August 15th, the Taliban swept into the Afghan Capital after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghan. Because of them, there are so many refugees from Afghan. What happened there? The U.S. suspected Van Raden as the leader of the 9/11 terror in 2001, so they required the Taliban that ruled Afghan to turn him over to the U.S, but they refused it. For this reason, U.S. troops came into Afghanistan to drive out the Taliban and succeeded it. However, the US failed to make Afghanistan a democratic state and to root out the Taliban. As the situation continued, the U.S. military bear financialburden, so eventually decided to withdraw. And it led to the Taliban occupying Afghan again.

So, there are some concerns. First, they severely have suppressed the human rights of women and children under the Islamic law of Sharia. When Taliban ruled Afghan in the past, there were various human rights issues such as the right of Afghan women education, the right to move around freely, and the right for women to work. So, some Afghan women who opposed them and protested. Of course, now the Taliban said they would guarantee women’s right to work and be educated if they wear hijabs, but the Afghan educational institution still forced females attending private schools to wear Nikap, clothes that completely cover their faces except

eyes. Also, the new Taliban government still does not hire women at all. And there is another concern, weapons left by the U.S. military. However, Sung- ho Shin, a professor at Seoul University's National Graduate school, said that the U.S. troops had been there for 20 years, and they could not afford to dispose of them by the book, when the U.S. military withdrew. But they made high-tech devices unworkable so the Taliban could not reuse them. Based on this after coping. the professor said ‘there is nothing to be worried about weapons’.

Currently, many European countries, including Russia and Greece, are refusing refugees, concerning the 2015 European refugee crisis when they accommodated too many refugees at that time and the Taliban sneaking in refugees. In particular, Putin, Russian President, said ‘refugee acceptance is directly related to Russia's security, because some of them could be Taliban’, and the Greek civil protection minister said “we cannot just wait for possible shocks from Afghan refugees in the future and our government protect them from crossing borders by building razor wire barriers.”’ On the other hand, Germany is currently accommodating about 10,000 refugees at the Ramstein Air Base. The EU also decided to help Afghan neighboring countries accept refugees to prevent them from flocking to Europe.

How about Korea? The Korean government has not indicated a clear stance on refugee acceptance. In fact, Seo Hoon, the current head of the National Security Office, did not express a clear position, saying that the refugee issue is a complex issue and there are also legal, political and public opinion issues. However, the Government has currently accommodated about 390 people. Considering 1.45 million refugees, the government did not accept that many refugees. Both the ruling party and the opposition party are showing a positive stance on accepting refugees, but they still mind public opinion. Presidential candidates are also saving their breath about this.

What do people think about the issue of refugee acceptance? At first, opposition against the acceptance insist there were cases that divided public opinion and confused society because of the acceptance of 500 Yemeni refugees in Jeju Island. When Korea accepted Yemeni refugees in Jeju Island, the conflict intensified because pro and con refugee’s rallies were held simultaneously on June 30. And they also concern social issues such as economic burden, terrorist and conflicts from cultural differences. The people who agree refugee acceptance argue that Korea has to take responsibility for the refugees as a member of the Refugee Conventions and respect refugee human rights. From an economic perspective, foreign workers are essential to our country. Actually, about 2 million foreign are still working in Korea, so there will be a win-win situation if refugees work in the Korean industry. Besides, Professor Hee-soo Lee, the department of Culture and Anthropology at Hanyang University and director of the Islamic Cultural Research Institute, said that there are people that just oppose refugees because of Islamophobia and bias caused by 9.11 terrorism and IS.

So is there any possibility that more refugees will enter Korea? As mentioned earlier, the Korean government has not expressed a clear position on whether they will accept refugees or not. But there seems not to be a possibility that Afghan refugees will be accepted at the U.S. troop base in Korea. However, the U.S. would ask the Korean government to accommodate them in South Korea's U.S. military base, as the number of Afghan refugees increases and the U.S. troop base

becomes saturated. So, the government would have to comply with this as an ally of the U.S.

In this situation, as you know, some Afghan refugees have entered Korea as a ‘special contributor’. What is a ‘special contributor’? Special contributors indicate people who have cooperated for years at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Afghanistan, Wagram Hospital, or Vocational Training Center and their families. Therefore, they are quite different from ordinary refugees. First, in F-1 visas, which are provided to special contributors, the length of their stay is shorter than refugees and they have to accept the government's permission to work. However, If the amendment to the Enforcement ordinance of the Immigration Control Act is passed, special contributors would have the same legal status as refugees.

How do they settle in Korea? First, Afghans who entered Korea as special contributors were quarantined at the National Human Resources Development Institute (NHI) for 14 days. And then all of them tested negative for COVID through PCR tests, so they have been allowed to come out on September 10th. After that, they learned basic Korean culture and language from NHI for 6 weeks. On October 27th, they moved to the Marin time police training center in Yeosu. And they will be educated there for independence for four months.

The Korean government has been making a Policy. In the policy, special contributors’ psychological stability will be the top priority. Considering that, the government would decide the place where they will stay. And some people help them settle by donating toys, money, etc., and volunteering for them. But there is still concern about the conflict caused by differences from Islamic culture. So, people concerned about it insist that it is prevented by ensuring education about Korean culture.

The government will keep making diverse policies for refugees. So It is time to pay attention to the refugee issue, whether you agree or not with this refugee, and wait and see how the government deals with this issue.