees make to the American economy.”

Maltz is looking beyond the short-term refugee crisis to a brighter future for them, and for their new country.

“We have been focused on creating programs that companies benefit from and see the value in so that in a year or two, when Afghanistan and Ukraine are not in the news, companies will still be engaged because it makes sense with their business,” he said.

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/more-100-major-us-companies-commit-hire-train-more-refugees-1718148

The post More than 100 Major U.S. Companies Commit to Hire and Train More Refugees first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Inamullah Niazai sits on the front porch step of his red-brick St. Louis home and smiles at the bustle of activity around him — his mother and father chatting in the front yard, his two young daughters munching chocolate ice cream bars.

“Anything is possible here,” Niazai, 23, said. “We are so lucky that my family can be here, together.”

An aggressive effort in St. Louis is trying to lure Afghan refugees like Niazai. About 600 have arrived so far, and another 750 are expected later this year.

AFGHAN REFUGEES IN US TO RECEIVE TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS

Civic leaders are hopeful that over the next few years, thousands more will decide to relocate to the Midwestern city, helping to offset seven decades of population loss and rejuvenate urban neighborhoods — just as the arrival of Bosnian refugees did three decades ago.

It’s been nearly nine months since the Afghan capital of Kabul was ceded to the Taliban. Since last summer, more than 76,000 Afghan refugees have relocated to the U.S. While California and Texas have taken in most of the displaced Afghans, many will eventually go elsewhere.

In the 1990s, St. Louis became America’s most popular landing spot for Bosnians displaced by war in the former Yugoslavia. Among the estimated 300,000 who fled to the U.S., some 40,000 now call St. Louis and the region home.

They revitalized an area of the city’s south side that is now often referred to as Little Bosnia. The area features Bosnian-owned markets, coffee shops, auto repair shops and other businesses. They have their own online newspaper, their own chamber of commerce.

The Bosnians also provided a badly needed population boost in a city that’s been losing people at an alarming rate, dropping from a peak of over 850,000 in 1950 to just under 300,000 today.

BIDEN ADMIN GIVES TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS TO TENS OF THOUSANDS OF AFGHAN EVACUEES

St. Louis’ Afghan Resettlement Initiative is backed by over $1 million in donations and more than 800 volunteers, and it has support from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, the International Institute of St. Louis and other nonprofit groups. Advocates say they’ve received no opposition to their efforts.

Jerry Schlichter, an attorney who is the organizer and a major funder, said the initiative helps find housing and jobs, connects new arrivals to training, such as classes on computer coding, and provides grants for business startups.

The St. Louis effort also provided money to establish an online Afghan newspaper, a chamber of commerce and a community center.

“There’s a mutual need. We have been stagnant,” Schlichter said. “With this one-time opportunity with Afghan refugees ending up somewhere in this country, we should take advantage of it.”

Arrey Obenson, president and CEO of the International Institute of St. Louis, said he’s confident that the new refugees will revitalize neighborhoods, just as the Bosnians did.

“The reality of the circumstance we face is that if we look at St. Louis city and the rate the population is declining, we have to find a way to bring people into the community to turn that around,” Obenson said.

PENTAGON IG REPORT SAYS 50 AFGHAN EVACUEES BROUGHT TO US HAD ‘POTENTIALLY SIGNIFICANT SECURITY CONCERNS

St. Louis isn’t the only city with a declining population trying to attract Afghan refugees.

Detroit also reached its population apex in 1950, when 1.85 million people lived there. Today, the population has dropped by two-thirds, to about 640,000.

Detroit corporate and community leaders in April launched the Detroit Refugee Network, with hopes of raising more than $1 million to provide services such as housing, education, transportation and language training. About 250 Afghan refugees have settled in Detroit, with another 400 or so elsewhere in southeastern Michigan.

Like St. Louis, history in Detroit has proven the value immigrants can bring, said Steve Tobocman, executive director of Global Detroit.

