Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama Rama said on Sunday that the Balkan country has accepted a US appeal to temporarily provide shelter to the Afghan refugees who are seeking to take visas for entering the United States.
Thousands of Afghan citizens are desperate to escape the country after the Taliban fighters took control over the Presidential palace in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani and other diplomats fleeing the nation.
Rama said US President Joe Biden's administration asked the fellow NATO member Albania to evaluate whether it could function as a transit country for various Afghan refugees whose last objective is to reach the United States.
The Albania Prime minister on his Facebook account said, "We will not say 'No', not just because our great allies ask us to, but because we are Albania.”
“NATO member Albania is ready to shoulder its share of the burden,” Edi Rama declared through his Facebook page.
Sources said that Biden’s administration this week had held a meeting discussing it with the nations such as Kosovo and Albania about protecting US-affiliated Afghans from Taliban retributions till the procedure of approval of their US visas.
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In Kosovo Luan Dalipi, Prime Minister Albin Kurti's chief of staff said his government has been in contact with the US authorities about sheltering Afghan refugees since mid-July.
“Washington has already asked Albanseveralder the possibility of serving as a transit country for a number of Afghan political immigrants whose final destination would be the United States,” said Albin Kurti.
Adding that Tirana had already requested Albania for refuge, Rama said “hundreds of people from intellectual circles and women activists. Afghan women on the Taliban execution lists”.
Western countries, the US and Britain are rushing to evacuate their citizens along with vulnerable Afghans who worked for them and impending danger by the Taliban.
Canada has also stated its willingness to welcome over 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan.
"There's a lot of logistical, technical, security, and social work that we are handling carefully," Dalipi said in a statement.
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Albania in 2014 had accepted some 3,000 members of the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran, which is also called by its Farsi name Mujahideen-e-Khalq. The people from the organisation have settled in a camp near the Durres, the country's main port.
Iran on Sunday has also started preparing to accommodate Afghan refugees in three of its provinces that border Afghanistan.
"Camps have been built in border areas in three provinces," Interior Ministry official Hossein Qasemi informed Iran's state news agency IRNN, however, added that it expects that the refugees will return to their country when the situation improves in Afghanistan.
Iran has been a stop for Afghans seeking work or taking refuge for years.