Monitoring Desk
KABUL: The authorities of Albania and Kosovo readily responded to the US request to temporarily host several thousand Afghans who collaborated with the Americans before the fall of the regime in Kabul. Moreover, the United States has been secretly negotiating this with Tirana and Pristina since mid-July. Gennady Sysoev, Kommersant’s correspondent in the Balkans, gives the details .
The fact that refugees from Afghanistan will soon appear in the Balkans, said Sunday on his page on Facebook , Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama. The United States requested Tirana’s consent to become a transit country for Afghan political emigrants, and such consent was obtained, Mr. Rama wrote. “Albania, as a NATO member country, is ready to shoulder part of this burden,” he said.
The decision of the Albanian prime minister was fully supported by the local opposition, which happens very rarely.
Its leader, Lyulzim Basha, said that he was in favor of fully meeting the US request for the reception of Afghan refugees.
Reporting on the decision taken by Tirana, the Albanian prime minister expressed confidence that neighboring Kosovo would meet the Americans halfway. And so it happened. On Monday, Kosovar President Viesa Osmani announced Pristina’s readiness to host Afghans. She also revealed some details of how this agreement was reached.
The US raised the issue of accepting emigrants from Afghanistan in the Balkans back in mid-July. According to Mrs. Osmani, on July 16, the American Ambassador to Pristina, Philip Cosnett, met with her and conveyed President Joe Biden’s request to receive refugees from Afghanistan in Kosovo. “We agreed without hesitation or any conditions,” the Kosovar president said, adding that after talking with the ambassador, a joint working group was set up to deal with all organizational issues. Viesa Osmani also said that at the request of the American side, all negotiations and actions with regard to Afghan political emigrants “have been kept secret so far and that the Kosovar side has fully complied with this.”
The Kosovo opposition, as unconditionally as the opposition in Albania, supported the decision of the authorities. For example, the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinai, said: “We must voluntarily provide refuge to the Afghans who cooperated with the United States. America has always been supportive of Kosovo. “
However, key questions remain unclear: how many refugees from Afghanistan will arrive in Kosovo and Albania and how long they will stay there.
Sources of Kommersant in Western diplomatic circles in the Balkans say that more than 20 thousand local citizens have requested US assistance in evacuating from Afghanistan, and there may be 50–80 thousand people with their family members.
According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, Pristina and Tirana will not be able to accept all Afghan political emigrants, but the United States, which is experiencing difficulties with their temporary accommodation, is interested in “the maximum possible number of refugees” arriving in Kosovo and Albania. Although Viesa Osmani assures that Pristina did not put any conditions on the Americans, Reuters, which reported late last week about secret US talks with Kosovo and Albania, quoted its sources as saying that Washington “offered economic and political bonuses in exchange for receiving several thousand Afghans. “.
On the length of stay of the refugees, the President of Kosovo said: “The citizens of Afghanistan will have to go through the full procedure stipulated by the United States in terms of security. They will spend all this time in Kosovo until the American immigrant visas are ready. ” Kommersant’s diplomatic sources believe that this could take from 12 to 14 months.
