UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in a twitter post, has announced to convene an international aid conference on September 13 in Geneva to avert looming humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan. He called on the international community to stand together and support the Afghan people.
The UN Secretary General’s call must not fall on deaf ears as abandoning Afghanistan at this moment will have disastrous consequences.
Years of conflict and western countries’ military intervention has completely devastated Afghanistan.
Now greater responsibility rests with them to come forward in a big manner in the aid conference to heal the wounds of Afghan people.
According to aid agencies, many Afghans were struggling to feed their families amid severe drought well before Taliban seized power last month and millions may now face starvation with the country isolated and the economy unraveling.
This situation warrants that the pledges made at the aid conference are fulfilled at the earliest, making sure that the Afghans continue to get the essential services they need.
Financial support should also be provided to neighboring countries of Afghanistan, especially Pakistan and Iran, so that in case of another influx of refugees, they could better handle the situation.
Already these two countries are hosting millions of refugees over the last many decades without much support from the international community. At present their economic situation is not such to handle more exodus.
It is the western countries which are responsible for the current mess and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Hence they must shun anti-immigrant rhetoric and idea of keeping Europe bound Afghan refugees in third countries.
Mistakes of the past must not be repeated and whilst shouldering their responsibility, the western countries must open their borders for the Afghan refugees if they really believe in self-declared core values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law and human rights.
If the West does not do so, they must stop lecturing and dictating other countries, especially the Muslim ones, on human rights.
It is always the Muslim countries which have openly embraced the refugees who fled their homes because of western military interventions.
