EGN NEWS DESK
“If you succeed and escape, you arrive in neighboring nations. But then it’s a must to make the robust passage to Europe by mountains and smuggling routes — that’s very harmful and really tough. Women are extra weak, so that they hardly ever journey on foot. The majority of Afghans who come to the EU are males,” he stated. It’s principally Afghan males who undertake the treacherous journeys to Europe, and males who wait years to hunt household reunification with their wives and youngsters.
Activists additionally level out that the info of a single month doesn’t point out that the choice to grant asylum to Afghan ladies and women led to a rise in total numbers. In Switzerland particularly, fewer ladies utilized for asylum after the coverage was adopted than earlier than — simply over 700 in 2023 in comparison with 809 in 2022.
Lionel Walter, a spokesperson for the Swiss Refugee Council, equally stated he may safely deny the existence of any pull issue thus far. “The overwhelming majority of Afghan ladies in exile are already with their households. Few, if any, ever journey alone,” he stated. Additionally, “two-thirds of those that utilized between October 2022 and September 2023 had been single” and couldn’t declare a proper to household reunification.
The ruling additionally solely applies to Afghan ladies and women who’re bodily current in an EU nation — to not these in a 3rd nation, akin to Iran or Pakistan.
Moreover, different provisions just like the Dublin Regulation, which determines the EU nation the place an asylum request needs to be processed, guard in opposition to secondary migration, Eva Singer of the Danish Refugee Council stated. If the authorities came upon that an Afghan girl already sought asylum in an EU nation, for instance, “they’d be returned in keeping with Dublin guidelines.”
However, in mid-October, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote a letter to the bloc’s nationwide leaders, asking them to discover “return hubs,” citing Italy’s cope with Albania as a mannequin. And this has known as many issues into query. According to Dr. Alema Alema of German NGO ProAsyl, because the EU strengthens border controls beneath the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), “reforms may change the observe of granting asylum to Afghan ladies.”
Overall, there’s no denying that the variety of Afghan asylum seekers have gone up as battle has gripped their nation and NATO allies left the reins to the Taliban. But with the oppression they’re beneath, Afghan ladies maybe make clearest case for cover. And but, activists now worry European governments will come beneath stress from the populist proper and mull third nation repatriation for all asylum seekers — together with Afghan ladies.