Tobocman and Alan Mallach, a senior fellow with the Center for Community Progress, studied two Detroit neighborhoods filled with immigrants from Bangladesh, Yemen, Mexico and Central and South America. Those two neighborhoods have grown by nearly 50% in the past two decades or so.

The result is less crime, well over 100 new businesses and reductions in home vacancies and tax foreclosures, the study found. Residents surveyed were more satisfied and optimistic than Detroit residents as a whole.

UKRAINE WAR: AFGHAN REFUGEE AND HER FAMILY ESCAPE KYIV

“Depopulation is what really cycles these neighborhoods into some pretty dire circumstances,” Tobocman said. “The vacancy, the lack of retail opportunity, the lack of jobs. Just stabilizing the population or, in a couple of cases, regrowing the population can reverse that course.”

A major hurdle for Afghan refugees is housing. Across the country, thousands still live in hotels.

But by early May, only two Afghan families were still in St. Louis hotels because the initiative has a program guaranteeing payment to landlords, Schlichter and Obenson said.

Niazai, his wife and their two young daughters fled Kabul last year. They were sent first to Washington, D.C., then to temporary housing in Texas. They chose to end up in St. Louis because other relatives were already there.

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The initiative helped find them a place to rent — a brick home on a quiet street a few miles south of the Gateway Arch that now is home to 11 family members. Volunteers provided furniture, food and what Niazai called “welcome money.” Someone even gave him a car.

Niazai said he feels at home in St. Louis.

“We will stay,” he said. “My future is good here.”

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/st-louis-seeking-boost-population-afghan-refugees

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The House and Senate on Thursday passed a short-term funding bill that staved off a government shutdown and ensured funding to resettle thousands of Afghan refugees.

In a 65 to 35 vote the Senate approved funding that would provide $6.3 billion for Afghan resettlement, along with ensuring the federal government remains operational through Dec.  3.

“This is a good outcome — one I am happy we are getting done,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said from the Senate floor ahead of the vote. “With so many things happening in Washington, the last thing the American people need is for the government to grind to a halt.”

HOUSE ALIGNS WITH SENATE AND VOTES TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN WITH SHORT-TERM FUNDING BILL

The House voted 254-175, and President Biden signed the bill Thursday evening.

The administration has said it expects upwards of 95,000 refugees to be brought to the U.S. over the next year, following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

The funds will be designated for housing evacuees at facilities, screening, and resettlement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that “Overall, this is encouraging progress,” though both the McConnell and Schumer noted ticket items they would have liked to see included in the legislation.

But some Republicans are frustrated over language included in the bill at the request of the White House.

If an Afghan refugee enters the U.S. between July 2021 and the end of September 2022, they will be permitted to apply for a green card after residing in the U.S. for one year through an expedited process.

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Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton accused President Biden of trying “to award unlimited green cards to people who didn’t serve alongside our troops and who may even threaten our safety and health — all while exempting them from the normal refugee screening process.”

Cotton introduced legislation that would have cut aid from resources like housing and medical benefits for Afghan refugees admitted into the U.S. after March 31, 2023, first reported The New York Times. But a tied vote on the senator’s amendment struck down the proposed changes.

The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk ahead of a federal funding lapse, which would occur at midnight.

Fox Business’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/government-short-term-funding-bill-includes-billions-afghan-resettlement-funds

The post President Biden signed the bill Thursday evening first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

President Biden is struggling with a Gordian knot on immigration that there’s little he can do to untangle: The nation’s broken system is making it harder than it should be to manage the Afghan refugee crisis — and the Afghan refugee crisis is making it harder to fix the system.

By the numbers: If the military’s task of adding 50,000 spots to bases by mid-September to temporarily house Afghan refugees sounds like a lot, consider that there have been more than 1.2 million undocumented border crossings since last October.

• Meanwhile, pandemic protocols and disruptions have fueled so many backlogs that officials estimate that in the fiscal year closing at the end of this month, 100,000 green cards allotments could go to waste.

