August 19, 2021

US-sponsored Afghan refugees prioritised by neighbouring countries

topic:	Refugees and Asylum
located:	Afghanistan, Macedonia, The former Yugoslav Republic of, Kosovo
editor:	Katarina Panić

Three non-European Union Balkan countries expressed their willingness to accept Afghan refugees. But not all refugees, however - only those under US protection. Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo announced that they were prepared to serve as a transit country for a number of Afghan refugees whose final destination is the US. 

Afghan citizens can stay there only temporarily until the US conducts the necessary security assessments and arranges immigration visas.

The secrecy of the negotiations was confirmed by the President of the Republic of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, who stated that she first received the request from American Ambassador Philip Kosnett on 16 July - a month before the information was publicly disclosed.

"Without any hesitation or single conditioning, I have given my consent to such humanitarian operations. […] It has been the request of the United States of America that this issue remain confidential for the reasons of security and the process of leaving Afghanistan. As such, we have respected this request, but we have not stopped the work," she wrote on her Facebook account on 15 August. 

Una Hajdari, an award-winning freelance journalist from Kosovo indicated that these three countries reaffirmed the US alliance by accepting Afghan refugees."Frustration with stalled EU accession makes Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo keen to curry favour with Washington," she wrote for POLITICO.eu.

So far, none of these countries have suggested a readiness to welcome Afghans who do not have the privilege of being sheltered by the US.

The number of undocumented migrants -  mainly from Syria and Afghanistan -  entering the European Union by crossing the Western Balkans has almost doubled this year, EU border agency Frontex stated in a press release last Thursday.

Bosnian journalist Nidžara Ahmetašević, who has been reporting on the Balkan Route since the 2015 crisis, has warned that countries on this route should assist all people fleeing their homeland, without preference for those with privileged status while excluding others, especially since EU borders are closed. 

The EU's Economy Commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, said Europe has to create humanitarian corridors to receive refugees fleeing from Afghanistan and avoid uncontrolled flows of undocumented immigrants. "Or, at least, the countries that are willing to do so should," he told Italian daily Il Messaggero on Tuesday.

Image by: Marius Arnesen