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With a population of 2.6 million, Afghans are the third largest group under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, after Syrians (6.7 million) and Venezuelans (4 million).
Since the Taliban’s peaceful takeover of Kabul, 123,000 people (including 31,760 Afghans) have been evacuated by U.S. forces. The British and Australians have also pitched in. However, these evacuees are rarely innocent collaborators of the Anglo-American occupiers. Most were members of the special forces created by the CIA to conduct counterinsurgency (Khost Protection Force and National Directorate of Security). As such, they have committed crimes against other Afghans far more heinous than those attributed to the Taliban. They rightly fear public vengeance or to be put on trial.
The United States does not intend to receive these refugees and is asking third countries to take them in. Russia, too, wants to protect itself, not from war criminals, but from jihadists. She is therefore examining asylum applications on a case by case basis.
Knowing this situation, Germany - which had previously announced its intention to host 40,000 people - finally only admitted 634, consisting of 138 former employees and their families. The federal government has no problems with Afghans, having received nearly 150,000 in previous years, but was aware even before the fall of Kabul of the risks these new refugees would pose. Moreover, it has no desire to naturalize war criminals. It has therefore rejected many asylum seekers.
In the rush of the evacuation, a German plane chartered by NGOs (Luftbrücke Kabul) was even forced to take off from Kabul with 180 empty seats. Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas made an emergency trip to the countries bordering Afghanistan (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan) to offer 500 million euros to those willing to accept the Afghan refugees that Germany doesn’t want to have on her soil.
On the contrary, France has opened its doors to 2,600 Afghans since the fall of Kabul, even though it had only hosted around 30,000 until then. The government claims to have repeatedly vetted them before taking them on board; repeatedly, but not thoroughly. France’s presence in Afghanistan was only marginal. She knows nothing about CIA collaborators and counterinsurgency activities, in which she was not involved.
For its part, the European Union could pay out 700 million euros in favor of non-European countries hosting Afghan refugees.
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