AFBT Condemns House Vote on US Sanctions & Freezing of Funds

Afghans For A Better Tomorrow, a group of dedicated progressive Afghan-American organizers, issue the following statement in response to a Congressional vote that took place on Thursday, February 3, 2022.

AFGHANS FOR A BETTER TOMORROW CONDEMNS HOUSE VOTE ON US SANCTIONS & FREEZING OF FUNDS

February 7, 2022 WASHINGTON D.C. - 

Last Thursday, 44 Democrats in the House of Representatives joined the entire Republican caucus to vote down an amendment, introduced by Congresswoman Jayapal, that would task the U.S. Treasury to study the humanitarian impact of U.S. imposed sanctions and the continued freeze of $9.4 billion in funds belonging to the Afghan people.

As has been widely reported, roughly 21 million Afghans do not know where their next meal is coming from. About one million Afghan children are anticipated to die from starvation. All the while, over a million Afghans have already fled the country. As António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, said last month: “For Afghans, daily life has become a frozen hell.”

Last Thursday, 255 House members voted to keep Afghans in that frozen hell. We believe that this study would reveal what many of us already know: America’s continued strangulation of the Afghan economy is costing lives every day and is unfairly punishing roughly 38 million people, who already have to suffer from the Taliban’s authoritarian and repressive ways.

The policy of denigration and devaluing Afghan life through economic warfare is deeply unjust and must end. We implore the Biden administration, Congress, and specifically the aforementioned 255 members of the House to chart a new course. Afghans deserve a chance to live just as much as everyone else.

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We are a group of dedicated progressive organizers in the Afghan diaspora devoted to a vision for a peaceful Afghanistan. Our mission is to bring about transformative change for Afghans in the United States and beyond.