Immigration & Refugees

After an almost six-month-long effort, the animals departed Afghanistan and landed in Iceland this morning ahead of their final flight to Vancouver Nearly 300 rescue dogs and cats from Afghanistan are flying to Canada via stops in Turkey and Iceland. Photo: Kabul Small Animal Rescue / Facebook By Hayley Skirka Feb 1, 2022 A plane carrying very special cargo landed in Iceland this morning. Flight AZS4001 from Ankara, Turkey, touched down in Keflavik at 5.17am on Tuesday. Arriving six minutes …

BY JORDAN WILLIAMS Republicans say that steps in the vetting process for Afghan refugees were delayed, and sometimes skipped. An internal memo drafted for GOP members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee warned that the “standard security screening and vetting process” for refugees, including validating identification documents and in-person interviews by a trained official, is “not being followed for Afghan refugees.” “In fact, federal officials relayed information about the process to Committee staff that raised a number of …

The window is open. I feel cold but still I prefer it to be open. The gentle breeze wooshes and makes its way through every single string of my hair and crosses the Amazon Forest. Unlike most of the time, I cannot find my ponytail tying my oily hair.  Instead, I find strings of my hair independently being steered to different directions waywardly, hastily, eagerly and most importantly fearful of being caught and tied by the pony bon once again, …

The RAF has airlifted more than 100 people who had left Afghanistan and were in a neighbouring third country to the UK. The Ministry of Defence said the two flights had landed safely in the UK carrying 102 people who would receive support to begin their lives in Britain. Repatriation flights and individual relocations have been running since the end of August, but this was the first military relocation of eligible Afghans and British nationals since the end of the …

Negina Azimi felt shock and fear like never before when she heard that Taliban fighters had entered Kabul on 15 August. As an outspoken female artist in Afghanistan, she knew they would come for her. “We heard reports that the Taliban might raid houses. I was scared because I live in a very central neighbourhood and every room in my house is adorned with the kind of art the Taliban won’t approve of,” she says, referring to paintings that feature …

Despite the outpouring of international sympathy for Afghans who fled their country after the Taliban takeover last month, it’s by no means certain this will translate into receiving the refuge they are entitled to under international law. Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland and Russia have categorically said they won’t accept new Afghan arrivals. Slovenia’s foreign minister even reportedly issued an outrageous warning of “terrorist attacks on European soil”. In the United States, where tens of thousands of Afghans are expected to be resettled, some of the more ambitious and Trumpian members of the Republican Party are using the new refugees as a political weapon to fight culture wars ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

The plight of the Hazaras isn’t well known on the international stage. They are an ethno-religious minority, about 9% of the Afghani population of 36 million. By Ellen J. Kennedy Sept. 7, 2021   Who are the Hazaras? The plight of the Hazaras isn’t well known on the international stage. They are an ethno-religious minority, about 9% of the Afghani population of 36 million. Although most of the Afghan people identify as Sunni Muslims, most Hazaras are Shi’a (or Shi’ite). The …