The big picture: The crisis around the U.S. withdrawal, fall of the Afghan government and rise of the Taliban is just the latest in a string of migration emergencies that have fallen on President Biden and brought into focus the shortfalls of the system.

• COVID-19, poverty and violence in Central America, an earthquake that rocked Haiti, actions by the Trump administration and in federal courts, and agencies that are understaffed and underfunded have left the administration jumping from one fire to the next.

What they’re saying: “Our resources are indeed stressed,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on Friday, adding that what they have managed to accomplish for Afghans being brought to the U.S. “speaks to the extraordinary talent and dedication” of agencies’ workforces.

• “The Biden Administration is committed to rebuilding the broken immigration system it inherited after four years of chaos,” a White House spokesperson told Axios, adding that the administration has been “continuing to call on Congress to make long overdue reforms to U.S. immigration laws.“
• ”Asylum and other legal migration pathways should remain available to those seeking protection. But those not seeking protection or who don’t qualify will be returned to their country of origin.”

Details: DHS has taken responsibility for evacuating and welcoming vulnerable Afghans to the U.S. But its agencies are also in charge of enforcing the U.S.-Mexico border, authorizing parolees and other migrants for work in the country, approving temporary visas and running immigrant detention centers.

• The number of migrants and pending applications has only grown since Biden took office.
• The same Department of Health and Human Services agency that has had to scramble to fund and build emergency sites for unaccompanied kids is also charged with funding services for refugees — including resettled Afghans.
• The U.S. has brought in tens of thousands of Afghans using a special mechanism called parole — they join other migrants who have also been paroled into the U.S., including many who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Paperwork, including work authorization for Afghans and Central American asylum seekers alike, all flow through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which has long struggled with backlogs and funding shortfalls.
• The long, tedious Special Immigrant Visa process likely contributed to leaving many allies stranded in Afghanistan.

An unknown number of unaccompanied Afghan kids will join the record numbers of migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents or guardians. Unaccompanied minors will be placed in shelters overseen by HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters.

• But more than one in five migrant kids have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks, according two government sources familiar with internal data. And HHS has lost contact with one-in-three migrant kids released from shelters.
• As military bases prepare to house tens of thousands of Afghans, one base, Fort Bliss, has already been criticized for holding hundreds of unaccompanied minors in unfit conditions.

The pandemic, with its travel restrictions and consulate closures, already has disrupted the green card process, as the Wall Street Journal has reported.

• Tens of thousands diversity visa lottery winners —including hundreds from Afghanistan — risk losing their one-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Biden has also faced legal roadblocks to keeping his immigrations promises.

• The Supreme Court recently ruled that the administration must restart the Remain in Mexico program and courts have also blocked Biden’s deportation moratorium.
• More than 45 families separated under the Trump administration have been reunified under Biden. But many have arrived in need of housing and other financial assistance.

The bottom line: The administration is working on new regulations to expedite asylum, has sped up the SIV processes, has set up dozens of emergency shelters, has used parole to quickly bring Afghans to the U.S. and has begun offering vaccines to vulnerable migrants.

• But the emergencies keep coming, hitting a system in need of long-term fixes — one neglected by multiple administrations and Congress.

Source: https://www.axios.com/afghanistan-us-immigration-crisis-24ff0c58-acc7-4172-87a6-cf92fcff7972.html

The post Afghanistan feeds U.S. immigration crisis first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The swift takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and an upcoming final August 31st deadline for all NATO troops to leave the has triggered panic among European politicians about the possibility of a new refugee emergency — especially in countries that are facing elections in the coming months, such as Germany and France.

Candidates for high offices have been quick to reassure voters that 2021 won’t be a repeat of 2015, when more than a million Syrian and Afghan refugees streamed into Europe and caused one of the most serious challenges that the EU has faced in recent times.

“The mistakes made in the Syrian civil war must not be made again,” promised Armin Laschet, the leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. He was echoed by Merkel herself and the chancellor candidate for the Social Democratic Party, Olaf Scholz.

