BOLD ACTION NEEDED TO PREVENT CATASTROPHE

To prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, we must prioritize rapid refugee resettlement and humanitarian assistance.

I grew up as part of the millions of Afghans who are scattered around the world due to 40-plus years of war. I was born in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion, and my parents made the decision that every parent fears the most, leaving everything they knew behind and risking their family’s lives in pursuit of safety and a chance of survival for their children. As an immigrant growing up in San Diego, I vowed as a child to go back and be part of rebuilding my homeland.

In the 1990s, we watched the civil war that brewed back home and the takeover of the Taliban regime, then the American troops entering Afghanistan in October 2001. My parents were hopeful for a moment but soon realized that America was not there to save the Afghan people as we had hoped but was there for its own geopolitical gains. We witnessed the Bush administration and its conservative counterparts co-opt feminist language as a justification of the post-9/11 invasion of Afghanistan.

I pursued an education in political science and attended UC Berkeley’s Public Policy Masters program with a focus on international development. Through my studies, I had the opportunity to meet with leaders within the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development working in Afghanistan, as well as other international development efforts. What I learned was that the United States’ primary interest was in counterinsurgency and there was no substantive intent to rebuild a nation nor protect its people. My disillusionment in the geopolitical landscape of Afghanistan led me to focus on immigrant and refugee communities here at home.

As deputy director for the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), a nonprofit organization that advocates for refugees in San Diego and across the country, I work to ensure that refugee communities are able to rebuild their lives with dignity.

It’s now been two decades since the United States entered Afghanistan as part of the “war on terror,” with trillions of dollars spent and hundreds of thousands of lives lost. The United States government and its allies have packed their bags and have left Afghanistan seemingly without any care for Afghan lives. At this moment, I find myself and my community in desperation as we witness a humanitarian catastrophe in the making. The international community has stopped all humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and the banks are no longer open. My family in Kabul is unable to retrieve its money to purchase basic needs, and we can no longer send them financial support. Meanwhile, the non-government organization (NGO) infrastructure has collapsed in Afghanistan, and there is no clear path to support the millions who remain.

The global response at this moment needs to be narrowly focused on humanitarian protection. As part of the Afghan American Coalition, we are calling on the U.S. government to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to civilians in Afghanistan. This may be achieved through establishing a humanitarian corridor and securing a guarantee from the Taliban to allow humanitarian NGOS and their supply chains to operate freely in all areas of the country. We must not make the mistakes of the past of instating draconian sanctions that exacerbate humanitarian crises and primarily harm innocent civilians.

We must open our doors and welcome Afghan refugees fleeing for safety. We call on the administration to exponentially increase the refugee allocation to meet the imminent needs. The international community cannot simply wash its hands clean of Afghanistan and allow for the loss of innocent life. The United States Refugee Admissions Program and its partners must be fully funded so that vetting processes may be expedited for all P-1, P-2 and Special Immigrant Visas to meet the current needs.

San Diego is home to one of the largest refugee communities in the country. Our county must work with federal partners in the Office of Refugee Resettlement to ensure that refugees receive the support needed to meaningfully rebuild their lives in San Diego.

is an Afghan American who grew up in San Diego. She is the deputy director for the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA) and lives in San Marcos.