Is Afghanistan truly safe? This article doesn’t say much in way of details.. If anyone else can find more on this please add it, I am interested in how this works. While I cannot give my unconditional sympathy to these refugees without knowing the full details, what are the criteria that the gov’ts in question have used to judge Afghanistan to be habitible? Is there any conflict between the judgement on the Afghans and refugees of any other country?
Afghans Go on Hunger Strike in Belgium](Yahoo News: Latest and Breaking News, Headlines, Live Updates, and More)
When he fled Taliban-ruled Afghanistan more than two years ago, Mohamad Nazari never thought he’d end up here: on a hunger strike inside a Brussels church in the middle of a heat wave.
But he and more than 200 fellow Afghans who have taken over the nave of the Holy Cross church for the past two weeks say the drastic measure is the only way to avoid being sent back to a country they believe is still too dangerous.
“I know that Afghanistan for the moment is not good for us,” the 25-year-old, former pharmacology student said as he sat on a blanket on the floor, clutching a plastic cup of black tea. “There’s too much risk of dying.”
Human rights groups have called on Western governments sheltering Afghan refugees not to send them back yet, arguing that Afghanistan is far from safe nearly two years after the U.S.-led war that toppled the Taliban.
But Belgium, like other European Union countries, believes the time has come for them to go. The 15-nation bloc made their repatriation the top priority of its asylum policy last year, offering cash if they go voluntarily but promising force if they refuse.
About 100,000 remain in the EU, chiefly in Germany, Britain, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands. The first batch was expelled in April from Britain; another 49 arrived at the airport in the war-shattered capital last week.
It was Belgium’s recent order for the 1,100 Afghans whose asylum claims have been denied here to leave by next June at the latest that set off the hunger strike.
Interior Minister Patrick Dewael has ordered a new assessment of the security situation to be prepared by January, which he will use before making a final decision. But he has refused to grant the hunger strikers a blanket reprieve.
Three hours of talks Saturday between a government-appointed mediator, Victor Bricout, and an Afghan delegation failed to end the stand-off.
A lawyer for the Afghans, Selma bin Khelifa, told a rally on the steps of the church that the refugees had accepted that each case be handled individually, but were demanding it be done "within reasonable times and with transparency in the criteria.
“But this demand, however legitimate in a democratic state, could not be obtained,” she told the crowd of about 500.
She called for the federal government’s ombudsman to step in.
Dewael’s office issued a statement blaming the Afghans for the failure of the talks and thanking Bricout for his efforts.
No time was set for new talks.
Meanwhile, the church’s occupation, which began July 24, has attracted national media attention and an outpouring of support from the middle-class neighbors, who drop by to chat or donate food for the children, who are not taking part in the hunger strike.
The Afghan women generally sit segregated from the men on blankets or air mattresses. They help keep the church clean and lie quietly during Mass, officials say.
Only about half are participating in the hunger strike, said Patrick Kessen, one of several Red Cross workers who have been taking care of the refugees. Some are taking only liquids, while others are eating bread as well, he said.
There have been no serious medical problems, although several people have been taken to the hospital to be treated for dehydration after fainting, he said.
About 2 million Afghans have returned home since the former Taliban government was ousted in a U.S.-led war in 2001. Tens of thousands have ended up squatting in ruins in the capital, with few job opportunities and little food.
At least 2 million more remain in exile, mostly in neighboring Iran and Pakistan. The U.N. High Commissioner For Refugees says many are afraid to return home because of an insurgency in the south and east, and factional fighting in other parts of the country.
London-based Amnesty International last month urged the EU and Australia not to force rejected asylum seekers back, arguing that Afghanistan was not yet safe.