Uganda will grant temporary asylum to some 2,000 Afghan refugees

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Macedonia will host around 450 refugees

Madrid, 17 (European press)

Uganda’s Minister of Refugees, Esther Anyakon, said on Tuesday that she would accept a request from the United States to grant temporary asylum to some 2,000 Afghan refugees, before sending them elsewhere.

“The United States asked the government if it could be in a position to welcome refugees and we accepted,” Anyacon told DPA. “They are exceptional commitments, as we did not have a program in place to welcome these people.”

Anyakun said she is not sure when the first Afghan nationals will arrive, but that once they arrive they will receive medical treatment to rule out coronavirus infection, interviews, and initially accommodation in hotels near Entebbe Airport, in the south. Uganda, before being transferred to refugee camps.

“They will not stay here for long. This will be a transit hub,” the minister said. It is expected that 2,000 Afghans will arrive in the coming days to the 1.5 million refugees from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who are already hosted by Uganda.

For its part, the government of North Macedonia announced that it plans to receive 450 refugees from Afghanistan, the costs of their travel and accommodation will be borne by the US authorities.

The government of the young Balkan nation has made it clear that most of those 450 people should arrive this weekend, although that will depend on the security situation at Kabul airport. These people, workers of foreign organizations and governments and their families, will be transferred to hotels.

In addition to Uganda and North Macedonia, other countries such as Albania and Kosovo have already responded to a US request to temporarily accept asylum applications for the thousands of people who fled in the last days of Afghanistan after coming to power. Taliban.