Senators ask Trump Administration to offer Afghan Sikhs emergency refugee status

20 members of the US Senate signed a bipartisan letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging the Trump Administration to grant Afghan Sikhs emergency refugee status.

The move comes after Sikh community efforts, led by groups like legal advocacy organisation The Sikh Coalition, pushed for Afghan Sikhs and Hindus to be allowed into the USA as refugees. They did this by sharing a first-person account from a Sikh Afghan refugee and marshalling more than 1,000 advocates to call on Congress to act. This came about after a March attack against the Afghan Sikh community by ISIS.

The senators, led by Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on the State Department to prioritize resettlement opportunities under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

“This Administration has repeatedly highlighted protecting religious freedom as a top foreign policy priority,” the senators wrote. “Sikh and Hindu communities in Afghanistan face an existential threat from ISIS-K because of their religion. To protect religious freedom, we urgently ask that you take these essential steps to defend these threatened religious minorities.”

Read the letter in full here.