The document summarizes the war in Afghanistan and its impact on refugees. It describes how the US-led war began after 9/11 to remove Taliban influence and install a Western-style democracy. Over time, other nations joined through NATO to fight terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Heavy fighting damaged villages and caused a refugee crisis, with millions fleeing to neighboring countries like Pakistan. Refugees faced hardship, disease and discrimination in camps. While some returned, Afghanistan still struggles with a poor economy, corruption and violence, contributing to many citizens living in extreme poverty and continued refugee flows.

1. On Tuesday the 11th of September 2001, one of the greatest tragedies of
modern history shook America to it’s core.
The operation, known as 9/11 was a terrorist attack by the
organisation known as Al-Qaeda
It’s leader, an Islamic man by the name of Osama Bin Laden
President George W. Bush gave the rulers of Afghanistan an
ultimatum: hand over the terrorists responsible for 9/11, or
“share in their fate”
American air strikes began on 10/7/01, less than a month after 9/11
The Taliban controlled government refused to hand over their allies

2. The war for Afghanistan
A refugee crisis

3. Root out any influence of the Taliban organisation within the government
of Afghanistan and to replace it’s system with that of a western-style
democracy. The current purpose of the war now is to prevent local
villages and citizens from supporting the Taliban. Over time various other
nations have joined America in fighting the insurgent terrorist groups
within Afghanistan such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, this group of
nations is called NATO or also known as the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. Corruption within the government have allowed the
Taliban to maintain small influence in the political world.
The objective

4. Areas of current possession

5. Civilian Impact

6. Since the war was based only in Afghanistan a large amount of damage
was caused to local villages and tribes including civilian casualties and the
destruction of nearby homes, this caused many people to leave
Afghanistan in order to avoid death or persecution by the Taliban.
However these were not the only reason refugees decided to emigrate
from Afghanistan, when the Americans installed a new government, it was
filled with corruption and had ties to terrorist groups within Afghanistan.
Due to the war and the poorly managed government, the economy of
Afghanistan has driven most citizens into extreme poverty, with most
unable to get education or a decent meal.

7. The refugees had little choice, remain in Afghanistan and be ignored of
basic human rights or to flee to a place of asylum in hopes to be taken
care of.
Both options provided consequences, but the final decision
was dependant on how heavily one outweighed the other.

8. Consequences of emigration
As refugees, people lose all of their social status and become fragile
people in need, leaving the country means leaving your friends, family
and everything you owned.
Not only that but by arriving in a foreign country you will experience
isolation and discrimination, you will have to start from scratch in a
completely new society.
Even worse, a few crowded refugee camps enable the spread of diseases,
with most camps only setup to deliver the most basic of human rights
people quickly die from various sicknesses due to bad hygiene, hundreds
perish every month.
And despite all of this the country may still not want you

9. Countries of asylum

10. Consequences on the country of asylum
Driven from their homes with little food and few possessions, refugees
tend to turn to the environment as a means of support, in Pakistan mass
deforestation has left the area with less than 12% of it’s original forest
cover.
Refugees use foliage for livestock feed, branches for firewood, timber for
shelter and even going to the extent of digging up tree roots for firewood;
these actions have left most of the area unfit for basic forms of
agriculture. There are also large conflicts due to the unsustainable
practice used on water sources and the ignorance of traditions and laws
set in place to protect wildlife and other natural resources.

11. The are up to 8.4 million refugees from Afghanistan, 5.7 million in which
have returned to Afghanistan
Afghanistan has an overall population of 35.32 million, making
at least 23% of the population refugees

12. Javelin missiles are so expensive (75,000 ea.) that British soldiers in Afghanistan
refer to firing a Javelin as "throwing a Porsche at them."
11 New Zealanders have been killed in the war so far
Over the past 6 years, 16,000 afghan civilians have lost their lives to the war
So far the war has cost USA 2.7 trillion dollars, $2,700,000,000,000
With that amount of money you could buy 1/3 of the entire internet, or just buy all of New Zealand
Or at New Zealand’s current GDP, why not buy 5 New Zealands?

13. Special thanks to www.unhcr.org, www.reuters.com and en.wikipedia.org
By Jesse C