Issue 25: July 4, 2022
In this issue...
We're covering controversy over U.S.-Saudi relations in light of Saudi Arabian human rights abuses, a recent earthquake in Afghanistan that is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis, and how Central America and the Caribbean are preparing for the Atlantic Hurricane Season. We're also dispelling three more refugee related myths and global fatigue surrounding Ukraine aid as the war with Russia continues
US Immigration Policy Update
By Marin Theis
Afghanistan
Due to the chaos of the initial days of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan last year, many Afghans eligible for resettlement were unable to enter the United States. Some of these individuals have applied for parole, which would allow them to enter the country without a visa. However, recent data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) demonstrates that over 90 percent of these applications have been denied.
To alleviate some of the stress on the immigration system, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of State (DOS) have announced new exemptions to the list of Afghans eligible for resettlement in the U.S. Newly protected classes include: Afghans who opposed the Taliban or the Soviet occupation, civil servants who were employed during a certain time frame, and individuals who provided limited support to the Taliban for survival purposes. In a press release, the DHS stated that these exemptions will prevent eligible Afghans from mistakenly being denied entry on terrorism-related grounds.
The Americas
According to a fact sheet published by the DOS, the U.S. has admitted over 5,300 refugees from South and Central America throughout the first six months of 2022. The DOS predicts the arrival of 1,800 additional refugees in the second half of 2022. The U.S. has committed to accepting 20,000 refugees from the Americas in the coming year.
A small fraction of these refugees arrived as part of the Central American Minors (CAM) program, which reopened in 2021 after previously closing in 2018. This program allows certain parents to petition on behalf of their children for refugee status and resettlement in the U.S. 130 applicants have been accepted for refugee status through this program since 2021.
Summit of the Americas
At the conclusion of the Summit of the Americas, President Biden released a fact sheet on the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection. This declaration includes a number of South and Central American countries as well as Canada, and outlines what each nation will do to help manage migration in the Americas.
The U.S. pledged $25 million to the Global Concessional Financing Facility of the World Bank, which will support Latin American countries to develop a refugee processing system and develop infrastructure to support admitted refugees. The U.S. also announced $314 million in United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and DOS funding for stabilization efforts in the Americas, specifically citing displaced Venezuelans as a designated recipient of aid.
The U.S. will also implement several protections for migrant agricultural workers in the near future. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to develop a $65 million program to support farms that hire workers under the H-2A program, as well as expand the H-2A program to provide 11,500 visas to seasonal agricultural workers from Haiti and northern Central America. The H-2A program allows “nonimmigrant foreign farmers” to perform agricultural labor when domestic labor is short.
Principle Versus Profit: A Look into U.S.-Saudi Arabia Relations
By Jack Elworth
For years, the United States has a maintained a partnership with Saudi Arabia, despite the nation’s recent history of human rights abuses and internal humanitarian challenges
On June 14, the Biden Administration confirmed that the president would indeed visit Saudi Arabia on his upcoming Middle Eastern trip, much to the dismay of some pundits and human rights activists.
Only days before the announcement, a new Saudi-backed golf league held its first event, presenting an alternative to the dominant and traditional PGA Tour. These two events mark but two more controversies in a long line of controversies between the two states since the inception of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have always had a uniquely fractious relationship. Simply put, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have hugely different cultures and values, but Saudi Arabia has proved to be an invaluable economic partner and military ally.
The two states have found themselves on opposite sides of numerous conflicts in the Middle East: first in British Palestine and now in modern Israel. These disagreements should come as no surprise: Saudi Arabia is a leader of both the Islamic and Arab worlds, while the United States is perhaps the most fervent backer of Israel.
Additionally, Saudi Arabia received some blame after 9/11 given the high number of Saudi hijackers, despite the government’s full denial of any involvement. Indeed, the Saudi government is no stranger to these accusations: many an American politician has derided Saudi tolerance and even funding of terrorist organizations across the Middle East.
The main objection now, though, is the country’s horrid track record of human rights abuses both foreign and domestic. Many object to Saudi involvement and alleged war crimes in Yemen—and to American weapons sales for the conflict.
Many in the West, including the Biden administration, revile Saudi Arabia’s domestic policy and systems. The government of Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. Dissent is criminal: the state jails domestic opposition and kills the exiled opposition (i.e. Jamal Khashoggi). Surveillance of citizens is ubiquitous. There exists no concept of due process or basic rights at all, especially for women.
The law is certainly not uniformly enforced, excepting laws about women—all of whom must have a male guardian approve each and every basic action. An all encompassing list of all Saudi abuses is too long for one article, but suffice to say the crown prince’s will knows no check, boundary, or barrier.
