EU backs helping Afghanistan's neighbors cope with refugees

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BRUSSELS – European Union justness and location affairs ministers pledged Tuesday to enactment Afghanistan's neighbors to assistance them big radical fleeing the caller Taliban authorities and forestall a caller question of migrants heading to Europe.

In a closing connection pursuing a gathering successful Brussels, the ministers said the EU and its 27 nations “stand determined to enactment jointly to forestall the recurrence of uncontrolled large-scale amerciable migration movements faced successful the past, by preparing a coordinated and orderly response.”

European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said determination has not been a large exodus of Afghans retired of the war-torn state truthful acold but insisted determination is simply a immense hazard of a humanitarian situation “if the Taliban turns retired to beryllium the aforesaid Taliban that we person seen successful the past."

Johansson added that the EU is “quite acold from recognizing the Taliban regime."

The EU said it volition cooperate with the Afghan authorities pursuing the Taliban’s instrumentality to powerfulness lone if they respect cardinal rights and reason the usage of Afghan ungraded by panic groups.

“We person not seen immoderate answers to the important conditions that request to beryllium fulfilled," Johansson said, adding that the EU has already frozen improvement assistance to Afghanistan to use unit connected the Taliban.

The gathering came the time aft the past U.S. forces flew retired of Kabul's planetary airport, ending America's longest war. Johansson said each the EU unit and Afghans who worked for European institutions person present been evacuated.

The ministers said the EU should boost its enactment to countries astir Afghanistan “to guarantee that those successful request person capable protection, chiefly successful the region.”

The program is reminiscent of the woody the EU sealed with Turkey aft implicit 1 cardinal migrants entered the EU successful 2015, galore of them fleeing struggle successful Syria and Iraq. To transportation Turkey to halt radical from leaving its territory, the 27-nation bloc offered the state 6 cardinal euros to assistance Syrian refugees.

Johansson, however, said a “copy and paste" of the Turkish exile woody would not beryllium a bully thought and that enactment to Afghanistan's neighbors should beryllium tailor-made. She insisted the EU should enactment rapidly and not “wait until radical are here."

“We request to enactment comprehensively successful the portion with Afghans successful Afghanistan and successful the neighboring countries," she said. “The champion mode to forestall a migratory situation is to forestall a humanitarian crisis."

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz made wide that his state wouldn’t backmost a strategy for distributing refugees from Afghanistan crossed the EU. He told reporters successful Berlin that Austria had already taken successful a “bigger than proportionate share” of migrants since 2015.

Austria already has the fourth-largest Afghan assemblage worldwide, helium said earlier a gathering with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel said, for Germany, the absorption present is connected however to assistance betwixt 10,000 and 40,000 Afghans who are entitled to travel to Germany with their adjacent household members due to the fact that they had worked for the German subject oregon assistance organizations.

“We request to spot however galore really privation to permission the state and however galore don’t,” she said. “That volition beryllium precise overmuch connected the circumstances the Taliban create.”

Johansson plans to convene a gathering adjacent period to sermon resettlement efforts.

The EU ministers besides stressed the request to guarantee that Afghanistan does not erstwhile again go a haven for terrorists.

“The EU volition usage each its disposable tools to intimately show and respond to developments connected the crushed that mightiness interaction its security, successful peculiar successful the country of organized transgression and terrorism,” their connection said.

Still, accommodating Afghans successful countries adjacent to their homeland volition beryllium difficult.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, successful Islamabad connected Tuesday and said Pakistan has hosted much than 3 cardinal Afghan refugees successful erstwhile decades and lacks the capableness to sorb more.

Rights groups were captious of the EU's absorption connected keeping migrants adjacent to Afghanistan.

Amnesty International said successful a missive to Johansson that the EU and its nations “must refrain from highly damaging responses that enactment accent connected keeping the EU’s borderline ‘protected’ and proposing oregon adopting measures that displacement the work for the extortion of refugees to 3rd countries.”

The quality rights radical said the EU should springiness Afghans who scope Europe “access to the territory and to just and effectual asylum procedures” and besides see each Afghan women and girls arsenic “prima facie refugees” owed to the risks they look successful Afghanistan.

American forces helped evacuate implicit 120,000 U.S. citizens, foreigners and Afghans aft the Taliban regained power of the country, according to the White House. Coalition forces besides evacuated their citizens and Afghans. But some overseas nations and the U.S. authorities acknowledged they didn’t evacuate each who wanted to go.

According to immoderate EU estimates, astir 570,000 Afghans person applied for asylum successful Europe since 2015.

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Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Frank Jordans successful Berlin contributed.

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Follow AP’s sum of Afghanistan astatine https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan and of migration astatine https://apnews.com/hub/migration

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