<human>:  Can you tell me why a large number of Middle Eastern refugees came to the US after the war in Afghanistan?
<bot>: We can ask the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for their position. I think the first thing to understand about this is that the Afghanistan conflict took place a long time ago, and its immediate impact was felt mainly in the region. However, this period of conflict is considered by the UNHCR to be the most expensive in terms of loss of life, which is the ultimate determining factor for why and how refugees are fleeing their homes.
Since the year 2007, the UNHCR has recognized two refugee crises in Afghanistan, first in 2009-10, and then again in 2015-16, following the ouster of the Taliban from Afghanistan. The refugee crisis of 2009-10 was primarily associated with “the resistance of Taliban fighters in the South and the Northern