To U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
To The Honorable António Guterres
Secretary-General at the United Nations
To The Executive Director, UNICEF
We, the undersigned, request that you use your personal influence to get the Indian government to release the 13,000 Kashmiri boys who have been detained in Kashmir – some taken several thousand miles away to India- after the revocation of Article 370.
According to the Washington Post, these boys have been tortured and their exact location is unknown.
Some of these boys are being tortured right on the street to terrorize the population. The torture included “electric shocks and being hung upside down for prolonged periods.”
In an interview with Outlook India after visiting Kashmir, Ms. Annie Raja of the National Federation of Indian Women said that
“according to reports available to us, 13,000-plus young boys between 13-28 years of age have been picked up and put in jail. We also spoke to mothers whose sons were picked up by the army. Mothers are furious and they are frantically looking to locate the children. Women say that when their children step out of the house, it feels like ’this could be the last time we are seeing them.’”
These boys who should be with their family and studying in school are in jails, and mothers and family members do not know where they have been sent.
This is an outrage. The Indian government must immediately release these innocent boys, unharmed, to their families.
We believe the United Nations can do at least this much for Kashmiri mothers.
- Vohra, Anchal. “Kashmiri boys taken by Indian army in the night.” The Times, September 5, 2019, 5:00pm.
- “’Depressed, frightened’: Minors held in Kashmir crackdown.” Al Jazeera News, 2 Oct 2019
- Masih, Niha. “The night the soldiers came: Allegations of abuse surface in Kashmir. ” The Washington Post, September 30, 2019 at 11:52 p.m. EDT
- Nair, Preetha “Alienation Was Always There, Now It’s Complete’: Activist Annie Raja After Visiting J&K.”
- Wallen, Joe. “Young boys tortured in Kashmir clampdown as new figures show 13,000 teenagers arrested.” 25 September 2019, 5:55PM
- Update of the Situation of Human Rights in Indian-Administered Kashmir and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir from May 2018 to April 2019, New York. Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 2019.
- Torture Indian State’s Instrument of Control in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) And Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS). Kashmir. 2019.
Step 1
Sign a petition to The President
Dear President Biden
We fully support your decision to end the 20 year war in Afghanistan. And we thank you for rescuing 123,000 Afghans.
We support your commitment to stand by the Afghans who stood with us.
We request you, however, to instruct the Department of State for the following:
Afghans being brought to the USA should be given refugee status, and not “temporary humanitarian parolee” status.
They should be provided full services as refugees to begin their lives in the USA. The current plan of giving them a one-time stipend of $1,250 will not help them at all.
Thank you Mr. President.
Background information
- About 50,000 Afghan evacuees will be resettled in the United States without visas as “humanitarian parolees.”
- That designation denies them a path to legal residency.
- They will not benefit from the formal services offered to traditional refugees, according to U.S. officials and aid groups.
- Afghan parolees currently at U.S. military bases will have limited assistance for up to 90 days, including a one-time $1,250 stipend.
- But they won’t get full medical, counseling, and resettlement services available to refugees.
- Nonprofit groups that help resettle refugees say billions of dollars in emergency funding is needed to help Afghan evacuees start over.
Multiply your impact, tell others and help us get to 1000 signatures so we can make a difference!
Step 2
Call your elected officials
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Step 3
Tweet to President Biden
Tell President Biden that Afghan Refugees Can’t Wait