The security of European citizens and Afghans remaining in Afghanistan and the response to a major humanitarian crisis were identified as the two immediate priorities for the EU’s response to the Afghan crisis, during a debate on Wednesday 1 September between MEPs from the European Parliament’s Committees on Foreign Affairs and Development and representatives of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Commission.
“The tragic situation in Afghanistan poses many challenges at the security, humanitarian, economic, financial, and strategic levels, following the withdrawal of NATO troops after more than 20 years of presence”, stressed Gunnar Wiegand, Director for Asia at the EEAS.
“The humanitarian crisis is not new. It did not start on 15 August. There were 18 million people already in need of humanitarian assistance before the US withdrawal. Today, there are 3.5 million internally displaced persons, half of them because of the renewed violence, and 15 million are food insecure”, added the Commission’s Deputy Director of Humanitarian Services, Raffaella Iodice, a member of the EEAS team that returned from Kabul on 28 August.
Based on contacts with the UN, she cited “frightening figures”. For example, “120 children will die every day if we don’t restart our humanitarian aid, our food aid. We are talking about a much bigger humanitarian crisis and the risk of an economic crisis in the country where the EU’s humanitarian partners continue to operate at great risk to their lives”.
According to the UN, food aid is needed for 8.2 million people ($150 million), health services for 1 million people ($10 million), including reproductive and child health services.
“Aid in Kabul should still be able to function for a fortnight. There will be no more health services in Kabul if we do not restart our humanitarian aid”, she warned.
WHO has calculated that with the suspension of its programmes, 95% of health centres will no longer be accessible, which could result in the death of 120 children per day.
In addition, 30,000 people are in need of individual protection and assistance, including Afghans, children, and women “who are subject to systemic oppression”, and 150,000 people require monitoring. Water, sanitation, and hygiene for 500,000 people and emergency education support for 500,000 children and youth.
This humanitarian aid must be provided, but in accordance with the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, said Ms Iodice.
“We need to provide direct, flexible funding to NGOs that are on the front line of meeting the needs of Afghans. And for the medium and long term, we must do our utmost to preserve the achievements of the past decades in Afghanistan. This will allow Afghans to be more optimistic about the changes that may come in the future”, said the head of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Afghanistan, Petras Auštrevičius (Renew Europe, Lithuania).
The need for humanitarian access, the safety of aid workers—both men and women—and making development aid conditional on the Taliban’s respect for human rights, especially those of women, were highlighted by speakers.
During the debate, all recalled that an immediate priority is the safety of European nationals and Afghans who have worked for them. “We need short-term actions. First, a safe and orderly evacuation of the citizens still in the country and of our Afghan partners. And I think we need to talk about politicians, members of the government, academics, people who work in culture, for the LGBT cause, and many others”, Mr Auštrevičius detailed.
“The EU has not been able to coordinate the evacuation efforts, it has not been able to set up a real air bridge”, said Nathalie Loiseau (Renew Europe, France), Chair of Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Security and Defence. Michael Gahler (EPP, Germany) explained that the EU should show strategic autonomy and that it should be possible to organise air evacuations independently.
Mr Wiegand recalled that the EU had evacuated 520 people, including all the delegation’s staff and their families. “We want to undertake further evacuations”, he said, adding that the EU was looking at possibilities, for example via land corridors. “Work is underway between Turkey, Qatar, and the Taliban to reopen the civilian part of Kabul airport”, he added.
Several MEPs also highlighted the need for a joint response, based on solidarity, to receive Afghan refugees. The Chair of the Parliament Sub-Committee on Human Rights, Maria Arena (S&D, Belgium), said she was “shocked” by the announcement by EU Home Affairs Ministers to rely on neighbouring countries to deal with migration (see EUROPE 12780/1). “This is not the way we want to promote European values”, she warned, pointing out that several of these countries, such as Iran and Pakistan, had different human rights standards from the EU.
Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens/EFA, Germany) called for aid to refugees, an international humanitarian conference comparable to the 1979 conference for Vietnam, and a coalition of the willing for resettlement. Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, the Netherlands) said the Temporary Protection Directive (see EUROPE 12776/5) should be used.
“The international community can take in those most at risk. You have to be generous and open in this respect”, replied Mr Wiegand.
But for Witold Jan Waszczykowski (ECR, Poland), “importing Afghans is not the solution. They should be encouraged to return home and defend the rights they have gained over the past 20 years”, he said. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang and Camille-Cerise Gessant)