Urges that Money be Earmarked for Refugee Assistance,
and that International Community, Governments Bordering Afghanistan,
Ensure Physical Safety of Refugees 

New York--Responding to the Bush Administration’s pledge today of $320 million in aid to Afghanistan, Human Rights First called attention to the particular crisis of refugees and internally displaced persons in that area of the world. An estimated one million people are fleeing threatened war, starvation caused by the continuing drought, and forced conscription by the Taliban. Even before September 11, nearly a million Afghans already were internally displaced in Afghanistan, while 2 million Afghan refugees were living in Pakistan and another 1.5 million in Iran. 

By November the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees expects that drought and war will have rendered millions of people entirely dependent on outside humanitarian aid for basic survival. Yet this growing need comes at a time when the majority of UN and other humanitarian personnel who have been providing this essential support have been forced to evacuate. Most of the countries bordering Afghanistan have closed their borders fearing that the influx of a large number of refugees will create security and resource problems. This action is trapping thousands of Afghan civilians – mostly women and children – in a dangerous situation. 

Human Rights First urges that the United States and the international community: 

§         Provide financial and other assistance to the United Nations, in particular to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and humanitarian non-governmental organizations working in the region, to assist them in coping with the current and anticipated outflow of two million people.

§         Ensure that states bordering Afghanistan permit fleeing refugees to enter by providing financial and technical support needed to make such efforts possible.

§         Share equitably among states the responsibility to protect those who are displaced: by providing financial and material assistance to states in the region; by resettling significant numbers of Afghan refugees, and other mechanisms that foster responsibility for refugees.  

§         Commit to maintaining access to asylum in other regions of the world, especially in a time of heightened security concerns and the contemplation of more restrictive immigration laws.

§         Assist UNHCR and states in the region in securing both the safety of arriving refugees and the security of their own populations. Ensure that such measures be carried out in accordance with international refugee, human rights and humanitarian law; ensure that armed elements, and individuals who have committed serious crimes are separated out from the refugee population and dealt with appropriately.