Europe fears Afghan refugee crisis after Taliban takeover

Following the 2015 refugee crisis fuelled by Syria’s war, European leaders seek to avoid influx of Afghans.

Haunted by a 2015 migration crisis fuelled by the Syrian war, European leaders desperately want to avoid another large-scale influx of refugees and migrants from Afghanistan.

Except for those who helped Western forces in the country’s two-decade war, the message to Afghans considering fleeing to Europe is: If you must leave, go to neighbouring countries, but don’t come here.

“It must be our goal to keep the majority of the people in the region,” Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said last week, echoing what many European leaders say.

European Union officials told a meeting of interior ministers last week the most important lesson from 2015 was not to leave Afghans to their own devices, and without urgent humanitarian help they will start moving, according to a confidential German diplomatic memo obtained by The Associated Press.

Austria, among the EU’s migration hardliners, suggested setting up “deportation centres” in countries neighbouring Afghanistan so EU countries can deport Afghans who have been denied asylum – even if they cannot be sent back to their homeland.

The desperate scenes of people clinging to aircraft taking off from Kabul’s airport have only deepened Europe’s anxiety over a potential refugee crisis. The United States and its NATO allies are scrambling to evacuate thousands of Afghans who fear they will be punished by the Taliban for having worked with Western forces. But other Afghans are unlikely to get the same welcome.

Even Germany, which since 2015 has admitted more Syrians than any other Western nation, is sending a different signal today.

‘Partnerships with third-party countries’

Several German politicians, including Armin Laschet, the centre-right Union bloc’s candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, has warned there must be “no repeat” of the migration crisis of 2015.

French President Emmanuel Macron stressed “Europe alone cannot shoulder the consequences” of the situation in Afghanistan and “must anticipate and protect ourselves against significant irregular migratory flows”.

Britain, which left the EU in 2020, said it would welcome 5,000 Afghan refugees this year and resettle 20,000 Afghans in coming years.

Besides that, there have been few concrete offers from European countries, which besides evacuating their own citizens and Afghan staff, say they are focusing on helping Afghans inside their country and in neighbouring countries such as Iran and Pakistan.

Europe “should not wait until people stand at our external border”, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said.

EU Council President Charles Michel acknowledged the challenges facing Europe when he visited Madrid on Saturday to tour Spain’s emergency hub for Afghan refugees.

“Partnerships with third-party countries will be at the heart of our discussion in the European Union. We have to adopt strategies that ensure migration is possible in an orderly and consistent fashion,” he said.

“We need to find that balance between the dignity of the European Union and the capacity to defend European Union interests.”

‘Gateway for irregular flows’

Greece, whose scenic islands facing the Turkish coast were the European point of entry for hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and others six years ago, has made clear it does not want to relive that crisis.

Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said Greece will not accept being the “gateway for irregular flows into the EU,” and it considers Turkey to be a safe place for Afghans.

Such talk makes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan see red. His country already hosts 3.6 million Syrians and hundreds of thousands of Afghans, and he has used the threat of sending them to Europe for political leverage.

“Turkey has no duty, responsibility or obligation to be Europe’s refugee warehouse,” Erdogan warned in a speech on Thursday.

The Turkish president talked about migration from Afghanistan in a rare phone call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday, and also discussed the issue with Iran.

US Marines assist with security at an evacuation control checkpoint at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul [Victor Mancilla//US Central Command Public Affairs via AFP]

Potential ‘mass movement’

Attitudes towards migrants have hardened in Europe following the 2015 crisis, fuelling the rise of far-right parties such as the Alternative for Germany, the biggest opposition party in parliament ahead of Germany’s parliamentary election next month.

Even in Turkey, migrants from Syria and Afghanistan, once treated like Muslim brethren, are increasingly viewed with suspicion as the country grapples with rising inflation and unemployment.

Acknowledging the public’s “unease” about migration, Erdogan noted how his government has reinforced the eastern border with Iran with military, gendarmerie, police and a new wall, which has been under construction since 2017.

AP journalists near the Turkish border with Iran encountered dozens of Afghans this week, mostly young men, but also some women and children. Smuggled across the border at night in small groups, they said they left their country to escape the Taliban, violence and poverty.

“The situation in Afghanistan was intense,” said one young man, Hassan Khan. “The Taliban captured the whole of Afghanistan. But there is no work in Afghanistan, we were compelled to come here.”

Observers say there are no indications yet of any mass movement across the border. Turkish authorities say they have intercepted 35,000 Afghans entering the country illegally so far this year, compared with more than 50,000 in all of 2020 and about 200,000 in 2019.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates 90 percent of the 2.6 million Afghan refugees outside of the country live in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan. Both countries also host large numbers of Afghans who left in search of better economic opportunities.

By comparison, about 630,000 Afghans have applied for asylum in EU countries in the past 10 years, with the highest numbers in Germany, Hungary, Greece and Sweden, according to the EU statistics agency.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said it is not a forgone conclusion the Taliban takeover will result in a new refugee crisis.

“I would warn against a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he said. Afghans are “scared, bewildered but also hopeful that a long, long war will be over and maybe now they can avoid the crossfire”.

He said much depends on the Taliban allowing development and humanitarian work to continue.

“If you would have a collapse of public services and if there would be a major food crisis, there will be, for sure, a mass movement of people,” Egeland said.