Never Again

Both have stressed that it is Afghanistan’s neighboring countries that now need support to deal with the challenge.

French President Emmanuel Macron was even blunter, stating in a televised address that France should have a robust plan to “anticipate and protect itself from a wave of migrants (….)”, adding that “ dealing with those fleeing the Taliban would need a fair and organized international effort.”

Greece has gone further by installing a 25 mile long fence along its borders. Most of the criticism directed at the U.S. president by European partners seems to be caused by the fear that it is they who will have to deal with the destabilizing consequences of a humanitarian crisis provoked by the sudden collapse of the pro-western government in Kabul.

Events in Afghanistan have exposed how six years after the events of 2015 there is still a lack of a clear EU framework for dealing with large inflows of migrants: How to process and, most importantly, distribute refugees still very much depends on the willingness of individual EU member countries to accept them on their territory.

A Need for a Framework

The so-called Dublin EU framework that put most of the onus on first entry countries has not been replaced by anything new and durable. The EU beefed up its border police force Frontex and financially supported countries, such as Turkey and Libya, in return for their efforts to keep refugees away from Europe. But this approach was always supposed to buy time — not become the only pillar of a shaky immigration framework.

The conflict in Afghanistan has once again revealed the brittleness of Europe’s patchwork of migration policies.

 

The absence of any new ways of dealing with non-EU immigrants has forced the EU and its leaders to resort to the same imperfect tools employed in the wake of the last crisis. Just like in 2015, Merkel spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — although both Ankara and Berlin deny that the possibility of a new deal was discussed or even mentioned. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is pushing to get the G20 involved by including China, India and Russia into any efforts to deal with the aftermath of the Taliban takeover.

The EU is discussing funding schemes for Afghanistan’s neighboring countries. While critics have pointed out that the EU is unnecessarily putting itself in the position of being blackmailed by potential recipients of financial aid, the aim of the exercise is clear: Once evacuation efforts are concluded, don’t expect EU countries to welcome many more refugees.

Numbers of those currently entitled to resettle in western countries vary — no overall official figures are available, but based on promises made by individual governments it is safe to assume around 100,000. However, these numbers pale when compared to those of the United Nations’ refugees organization. According to the UNHCR, there are currently 3.5 million internally displaced people in Afghanistan.

Worldwide, there are currently around 2.5 million registered Afghan refugees. Notably, most of them — 2.2 million — are in neighboring Pakistan, not in Europe. It is in fact unclear whether the current crisis will necessarily result in a dramatic increase in refugee flows from Afghanistan toward Europe. The countries that will likely continue to bear the brunt of the humanitarian cost of the war are Pakistan and Iran. The potential corridors for refugee flows from Afghanistan toward Europe are currently largely choked off.

Also, the Taliban themselves seem to be determined to stop migrant outflows, at least for the time being. They seem to have concluded they can ill afford to bleed expertise when what they need are Afghans with some experience of running a bureaucracy.  Much of course depends on how much and quickly the Taliban will alienate Afghan civilians — and whether a bloody civil war can be avoided.

Engaging with the Taliban?

Once the current visible turmoil subsides — and western witnesses have left the scene — EU governments will likely try to engage with the Taliban directly to address a possible migration emergency. Merkel obliquely hinted at this before the Bundestag on August 25th when she declared that unfortunately one had to accept that the Taliban are now in charge. But much of this tentatively emerging approach of careful engagement is largely based on hope rather than sound policy.

The situation in Afghanistan has once again revealed the brittleness of Europe’s patchwork of migration policies. The country could represent a new wake up call or recede in politicians’ minds if the worst can be avoided. Unfortunately, geopolitical instability is here to stay, and will be further fueled by the impact of climate change on vulnerable societies.

As a result, migration flows will likely continue to increase, further exposing the lack of a coherent European strategy to deal with the crisis at hand.

Source: https://www.brinknews.com/is-europe-facing-a-new-migrant-crisis/

The post Is Europe Facing a New Migrant Crisis? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.