Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Escape from the Taliban
Pakistan does not want to take in Afghans any more
The Pakistani ambassador to Germany announced that his country would no longer accept Afghan refugees. Now it is the turn of “richer and larger” countries, says Mohammad Faisal. The cancellation comes shortly before Federal Foreign Minister Maas visits Pakistan.
After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s ambassador to Germany rejected the admission of further refugees from the neighboring country. “Pakistan is not accepting any more refugees from Afghanistan,” Mohammad Faisal told the Tagesspiegel. However, his country is doing all it can to support Afghans leaving for other countries. The borders would remain open for now.
Pakistan, with a population of around 220 million, has already taken in between three and four million Afghans. Now “richer and larger” countries should take in refugees from there, said Faisal. But he didn’t want to name any countries. The solution to the new refugee problem lies with the states that would have had the say in Afghanistan for 20 years. The international community must now speak to the Taliban to find a solution, he said in the video conversation with the newspaper. There has to be a dialogue with the Taliban.
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is visiting the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Tuesday for talks on the situation in Afghanistan. It is another stop on his journey to five countries that play a role in efforts to get people out of Afghanistan. Before his visit to Pakistan, Maas held talks in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on Monday. The three neighboring countries of Afghanistan are among the first port of call for people who want to get to safety from the militant Islamist Taliban by land. The federal government is trying to take in more than 40,000 of them in Germany.
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