Children in Afghanistan face grave dangers as Australia marks National Children’s Week

Since the Taliban regime forcibly took over Afghanistan, children have been among the hardest hit.

Of the 665,000 people who have been newly displaced in Afghanistan in 2021, 80% are women and children.

Hundreds have had their homes forcibly taken by the Taliban, leaving them to face a harsh winter with no shelter, income, or access to food.

Girls are in hiding, not knowing whether they will ever be allowed to attend secondary school again, terrified they might be taken by the Taliban and forced to marry.

And in the last few days horrendous reports have surfaced of eight young children starving to death after their parents died.

The statistics are devastating. In August this year it was reported that, in a three-day period alone, at least 27 children were killed and 136 injured, amid fighting between the Taliban and government forces.

Sydney-based Mahboba Rawi, of Australian-run not for profit and orphanage Mahboba’s Promise, knows the risk to children all too well.

“In the 20 years that I have been working with children, and orphans in Afghanistan, I have rarely seen a time of greater need. Children from Afghanistan are facing displacement, violence, and food shortages.”

“We are seeing new born babies with nothing to eat or drink. Hospitals are full of children suffering from malnutrition and young girls are cut off from accessing their most basic rights. There has never been a more important time to support the children of Afghanistan, in whatever way we can.”

Castle Hill resident and mother, Sharara Attai, can’t help but wonder what might have happened had her parents not escaped Afghanistan.

“Half of the children aged under 5 in Afghanistan are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition. One million of these children are at risk of dying from starvation. Many young children are forced to work to survive. The children of Afghanistan need the world to pay attention to their plight because it is a humanitarian catastrophe” she said.

“Children should be playing and learning, not engaged in child labour or forced into marriage. Their lives are meant to be filled with joy and magic and wonder, not sorrow, hardship and horror’ she said.’

“My heart breaks for the children of my ancestral land who don’t have the same opportunities that my children do.”

Human Rights Lawyer and member of the Afghanistan-Australian Advocacy Network, Mariam Veiszadeh, says there is more the Australian Government can do to protect the lives of children from Afghanistan.

“This National Children’s Week Australia could honour its commitment to protect the rights of women and girls, and minority groups. Australia’s commitment 20 years ago contributed to millions of girls in Afghanistan receiving an education, women being able to work and study. After two decades it cannot walk away.”

The Morrison Government has yet to offer an increase in humanitarian places for people from Afghanistan to come to safety in Australia.

Instead of following the lead of countries like Canada, who are providing 40,000 places, the Australian Government is only providing 3,000 places as part of an existing, and already cut, intake.

The Government has also not prioritised family reunion.

“There are children trapped in Afghanistan who have fathers already living in Australia” added Veiszadeh.

“These dads have been unable to apply for their families to join them in safety, after the Government condemned them to temporary protection visas, despite recognising them as refugees. Many have been here for up to 10 years already. The Morrison Government could reunite these families but has instead turned it’s back on this crisis” she said.

Media Contact: Emma Davies, emma.davies@racs,org.au.