WASHINGTON: The Biden administration said Thursday it was giving temporary legal status to Afghan migrants who have already been living in the country for a little over a year.
The Department of Homeland Security said in the announcement that the decision to give Temporary Protected Status to Afghans who arrived after March 15, 2022, and before Sept. 20, 2023, would affect roughly 14,600 Afghans.
This status doesn’t give affected Afghans a long-term right to stay in the country or a path to citizenship. It’s good until 2025, when it would have to be renewed again. But it does protect them from deportation and give them the ability to work in the country.
A relatively small number of people are affected. On Thursday the administration announced it was giving Temporary Protected Status to nearly 500,000 Venezuelans in the country.
But many Afghans who would benefit from the new protections took enormous risks in getting to the US, often after exhausting all other options to flee the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Supporters have argued that they are deserving of protection.
“Today’s decision is a clear recognition of the ongoing country conditions in Afghanistan, which have continued to deteriorate under Taliban rule,” Eskinder Negash, who heads the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, said in a statement.
Separately, the Department also continued the protected status for a smaller group of Afghans — about 3,100 people. That group already had protection but the administration must regularly renew it.
The news Thursday would not affect tens of thousands of other Afghans who came to the country during the August 2021 American airlift out of Kabul or Afghans who have come over the years on special immigrant visas intended for people who worked closely with the US military or government.
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Afghans who recently arrived in US get temporary legal status from Biden administration
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Afghans who recently arrived in US get temporary legal status from Biden administration
- Decision to give Temporary Protected Status to Afghans who arrived after March 15, 2022, and before Sept. 20, 2023, would affect roughly 14,600 Afghans
- This status doesn’t give affected Afghans a long-term right to stay in the country or path to citizenship
Ukrainians defy cold, Russian strikes at sub-zero street party
KYIV: Music blasts from speakers and lights strobe in the dark as revellers, clad in puffer jackets and bobble hats, brave Kyiv’s freezing cold at an outdoor party despite blackouts triggered by Russian strikes.
Moscow has been pummelling Ukraine’s power grid with drones and missiles, plunging millions into darkness and cold as temperatures dip as low as -20C.
“People are tired of sitting without power, feeling sad... It’s a psychological burden on everyone’s mental health,” Olena Shvydka, who threw the street party with the support of her neighbors, told AFP.
“Now we’re letting off some steam, so to speak.”
Across the country, around 58,000 workers were racing to restore power, with additional crews deployed to the capital where, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the situation was “extremely tough.”
A massive Russian strike on Kyiv cut off heating to half the city’s apartment buildings earlier this month.
The ongoing hours-long power outages are the worst yet of the war, which will hit the four-year mark next month.
In Shvydka’s building, equipped with a generator, heating is “almost always” there but the blackouts have been dragging on for hours.
“We didn’t have electricity for 18 hours two days ago, then for 17 hours three days ago,” she said. This was when the idea for the street party was born.
- ‘Civilized resistance’ -
“In our community chat, we decided to do something to support the general spirit of our residential complex,” Yevgeniy, Shvydka’s neighbor, told AFP.
“Despite the very difficult situation, people want to hold on and celebrate. And they are waiting for victory no matter what,” said Yevgeniy, a retired military officer who did not give his full name.
When neighbors started setting up generators, mixers and lights, “the temperature was about -10C. Now it’s probably -15C or more,” Shvydka said.
Clutching hot drinks in paper cups, warming around braziers or bopping to the thudding music, the crowd was undeterred, refusing to cave in despite the ongoing Russian invasion.
“What the Russians are trying to do to us is instil fear, anxiety, and hatred,” Olga Pankratova, a mother of three and a former army officer, told AFP.
“These kinds of gatherings provide some kind of civilized resistance to the force that is being directed at us — rockets, explosions, flashes. It unites us,” Pankratova said.
The loudspeakers started blasting Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”
Hands in the air, the revellers belted out the rock anthem’s lyrics.
“It is impossible to defeat these people,” Yevgeniy said, looking around the party.
“The situation is very difficult — but the people are invincible.”
Moscow has been pummelling Ukraine’s power grid with drones and missiles, plunging millions into darkness and cold as temperatures dip as low as -20C.
“People are tired of sitting without power, feeling sad... It’s a psychological burden on everyone’s mental health,” Olena Shvydka, who threw the street party with the support of her neighbors, told AFP.
“Now we’re letting off some steam, so to speak.”
Across the country, around 58,000 workers were racing to restore power, with additional crews deployed to the capital where, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the situation was “extremely tough.”
A massive Russian strike on Kyiv cut off heating to half the city’s apartment buildings earlier this month.
The ongoing hours-long power outages are the worst yet of the war, which will hit the four-year mark next month.
In Shvydka’s building, equipped with a generator, heating is “almost always” there but the blackouts have been dragging on for hours.
“We didn’t have electricity for 18 hours two days ago, then for 17 hours three days ago,” she said. This was when the idea for the street party was born.
- ‘Civilized resistance’ -
“In our community chat, we decided to do something to support the general spirit of our residential complex,” Yevgeniy, Shvydka’s neighbor, told AFP.
“Despite the very difficult situation, people want to hold on and celebrate. And they are waiting for victory no matter what,” said Yevgeniy, a retired military officer who did not give his full name.
When neighbors started setting up generators, mixers and lights, “the temperature was about -10C. Now it’s probably -15C or more,” Shvydka said.
Clutching hot drinks in paper cups, warming around braziers or bopping to the thudding music, the crowd was undeterred, refusing to cave in despite the ongoing Russian invasion.
“What the Russians are trying to do to us is instil fear, anxiety, and hatred,” Olga Pankratova, a mother of three and a former army officer, told AFP.
“These kinds of gatherings provide some kind of civilized resistance to the force that is being directed at us — rockets, explosions, flashes. It unites us,” Pankratova said.
The loudspeakers started blasting Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”
Hands in the air, the revellers belted out the rock anthem’s lyrics.
“It is impossible to defeat these people,” Yevgeniy said, looking around the party.
“The situation is very difficult — but the people are invincible.”
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