How then, one might ask, can the leader of the free world possibly ally with such an oppressive regime? The answer lies in the huge benefit the United States as a nation reaps from the partnership. Saudi Arabia presents two things of chief interest: abundant, cheap oil and the shared interest of maintaining the regional status quo.
The choice is clear: the U.S. can either cut off Saudi Arabia for its behavior and take huge economic and geopolitical losses, or it can turn a blind eye to the ugly side of the nation in order to preserve American interests. To some, the answer seems obvious: we must not do business with nations so repugnant.
But others object. Opponents of the moralistic approach to foreign policy see this pressure to liberalize Saudi Arabia in a different light. Proponents of the moralistic policy seek to force American values on a foreign nation through economic pressure. While many would agree that many American values are worth fighting for, namely equality of the sexes, freedom of expression, and government by the people, the question is whether it is right to export American values through foreign policy, even if it hurts other U.S. interests. Is exporting United States values moral? Is it America’s responsibility? Is the ultimate goal of American foreign policy remote justice or domestic prosperity?
Right now, many politicians tread an uncomfortable line between the two options, condemning Saudi Arabia without truly punishing it. But America can’t have its cake and eat it too: a time for choosing will come, when the U.S. must solidify its alliance with Saudi Arabia or destroy it. American opponents have no problem making deals with unsavory states.
China has no qualms about swooping in and replacing the United States in Saudi Arabia, a specter which the Crown Prince knows well, smugly shrugging off the prospect of American withdrawal in an interview with The Atlantic. China has no issue with engaging in realpolitik, and during the Cold War we seemed to have no problem with partnerships with dictators to counter the Soviet Union. Should the United States return to this pragmatic approach? Can it afford not to?
By no means has a consensus been reached on the future of American foreign policy, and Saudi Arabia is a perfect example of this new dichotomy: will U.S. foreign policy be determined by the moral and ideological values of other nations, or by their geopolitical and economic interests?
Deadly Earthquakes Exacerbate Afghanistan’s Humanitarian Crisis
By Jade Xiao
On June 23, 2022, a devastating earthquake destroyed thousands of homes and killed over 1,000 civilians in the southeastern region of Afghanistan.
The 6.1 magnitude earthquake is the worst earthquake in Afghanistan over the last twenty years. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 1,000 people have been confirmed dead and thousands more injured, with the Paktika Province being the most affected with over 500 deaths.
In an interview by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Mustafa Madatkhail, the Afghanistan Program Director of the International Medical Corps, said the fatality rate and injuries are so severe that “it was unable to covered by one NGO, by two NGOs, even by five, six, even by 20 NGOs.”
Since 2021, the country has struggled with severe hunger. A report from the ​​Integrated Food Security Phase Classification states about 20 million Afghans suffered from high acute food insecurity between March to May of 2022, and a UN report presents that 95 percent of citizens do not have enough food. Families affected by the earthquake may experience even worse food insecurity as the earthquake destroyed their homes and possessions.
The economic crisis also led to inadequate infrastructure, causing most of the remote areas to build unstable mud houses. This development led to the high fatalities during the earthquake, as the mud houses crumbled on the sleeping civilians during the disaster, and most people in the region lost their homes. The horrendous economic conditions and poverty could force many survivors into homelessness.
Furthermore, the lack of proper infrastructure posed great challenges to the rescue and aid processes after the earthquake. The roads were damaged and unsafe, and along with the heavy rainfall, this damage slowed the transport of supplies and rescue teams.
The healthcare sector, which relies heavily on donor funding, has been vastly underfunded, with many hospitals suspending services due to a lack of supplies. In PBS’ interview, Samira Sayed Rahman, the communication and advocacy coordinator for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Kabul, reports that the “health sector in Afghanistan is at a brink of collapse” and “is only going to get worse with this catastrophe that happened.” According to a report from the UNHCR, there is a serious risk of waterborne diseases after the earthquake, posing great threats on the community due to the weak, overstretched health services.
Since the United States withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban government gained control in August 2021, the country has been struggling with a severe humanitarian crisis. According to the World Bank, foreign aid contributes to 43 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP; thus, after the withdrawal of the U.S. and the international freezing of assets, the economy deteriorated.
According to Rahman, many smaller and local non-governmental organizations in these remote areas have shut down, and thus the area is reliant on international aid.
