SEARAC America Cannot Repeat the Southeast Asian Refugee Crisis

Media contact(s):
Elaine Sanchez Wilson, SEARAC
elaine@searac.org

James Woo, Asian People Advancing Justice – Atlanta
jwoo@advancingjustice-atlanta.org

Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood, Asian American Advocacy Fund
media@asianamericanadvocacyfund.org

WASHINGTON, DC – This week, we watched scenes from Kabul, Afghanistan in horror as Afghans desperately clung to US navy plane evacuating from the area. The distressing and violent photographs of town’s fall reminds us of our experiences on the finish of the Vietnam Warfare and the US’ chaotic exit from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The occasions of the previous few days underscore America’s ethical and political obligation to the tens of 1000’s of Afghan allies who served alongside American troops throughout our decades-long conflict and the hundreds of thousands of different Afghanis impacted throughout our time there.  

Practically fifty years in the past, hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees had been displaced from their properties following conflict, genocide, and US intervention in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. By the Indochina Migration and Refugee Help Act of 1975, the US instantly resettled greater than 130,000 people from these international locations, whereas hundreds of thousands of different people escaped for his or her lives. Over the following three a long time, our nation would open its doorways to greater than 1.3 million Southeast Asians, marking the biggest resettlement of refugees in American historical past. On this present second, we now have a possibility to be taught from the previous and do higher than we did in 1975 by offering instant refuge and reduction to Afghan refugees.

We urge the Administration to: 

• Enhance the refugee resettlement restrict and capability;
• Evacuate all Afghans past simply Particular Immigrant Visa eligible people, their households, and U.S. residents; 
• Designate Afghanistan for Short-term Protected Standing;  
• Make use of emergency humanitarian parole for Afghans escaping, together with girls, kids, spiritual and ethnic minorities; and
• Preserve airports in Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar Sharif open to facilitate journey.

“As representatives of the biggest refugee group to have ever resettled in the US, we name on the Biden Administration to uphold its promise of safety for Afghan refugees and their households and kids,” mentioned Quyen Dinh, Government Director of the Southeast Asia Useful resource Motion Heart (SEARAC). “Our nation has a accountability to right away resettle Afghan refugees, lots of whom saved the lives of American troopers and are in nice hazard of being focused for persecution. The 1980 Refugee Act allowed my household and our refugee group to seek out secure haven in the US. The folks of Afghanistan deserve the identical refuge through the disaster that befalls their nation at the moment.” 

“The US should act urgently and boldly to assist Afghan refugees,” mentioned LaVita Tuff, Coverage Director of Asian People Advancing Justice-Atlanta. “After our a long time lengthy navy presence in Afghanistan, we can’t now flip our again on the Afghan group throughout this humanitarian disaster. We all know the immeasurable human price of failing to fulfill our political and ethical obligations to refugees, and we can’t let historical past repeat itself. We urge this administration to behave swiftly and meaningfully to guard Afghan refugees.” 

The Afghan American Basis has revealed an inventory of organizations offering direct, emergency reduction to Afghan refugees, which yow will discover right here.

Asian People Advancing Justice – Atlanta
Asian American Advocacy Fund
Southeast Asia Useful resource Motion Heart (SEARAC)