Afghans collect winter aid packages from UNHCR in 2015. Sayed Muhammad Shah for UNAMA News/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc)
In the past few months, Afghanistan’s refugees have returned to the headlines across the world. Europe brokered a deal that will see Greece returning refugees to Turkey; Australia received criticism for a A$6 million (£3 million) anti-asylum movie aired in Afghanistan; and the Afghan government remains uncertain in its ability to resettle a potential 80,000 Afghans deported from Europe. Government responses to Afghan refugees have been tackled through a narrow prism focused on a narrative of fear, which has eclipsed any opportunity for the politics of hope to find durable and dignified solutions for Afghanistan’s refugees.
Twenty-eight EU member states agreed to provide €6 billion (£4.7 billion) to fund the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Turkey. For every Syrian refugee resettled in Turkey, another Syrian will be resettled in the EU. In exchange, the Turkish government negotiated the visa liberalisation for up to 75 million Turkish citizens travelling to the EU as well as reigniting EU accession talks. What has been lost in this discussion, however, is the status of thousands of Afghans and other non-Syrian refugees shoring up on Europe’s borders.
