New beginning for Afghans

Brazil welcomes refugees the U.S. turns away

Last month 53 Afghans arrived at a camp 60 miles outside Sao Paulo in Brazil in time to celebrate Iftar, the traditional Muslim meal ending Ramadan. Most are Hazara Muslims who worked for a U.S.-based NGO and came under threats from the now-ruling Taliban. At least 100 more from Afghanistan are expected to join them. Their resettlement is a first for Brazil.

The largest country in South America does not have a refugee program for Afghans or funds for resettlement, but the government agreed to approve humanitarian visas for hundreds of Afghans when it became clear they would not be allowed refuge in other countries—including the United States and European nations that led the war effort in Afghanistan.

Many of these new arrivals didn’t have passports when the United States announced its sudden withdrawal from Afghanistan last year. U.S. Christian groups and Baptist churches in Brazil for months worked with diplomats to clear their path.

“They faced particular threats and were hiding in Afghanistan until recently, until they could obtain all legal documents to exit to Pakistan, then to Brazil,” said André Simão, one of the organizers, who spoke to me from Rio de Janeiro.

Working with local Christian nonprofits Vila Minha Pátria, Virginia-based 21Wilberforce, and the Baptist World Alliance, organizers ensured the arriving Afghans received sponsors and assistance, plus Portuguese classes to help integrate them into society. “It’s just a beginning,” said Simão. “There is an open heart and a vibrant network of volunteers in Brazil to help receive more people here, and they are willing to come because other doors have closed.”

Iftar in Morungaba, Brazil, for newly arrived Afghans

New home for Afghans in the subtropical highlands outside Sao Paulo

Welcome to this May 13 edition of Globe Trot, where we look dead-on at the world’s bad news by taking some wisdom from G. K. Chesterton: “If the characters are not wicked, the book is.”*

Afghanistan: This week Congress left out of its Ukraine supplemental spending bill a line item that would have granted Afghan evacuees permanent protections in the United States, leaving roughly 36,000 of them in legal limbo. The proposal applied to NGO workers and many others with ties to U.S. activities in Afghanistan who did not qualify for the SIV program (now hopelessly backlogged) but face threats should they be forced to return to Afghanistan.

The Afghans are subject to stricter requirements than Ukrainians trying to flee the Russian invasion, say veterans groups and other advocates, and thousands of Afghans have been rejected. As of last month, only 270 applicants of more than 40,000 received have been conditionally approved.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban on Saturday ordered women “who are not too old or young” back under burqas. “They should wear a chadori [head-to-toe burqa] as it is traditional and respectful,” said a decree issued by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada in Kabul. The official notice also recommends keeping an eye on the house of women who fail to observe hijab, with “incremental punishment including prison term for family members,” said journalist Bilal Sarwary.

BILAL SARWARY @bsarwary

The Taliban's Office of Administrative Affairs have issued instructions on how to implement hijab. Key points include 1. Promote importance of hijab and harms of its observance through media & pulpit 2. Promote the same messages in matkets and parks

The blue “Taliban burqas” (I have one and it’s worth a try-on) never entirely went away after U.S. forces ousted the Taliban. But each time I visited Kabul they were fewer in number. Near the University of Kabul, female students instead wore long fitted coats over skinny jeans with bright head scarves. No one a decade ago could believe Taliban days would come again.

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Ukraine: The people of Ukraine have faced “10 weeks of sheer horror,” said Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova, speaking to an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council called to examine war crimes committed by Russia. The Council on Thursday passed a resolution, 33-2, to set up an investigation into possible war crimes by Russian troops. China and Eritrea voted against the measure, while India, Pakistan and 10 other countries abstained.

• CCTV camera footage is the latest evidence of Russian soldiers killing unarmed civilians.

• A four-mile section of road outside Kyiv where 37 civilians perished trying to escape is another window on war crimes.

• An American detained by Russian forces attempting to escape Ukraine with his wife and mother-in-law has been rescued by Florida-based veterans group Project Dynamo. Michigan native Kirillo Alexandrov, 27, spent more than a month in Russian custody, charged with spying, after he and his family tried to flee their home outside Kherson in southern Ukraine in late March. He told CNN he was beaten while captive. Project Dynamo is one of a number of groups undertaking search-and-rescue operations in Ukraine that got their start last year assisting allies in Afghanistan.

• This report from Yaroslav Trofimov describes fighting this week, how Ukrainians are holding the line in Donbas, and also somehow manages to summarize the 10 weeks of war.

• The twin reporters from Iraq who went house to house in Mosul documenting the retaking of the city from ISIS militants are on the job outside Kyiv.

Finland: Non-aligned since the end of World War II, Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin officially endorsed joining NATO. Russia, which shares an 800-mile border with Finland, threatened “military-technical” retaliatory measures.

Israel: The killing Wednesday of 51-year-old Palestinian-American Shireen Abu Akleh, a popular journalist, has prompted calls from U.S., EU, and UN officials for an investigation. But a Palestinian Authority official said Israel won’t be allowed to examine the bullet that killed her, saying the PA will do its own investigation.

Sri Lanka appointed a political veteran, Ranil Wickremesinghe, its new prime minister after former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on Monday amid deadly protests. But weeks of unrest continue.

South Korea: Former top prosecutor Yoon Suk Yeol took office as South Korea’s president on May 10, facing a tough mix of challenges familiar to many Americans: North Korea’s advancing nuclear arsenal, an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry and pandemic-hit livelihoods. President Joe Biden plans to visit Seoul next week.

North Korea is for the first time acknowledging a COVID-19 outbreak. And the United States has recorded 1 million COVID-19 deaths, a once unthinkable milestone.

Haiti: Gun battles between rival gangs in Port-au-Prince have killed dozens in the past two weeks. Since the assassination last year of President Jovenel Moise, gangs have grown in strength and become de facto authorities in significant portions of the country. At Papillon Marketplace in Port-au-Prince, street violence threatens but artisans keep working.

Enjoy the legendary Staples Jr. Singers live at the offices of The Paris Review, ahead of their album release this week, When Do We Get Paid.

And revisit N.D. Wilson’s essay (source of the Chesterton quote at the top) on telling stories the way God does …

… stories in which a sister must float her little brother on a river with nothing but a basket between him and the crocodiles. Stories in which a king is a coward, and a shepherd boy steps forward to face the giant. Stories with fiery serpents and leviathans and sermons in whirlwinds. Stories in which murderers are blinded on donkeys and become heroes. Stories with dens of lions and fiery furnaces and lone prophets laughing at kings and priests and demons. Stories with heads on platters. Stories with courage and crosses and redemption. Stories with resurrections.

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At Globe Trot we celebrate the dignity of men, women, boys and girls. Made in the image of God, their works and presence in this life—whether art, science, health, politics, humanities or industry—become therefore important. This energizes our global engagement every day despite tribulation, famine, danger and sword. As an early American Puritan said, “The very wheelbarrow is to be with respect looked upon."