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Afghans evacuated in Kosovo risk being barred from entering the United States because of suspected links to the Taliban and other terrorist groups, US officials have said, according to the American daily Wall Street Journal.
This means that suspects may be left without a place to shelter them.
Less than 10 Afghans have been declared unfit to enter the US after security officials found disqualifying information about them during the verification process, said an official close to the developments.
About 90 individuals continue to be verified at Camp Bondsteel, according to U.S. officials. Few states have agreed to accept Afghan individuals barred from entering the United States.
But their return to Afghanistan, where they could be endangered, could be a violation of international law.
Thousands of people managed to leave through Kabul airport in August last year, mostly without going through verification procedures, while more than 60,000 former translators and other visa applicants remained in Afghanistan.
Most of the more than 100,000 Afghans who fled Afghanistan after the end of the US mission and the takeover of power by the Taliban have been sent to US-based bases around the world to undergo initial security checks.
About 200 of them, some of whom are relatives of individuals who have undergone rigorous verification procedures, have been sent to Bondsteel for further procedures as concerns about their past have grown.
Some of the officials being held there are people who have held senior positions in the previous Afghan Government.
U.S. intelligence, counterintelligence officers and U.S. defense personnel are conducting verification of these individuals to see if they can continue their journey to the U.S., as has happened with some.
Individuals currently being held at Bondsteel are technically free to leave or drop out of the US application process, but must find another country that accepts them, U.S. officials have said, REL reports.
At least one individual has done so successfully.
U.S. officials have said there are no known terrorists in Bondsteel, but gave no further details on who is being held there.
Among them is a former Taliban commander, who has been imprisoned in an American-supervised prison in Bagram for two years.
The commander, whose name has not been released for security reasons, later changed sides and became a spokesman for the National Security Council in the Government of Afghanistan in 2020.
“All people know who I am“, He said. “The Taliban will kill me and then deny that they have knowledge of the killing”.
According to the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are currently 758 Afghans in the Bondsteel camp.
They can stay in this state for a maximum of one year.
Initially, 1,286 people arrived in Kosovo from Afghanistan, but in the meantime, 528 of them left for the US and other allied countries.
Unlike Albania and Northern Macedonia, where Afghan citizens are free to move outside the areas where they are located, there are stricter security measures for Afghans sheltering in Kosovo.
From the day they arrived in Kosovo, Afghans continue to be locked up in two camps, the US military camp Bondsteel and another camp near it known as the Bechtel-Enka construction camp.
Both of these camps are near the city of Ferizaj and the distance between them is less than two kilometers.
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