While Western headlines center on saving Afghans who helped coalition forces, a much larger refugee catastrophe looms as the Taliban strengthen their hold in Afghanistan.
This lesser-known humanitarian crisis counts more than 550,000 Afghans who’ve already been displaced this year, often within the country but outside the gaze of media and embassies in Kabul. Many more are desperate to leave, especially now that the Taliban is keeping Afghan nationals from getting to the airport.
Global leaders should have better seen this coming, largely because internal displacement — that is, population movement within one’s own country — foreshadows transnational crisis and international migration. As the world community scrambles to save as many Afghans as it can, governments must seize this avoidable moment as a devastating lesson in prevention.
Warning signs in Afghanistan took shape in April, when President Joe Biden announced the U.S. would start withdrawing American troops May 1. Clear indicators of the impending refugee crisis emerged as soon as the withdrawal began.
