Daily Archives: September 14, 2021

09/14/21

Less than a Dozen Countries Accepting Afghan Refugees

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

Primer:

Treaties and other international agreements are written agreements between sovereign states (or between states and international organizations) governed by international law.  The United States enters into more than 200 treaties and other international agreements each year.

The subjects of treaties span the whole spectrum of international relations: peace, trade, defense, territorial boundaries, human rights, law enforcement, environmental matters, and many others. As times change, so do treaties. In 1796, the United States entered into the Treaty with Tripoli to protect American citizens from kidnapping and ransom by pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. In 2001, the United States agreed to a treaty on cybercrime.

Read more about what specific bureaus are doing to support this policy issue:

Office of Treaty Affairs (L/T): The Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs, within the Office of the Legal Adviser, provides guidance on all aspects of U.S. and international treaty law and practice. It manages the process under which the Department of State approves the negotiation and conclusion of all international agreements to which the U.S. will become a party. It also coordinates with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on issues involving the Senate’s advice and consent to ratification of treaties. Read more about the Office of Treaty Affairs

To date, the U.S. State Department has not secured refugee agreements with permanent status as a result of the Afghanistan refugee crisis. Some countries are cooperating only on a temporary basis while conditions and vetting have been satisfied. This now forces the United States to essentially accept the high majority of the refugees which could exceed perhaps as many as 1.0 million. Today, several of our military bases across the globe and those inside the United States have become refugee camps with no end in sight.

Does anyone remember the Syrian refugees and the continuing crisis throughout Europe? Even Germany is deporting Syrian refugees.

As of August 31, 2021 via Newsweek

U.S.

Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort can be eligible for special immigrant visas, but those who don’t qualify can look to resettle in the U.S. in other ways.

Earlier this summer, the Biden administration expanded its Afghan refugee program and created a new category for those who worked with U.S.-based news outlets or nongovernmental organizations.

As many as 50,000 Afghans could also arrive in the country on “humanitarian parole,” an immigration tool that allows people to enter the country without visas for urgent humanitarian reasons.

The Biden administration has not announced exactly how many Afghan refugees will be taken in by the U.S. but has committed to resettling up to 125,000 refugees in the 2022 fiscal year.

U.K.

Earlier this month, the U.K. government announced plans to welcome 5,000 Afghan refugees this year and resettle a total of 20,000 Afghans in the coming years.

The Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme would prioritize women and girls as well as religious and other minorities who are at most risk from the Taliban, the government said.

Afghan refugees in Manchester

People believed to have recently arrived from Afghanistan stand in the courtyard of a hotel near Manchester Airport on August 25, 2021 in Manchester, England.CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/GETTY IMAGES

Canada

Canada has said that it will take in 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan, focusing on those in danger from the Taliban, including government workers and women leaders.

The country’s Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino has said Canada would consider taking in additional refugees on behalf of the U.S. or other allies if asked.

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09/14/21

Tell the Truth; but, Take Good Notes

By: T.F. Stern | Self-Educated American

There was a clever quote by Mark Twain shared on Facebook, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything”.  I thought about that for a moment and then decided it was lacking something important, which might annoy folks seeing as I was contradicting one of America’s foremost minds.

Yes, it’s important to tell the truth because once you start telling lies, eventually you’ll forget which lie you told and you’re going to be caught.

But keeping good notes about the truth is important too; especially if you expect to remember details down the road.

To illustrate my point, back when I was a police officer for the City of Houston, I’d write traffic tickets and later appear in court if the driver wished to contest the ticket.

I developed a short code consisting of letters and numbers to jog my memory on details that were associated with each violation.  If the driver ran a red light; but claimed the light was yellow, down in the corner of the traffic ticket I’d put “CY”.

I’d also put how many car lengths from the intersection the driver was when the light turned red prior to driving on through that red light; 1,2,3 and so on… but reserved ½ to indicate that the driver not only ran the red light; but had accelerated rather than tried to stop. This was a simple way to be able to testify to what I’d seen when it came time in traffic court, often months after the ticket had been issued.

One afternoon after having testified about a driver having run a red light by 3 car lengths the judge stopped the prosecutor, looked at me, and asked, “Didn’t the driver run the red light by 3 and a half car lengths?”  I couldn’t help but smile as I refrained from outright laughing.

“No, Sir.  She ran the red light by 3 car lengths.”

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09/14/21

The U.S. has Frozen $9.5 Billion in Assets Belonging to Afghanistan Central Bank

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

The U.S. has frozen nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank and has stopped shipments of cash to the nation as it tries to keep a Taliban-led government from accessing the money, an administration official confirmed Tuesday.T his amounts to roughly one-third of the country’s annual economic output. International aid flows represented roughly 43 percent of Afghanistan’s economy in 2020, according to the World Bank.

Afghanistan Economy: Hard to recover - CGTN

The official said that any central bank assets that the Afghan government has in the U.S. will not be available to the Taliban, which remains on the Treasury Department’s sanctions designation list. Additionally, as the Taliban began their march through Afghanistan, the Biden administration canceled a planned shipment of physical dollars due to be delivered to the country and directed the International Monetary Fund to renege on its long-planned release of funds to Afghanistan. More detail and context here.

The United States’ principal competitors in Beijing and Moscow see a potential opening with the U.S. departure. While there is little thought that China or Russia are interested in aiding Afghanistan’s development – instead seeing the country as both a playground for great power influence and, on the part of Beijing, a mercantilist maneuver critical to clinching its Belt-and-Road initiative in South Asia – it is possible that China and Russia can actually leverage U.S. sanctions and the restrictions major financial institutions will face in dealing with Afghanistan to empower the Taliban and their own interests. The Taliban meanwhile may welcome China and Russia filling the void of western finance and aid while also taking advantage of the departure of U.S. restrictions on poppy production to return to state-controlled narcotics sales, further enriching themselves while continuing to impoverish the Afghan people.

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