NBC’s Richard Engel Paints Dire Picture of Afghan Refugees: 100,000 People Without Credit Cards, Internet ‘Stuck In Limbo’
NBC News reporter Richard Engel painted a stark picture of the over 100,000 people evacuated from Afghanistan over the past few weeks, reminding viewers just how different the lives of these individuals compared to the vast majority of American citizens.
Morning Joe featured Willie Geist as host Monday morning with both Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinksi on vacation. However, it was Jonathan Lemire who set Engel’s report up by asking about the mass of evacuees. “What sort of process do they go through now? ” he asked. “What’s next for them? Where could they go?”
“I wish I had an answer to that, and I’m getting asked that from Afghans all around the world,” Engle replied. “You now have a diaspora community of people who have been brought out, and many of them are in kind of a legal limbo.” The NBC News war correspondent followed by explaining the travel problems these refugees face.
“They’re going to third countries; the Balkans are taking quite a few. Qatar is hosting thousands and thousands. Many want to end up in the United States or end up in Europe, but they might end up on U.S. Airbases for some time. There are no real, clear answers on where these people are going to end up,” he explained. “We have over 100,000 people who have been brought out of Afghanistan and are now in transit, final destination unknown, process unclear, and they’re nervous. They’re trying to care for their families in third countries. ”
Engel then explained the very challenging nature of moving from a nation that has long been ravaged by war and does not feature many modern conveniences many take for granted. “They have one bag. They — mostly. Oftentimes they brought the money that they could — you know, whatever cash they had. It wasn’t hard to get cash out of Kabul. By the way, the banks started closing; they wouldn’t allow people to get cash. Most of them have no credit cards of any kind because before, Kabul was not a country that operated with credit cards.”
A lack of credit cards would not have been an issue just decades ago, but Engel explained why that is so vital in today’s digital age. “And if you tried to operate in today’s world buying anything online, doing anything, you need credit cards; you need documentation, you need a home address; otherwise you’re sort of out of the modern system.”
“So not only are they in transit, they can’t really interface with the modern system. Many don’t have internet where they are. So there are over 100,000 people right now, more or less stuck in limbo, stuck in an airport transit area in the world, not actually airport transit but metaphorically in transit with no idea how long they’ll be there and no idea how long it will take or where they end up.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