On June 24, the UNHCR delivered various household and shelter supplies, including 600 tents, 4,200 blankets, 1,200 solar lamps, 600 kitchen sets, amongst other items, supporting approximately 4,200 survivors in the region. The UNHCR is currently establishing three supply hubs in Giyan, Bermal, and Spera districts to ensure efficient transfer of supplies from Kabul to the regions in need. The IRC likewise responded by deploying mobile two health teams, delivering first aid supplies, and providing cash assistance to families who lost their homes. According to a report from the American Red Cross, the Afghan Red Crescent and an emergency team from Danish, Norwegian, Qatar and Turkish branches have delivered supplies and medical aid.
Countries have also given aid to those affected. The United Kingdom government announced a 2.5 million pound aid package for immediate life-saving support, with 2 million to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) for “shelter, medication, water, sanitation, and other basic needs,” and the rest to the Norwegian Refugee Council. The United Nations (UN) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have sent 5 helicopters, over 45 ambulances, and a medical team to the area.
You can support those affected by the disaster by donating to the following organizations:
Caribbean Islands and Central America Remain Underprepared for a Potentially Intense Hurricane Season
By Luisfe Medina
It’s Hurricane season once again, and due to the threat of powerful hurricanes, the Caribbean Islands and Central America have been put on alert. Central American and Caribbean countries have historically been a hot-spot for some of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded. From Hurricane Irma, the strongest hurricane ever recorded, to Hurricane Maria, a hurricane that caused nearly double the casualties as the infamous Hurricane Katrina, the Caribbean Islands have endured some of the worst natural disasters ever recorded.
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Considering many Latin American countries’ growing instability, this hurricane season could be catastrophic for the underprepared countries of the Caribbean and Central America. Unfortunately, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted that an irregularly high 13-20 named storms will hit the area this season.
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The Caribbean countries most often affected by Atlantic hurricanes— the British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Barbuda, Dominica, Sint Maarten, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas—generally do not have many refugees or displaced peoples. However, upon being hit by hurricanes, these countries endure considerable damages to infrastructure, economic depressions, and lose sufficient access to basic necessities like water, power, and communication equipment.
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Following the devastating Hurricane Maria, the most developed landmass in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, suffered the largest power outage in U.S. history and the second largest power outage in the world. It took almost a year for Puerto Rico to restore power in 80 percent of the island; however, even almost five years later, Puerto Rico has not fully recovered the electrical power it once had prior to Hurricane Maria’s arrival.
Countries devastated by Irma and Maria have turned their focus into restoring their economies and are not prepared for another hurricane, let alone another record-breaking one. Hurricanes Maria and Irma caused the highest ever recorded rainfalls in all of the countries unfortunate enough to be in their paths, and unfortunately, these countries’ recovering infrastructures would be unable to sustain the floods another hurricane would bring on.
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Per the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), increasing drug-related gang violence in Central American countries like Honduras and El Salvador have caused up to a combined total of 318,000 internally displaced Latin Americans. According to government figures, 200,000 Nicaraguans have sought international protection, and moreover, there are over 130,000 asylum claims in Mexico. Affected by natural disasters, corruption, poverty, COVID-19, and consequently, high crime rates, many Central American countries like Honduras are in desperate need of help from the UNHCR and other similar organizations.
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Central American refugee camps’ worsening conditions are susceptible to incredible damage. Mexico has historically taken in copious amounts of refugees, especially those who applied to be relocated into the United States and were told to wait. Many of these refugees come from faraway countries and highly unstable countries south of Mexico. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 1.7 million displaced persons looking to enter the United States from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador were returned back to their unsafe homes, so many displaced people are now in desperate need of not only safety from hurricanes but also from the poverty and violence that displaced them in the first place.
United States bureaucratic agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urge U.S. Virgin Island residents and Puerto Ricans to prepare extensively every hurricane season by asking them to buy necessities that can last them for at least ten days. The agencies do the same for Central American and Caribbean countries through their International Affairs Division (IAD).
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FEMA has been heavily involved in the refurbishment of the infrastructure in US controlled territories in the Caribbean, as they announced on January 22, 2022 that they are investing 554 million dollars for the Public Housing Administration of Puerto Rico. FEMA has worked closely with the Government of the US Virgin Islands and the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA) to start preparations for the upcoming hurricane season.
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Another bureaucratic agency, USAID, works with countries in the Caribbean and Central America to pre-position supplies in an effort to make hurricane relief easily accessible for victims. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has also worked with several agencies by providing accurate information about the hurricanes as they are being tracked with the goal of priming Central American countries for upcoming hurricanes.
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If you would like to help aid countries likely to be hit by these horrible hurricanes, please consider accessing the USAID website for more information on several organizations working to help these countries.
