Civil society groups and Afghan refugees seek asylum in the West: Afghan Solidarity Committee staged an indefinite sit-in outside the Indian mission of UNHCR

Afghan Solidarity Committee staged an indefinite sit-in outside the Indian mission of UNHCR in south Delhi claiming many have remained stateless even in India

An Afghan woman with her child protests in front of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in New Delhi on Monday: PTI

Pheroze L. Vincent   |   TT  |  New Delhi   |  24.08.21: Civil society groups and Afghan refugees held public meetings in the capital on Monday against the new Taliban regime. Refugees, including those here since late 80s, demanded that the developed countries accept them as citizens as many have remained stateless in India.

On a call of the Afghan Solidarity Committee, several refugees protested and some are staging an indefinite sit-in outside the Indian mission of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar.

Their demands include that the UNHCR recommend that they be accepted by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members and allies who participated in the civil war; rejected cases for resettlement be reviewed; and the Indian government take up their case with UNHCR as many of them are stateless.

One of the organisers, Naeem Pathan, came to India when he was 11 in 1989 and is now stateless. He told The Telegraph: “We do not want to be treated like illegal immigrants any longer as most employers do not accept our UNHCR identity cards, and we can’t go back to Afghanistan either as we cannot afford the Rs 50,000 fine of the Indian government for overstaying. We are all qualified and can work hard and the UNHCR should recommend us for the emigration quotas for Afghan refugees announced by several western countries.”

The UNHCR has registered 15,217 refugees in India. Hundreds more have come over the last month, and refugee groups estimate the total number to be more than 21,000. Many are camping outside embassies of Australia, Canada and European countries in India, where they are yet to get visas.

Pathan, who was in construction, has not found regular employment since 2014, he said.“I fled the mujahideen, the forerunners of the Taliban back then,” he said.

Several civil society groups, including front organisations of Left parties, gathered near central Delhi’s Mandi House on Monday afternoon to express solidarity with Afghans opposing the Taliban.

They demanded elections under an interim UN regime, punishment for war crimes by Nato forces and the Taliban, UN intervention to protect women’s rights, acceptance of refugees by India irrespective of religion, and the return of Indians.

The groups, including front organisations of the CPI, CPIML-Liberation, and SUCI (Communist), also said in a statement: “The Election Commission of India must ensure that Afghanistan and the Taliban are not used as pretexts for hate speech during campaigns for state elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab that are due soon.”

Rukhsar Rahim, who has just finished her studies at Jamia Millia Islamia made a passionate speech against surrendering her rights to dress, study and work as a woman in Afghanistan. “We don’t want to wear a burqa. We respect the Islamic hijab, but we don’t want to wear a burqa. Islam doesn’t say that we must be made to wear burqas and kept at home and beaten…. The Taliban says they want to establish an Islamic government. I ask, which Islam?...  Afghanistan is already an Islamic country, we have an Islamic constitution. We don’t need a terrorist group to teach us about our religion.”

She added: “…Even now if we get the opportunity to do the work we want in Afghanistan, we will go back. We will fight for the rights of the women whose rights are being taken away, even if our heads are cut, our whole lives are spent, we will never give up…. We fought for our rights that other women in the world get easily. We fought for our families and society for the right to work. What we got with such difficulty we won’t give up so easily.”

Annie Raja, general secretary of CPI’s National Federation of Indian Women told this newspaper: “We are in touch with refugee groups and will support them like we did in 1992. India must keep their confidence and trust and make them feel at home, as is our tradition, as well as immediately ensure their human rights and livelihood, here.”