“Should you succeed and escape, you arrive in neighboring international locations. However then it’s important to make the robust passage to Europe by mountains and smuggling routes — that’s very harmful and really tough. Girls are extra weak, in order that they not often journey on foot. Nearly all of Afghans who come to the EU are males,” he mentioned. It’s largely Afghan males who undertake the treacherous journeys to Europe, and males who wait years to hunt household reunification with their wives and kids.
Activists additionally level out that the info of a single month doesn’t point out that the choice to grant asylum to Afghan girls and women led to a rise in general numbers. In Switzerland particularly, fewer girls 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 mentioned he may safely deny the existence of any pull issue to this point. “The overwhelming majority of Afghan girls in exile are already with their households. Few, if any, ever journey alone,” he mentioned. Moreover, “two-thirds of those that utilized between October 2022 and September 2023 have been single” and couldn’t declare a proper to household reunification.
The ruling additionally solely applies to Afghan girls and women who’re bodily current in an EU nation — to not these in a 3rd nation, comparable to Iran or Pakistan.
Furthermore, different provisions just like the Dublin Regulation, which determines the EU nation the place an asylum request ought to be processed, guard in opposition to secondary migration, Eva Singer of the Danish Refugee Council mentioned. If the authorities discovered that an Afghan lady already sought asylum in an EU nation, for instance, “they might be returned in keeping with Dublin guidelines.”
Nonetheless, in mid-October, European Fee 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 referred to as many issues into query. Based on Dr. Alema Alema of German NGO ProAsyl, because the EU strengthens border controls beneath the Frequent European Asylum System (CEAS), “reforms may change the apply of granting asylum to Afghan girls.”
General, 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. However with the oppression they’re beneath, Afghan girls maybe make clearest case for cover. And but, activists now concern European governments will come beneath stress from the populist proper and mull third nation repatriation for all asylum seekers — together with Afghan girls.
