Kosovo premier vows to support Afghan evacuees stuck in US military base

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that his country will continue providing support for the Afghan evacuees stuck at US military base Camp Bondsteel.

Speaking at a joint press conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg following their meeting, Kurti said that his interior minister is working with the US embassy and military authorities of Camp Bondsteel “to help all those people in need to the best of all.”

Kosovo has hosted over the past year more than 600 Afghan nationals -- people who worked with the US administration and their family members -- who were evacuated following the Taliban takeover.

Most of them have already been granted asylum by the US, but some people are stuck at the military base after their claim was denied due to security concerns.

The Afghans now face an uncertain future because they cannot return to their home country fearing Taliban persecution.

Kosovo has recently extended its consent to host them at Camp Bondsteel by another year, until Aug. 31, 2023.

“It is our humanitarian duty to help refugees, people who had to flee due to hardships, catastrophes,” Kurti said.

He stressed that his country owes a “duty towards our allies, partners, friends, and most of all, the US.”

During the press conference, Kurti thanked NATO for its “extraordinary contribution to freedom, the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed during the war, and the security of our country and our citizens” over the past 23 years.

He also underlined that Kosovo’s goal is to join first NATO’s Partnership for Peace program and the alliance itself in the long run.

Stoltenberg evaluated the lessons learned since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 after NATO ended its 20-year presence in the country.

The alliance managed to achieve its goal of fighting international terrorism in Afghanistan, but its other aim of creating “a more stable and democratic” country “proved to be extremely much more difficult,” he said.

What has happened over the past year is “a huge setback and a tragedy for Afghanistan, but also for all those allies and partners who worked so hard to create the more peaceful and democratic Afghanistan,” Stoltenberg added.