By EMMIT MURPHY

For 20 years, America had been at war with the Taliban. Now that United States forces have evacuated, leaving many Afghan men and women from the war, the question on many people’s minds is “where will they go now?”

In regards to the refugees, United States President Joe Biden stated in an Aug. 24 White House speech that, “The United States will be a leader in [evacuation] efforts and will look to the international community and to our partners to do the same.” 

So far the U.S. has evacuated around 70,700 Afghans since August and 75,900 since the end of July, according to the President.

European leaders fear that most refugees will go to them, similar to how the Syrian refugees had during the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis. 

Regarding refugees, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer stated, “It must be our goal to keep the majority of the people in the region,” according to an Aug. 21 AP News article by Karl Ritter and Mehmet Guzel. 

Even Germany, who had taken in many of the Syrian refugees during 2015, is hesitant about bringing more migrating people into their borders.

With the United States leading the evacuation of the fleeing refugees, more than 123,000 had been evacuated. The United States evacuated 80,000 civilians from Kabul, 5,500 being U.S. troops and 73,500 refugees. The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence has evacuated 15,000 civilians with 8,000 of which being refugees.

In regards to the resettlement of the Afghan refugees, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have taken in 7,800 refugees with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel saying they will take up to 40,000 Afghan people who feel in danger, according to an Aug. 31 BBC article by The Visual Journalism Team. Canada has stated they will resettle 20,000 refugees and Australia has said they will take 3,000. Tajikistan has said they will take up to 100,000 but it is unclear if they have allowed any in.

In Uzbekistan, Kosovo, and Uganda refugees are being taken in temporarily until they can be relocated elsewhere while Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey will either no longer take in refugees or hadn’t been taking any in the first place. The United States has yet to say the number of refugees they will take in.

A map features Afghanistan and surrounding countries in South Central Asia, Africa, and Europe. Afghan refugees are being accepted by various countries globally, with each country setting different limits and timetables. (Google maps screenshot/Ethic News)

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