From Amnesty International USA (http://www.amnestyusa.org):
With 4 million Ukrainian refugees on the move, the world’s response has been tremendous: A German rail company offered free train travel for all Ukrainians coming from Poland… strangers opened up their homes throughout Europe… and one elderly woman in Berlin walked up to a refugee at a train station and handed him 100 Euros, with tears in her eyes.
President Biden is now stepping up to share global responsibility, too: he announced the U.S. will welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and provide $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.
This is the way refugees should always be met — no matter their country of origin or skin color.
And yet, this response stands in stark contrast to how the world treats refugees and asylum-seekers who are not white.
Ukraine proves that the U.S. can treat refugees with dignity and respect. It’s past time to extend that welcome. Send your message to President Biden at https://act.amnestyusa.org/page/103218/action/1: Everyone fleeing conflict and violence should be afforded the same opportunity to seek refuge in the U.S.
Here in the U.S., the Biden administration is failing to protect people of color from countries in armed conflict and crisis, including Cameroon and Haiti. Just last month, over 165,000 people seeking safety were denied protection at the U.S. southern border — the majority of whom are Black and brown.
We’ve seen some important progress. President Biden has been rebuilding the U.S. resettlement program after it was gutted by President Trump, and he announced he would double the cap on refugee admissions in the U.S. this year.
However, amidst growing crises in countries including Ethiopia and Venezuela, five months into the government’s fiscal year, only 4,362 refugees have been resettled to the U.S., out of 125,000 potential spots. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Black, brown and Indigenous people are unjustly locked up for seeking safety and at risk of being deported back to danger.
Not enough is being done to help refugees around the world.
Join Amnesty International to encourage the Biden administration to:
Take steps to ensure that third-country nationals fleeing Ukraine — including people from countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia — are given the same pathways to protection as other refugees fleeing Ukraine. (Our research team has reported widespread incidents of racism against Black and brown refugees fleeing Ukraine,1 people the administration must include in its plans.) Add your voice now.
Designate Cameroon and Ethiopia with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), so that asylum-seekers and refugees from these countries cannot be sent back to danger. (President Biden designated Ukraine with TPS eight days after Russian forces invaded. If he can act this quickly for Ukraine, he can for other countries impacted by armed conflict for years.) Help keep refugees and asylum-seekers safe.
Immediately halt all deportations back to Haiti, a country the U.S. State Department categorized as a “Do Not Travel” zone due to high rates of kidnapping, crime, and civil unrest, but that the government continues to deport people back to anyway. Tell the President to take action.
Amnesty International is in coalition with powerful organizations, including the Haitian Bridge Alliance and Cameroon Advocacy Network, to tip the scales toward justice. We’re working with Members of Congress to pressure the Biden administration to end the disparate treatment of Black migrants in the system. And we’re campaigning to end the use of arbitrary, mass immigration detention, a system that also disproportionately harms Black and brown asylum-seekers.
If the Biden administration can act as swiftly as it has to protect Ukrainians, it can also act to protect people fleeing conflict and violence in Cameroon, Ethiopia and Haiti, too.
It is our duty to secure justice and freedom for all people.
We can’t afford to wait around for the Biden administration to have a change of heart — families and individuals are facing armed conflict and mounting death tolls.
It’s up to us to make our voices heard. Send your letter to encourage the Biden administration to keep going.
[1] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/03/poland-authorities-must-act-to-protect-people-fleeing-ukraine-from-further-suffering/
Leave a Reply