Cyprus to accept several Afghan EU workers

Cyprus informed the European Commission that despite the increased daily inflow of migrants, Nicosia could symbolically receive three Afghans, members of the same family, cooperating with the EU.

According to CNA sources, the European Commission has asked all Member States to investigate the possibility of hosting Afghan nationals who have cooperated with the EU in recent years.

Cyprus told the Commission that due to the increased flows of migrants it receives daily and has exceeded its limits in terms of accommodation and reception, it can only offer a token gesture.

For humanitarian reasons, it will accept up to three people who are members of the same family.

The same sources said that some EU Member States negatively responded to the Commission, saying they can not accommodate anyone.

On Tuesday, an extraordinary meeting of EU Interior Ministers will be held in Brussels to discuss the Afghan refugee issue.

Having evacuated about 114,400 people, including foreign nationals and Afghans deemed “at-risk”, in an effort that began a day before Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, US and allied forces are set to complete their withdrawal by a Tuesday deadline agreed with the Islamist militants.

For all the efforts made by Western powers to evacuate as many people as possible, tens of thousands of desperate Afghans faced being left behind.

The departure of the last troops will end the U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan that began in late 2001, after the al Qaeda September 11 attacks on the United States.

US-backed forces ousted a Taliban government that had provided a haven for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was finally killed by US forces in Pakistan in 2011 and have engaged in a counter-insurgency war against the Islamist militants for the past two decades.

The Taliban’s rule from 1996 to 2001 was marked by an extreme version of Islamic sharia law, with many political rights and basic freedoms curtailed and women severely oppressed.