Dispelling Refugee Myths: Refugee Literacy, Refugee Age Trends, and Where Refugees Go
By Harrison Huang
Myth #1: Refugees are mostly illiterate and it is therefore extremely difficult for them to assimilate into host communities. [Partly True]
Literacy is one of the greatest challenges refugees face today. Even though the percentage of refugees speaking English well or very well rose from 12.6 percent to 42.1 percent in recent years, that percentage is still very low. Moreover, a CIS study shows that even fewer refugees are confident that their level of literacy will allow them to participate in society on a daily basis.
Part of the cause of this sad reality is the lack of education refugees receive. Primary school enrollment rate among refugee children is only 50%, far below the world average of 92%. Secondary and tertiary education enrolment rates for refugees are 34 percent and 5 percent, respectively. In the case of the Syrian refugee crisis, nearly 900,000 Syrian school-age refugee children and adolescents cannot receive school education.
Education proves to be a barrier to refugee literacy. Though claiming that refugees are vastly illiterate is an overstatement, it is imperative to recognize that education is refugees’ basic human right and that it empowers them in the host community wherever they live.
Myth #2: Most refugees are adults. [False]
About 36.5 million children had been displaced around the world, including some 12.5 million child refugees. Half of the world’s refugees are children. Children are disproportionately refugees as well; they make up less than one third of the global population, but more than 40 percent among the world’s refugees in 2021, according to UNICEF data.
In multiple refugee crises that the IHA has covered before, children make up a large amount of those displaced. For instance, the vast majority of people displaced in the Rohingya refugee crisis (Issue 10, Issue 12, Issue 23) in Myanmar are women and children, including newborn babies.
Myth #3: Refugees only flee to developed countries. [False]
Refugee crises and new immigration laws overwhelm the media of developed countries. However, in fact, 85% of refugees are being hosted in developing countries and regions. According to data compiled by Amnesty International, 9 out of the 10 largest refugee-hosting countries in the world are developing countries, and countries where the number of refugees per 1,000 inhabitants are the highest are all developing or least developed nations.
The same trend applies to asylum seekers. The Least Developed Countries provide asylum to 27 per cent of the total asylum seekers.
There is a mounting burden on current refugee-hosting countries. Developed nations offering supportive resettling conditions and expanding access of resources to refugees are ways in which they can act proactively to redistribute this burden.
Dispelling Refugee Myths: Refugee Literacy, Refugee Age Trends, and Where Refugees Go
By Nick Costantino
At the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, many Western political entities such as the European Union and the United States expressed their support for Ukraine and their resolve to counteract Russian aggression. Since then, countries like Poland, Romania, Moldova, and Slovakia have all taken in vast swaths of refugees, making the total number of Ukrainian refugees now over five million according to a report by BBC. Additionally, various countries have pledged economic and military aid to Ukraine, with the U.S. giving $11.2 billion, Britain giving $2.2 billion, and Germany giving $2.2 billion, according to a report by The Economist.
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However, now, as the war progresses with no end in sight, countries counteracting Russian aggression have begun to lose unity and have started having differing goals and policies of how to combat Russia politically and economically, a development which has hindered such efforts, especially in the E.U.
In the European Union, tensions have grown over disagreements about oil import restrictions. Hungary notably has continued imports of Russian oil even after four weeks of negotiations with other European leaders, according to a report by Aljazeera. Germany has pledged its most modern air defense system to Ukraine while Italy has said it is ready to make sacrifices to help Ukraine, but there is a divide within the country, as Matteo Salvini, a right-wing leader in Italy, noted that if the war is still raging in September, “it will be a disaster for Italy,” according to a report from Aljazeera.
The E.U. has also struggled to adequately respond to the humanitarian crisis emerging in the region. The E.U. has allocated 500 million euros for humanitarian aid, but data from the Economist Intelligence Unit suggests that the cost of supporting 5 million refugees would be an estimated 50 billion euros in 2022 alone, according to CNBC reporting. This staggering cost will put an immense strain on countries in Europe that have already faced economic challenges in the face of blocked Russian oil imports, rising food prices, and overall inflation.
For ordinary people around the world, support for Ukraine has wavered, especially with regard to donations for relief efforts. For example, donations to Doctors without Borders (MSF) dropped from 70,000 USD in March to 21,000 USD in May, according to MSF reporting. Direct Relief, a charitable organization based in Southern California that provides emergency medical aid, saw its individual donations decrease by 90 percent since April.
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Refugees displaced by war, especially ones that have lost family members or become separated from others, have little to support them in beginning to engage in European economies, a fact which may reduce public support for humanitarian assistance. Furthermore, if this conflict continues for an extended period of time, or if Russia succeeds in taking Ukraine, refugees will not be able to return. A resulting protracted crisis may only exacerbate itself.