Afghanistan | Albania and Kosovo agree to welcome refugees

“NATO member Albania is ready to bear its share,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said in a response posted on his Facebook page on Sunday.

Kosovo, a northern neighbor of Albania, a former Serbian province with an Albanian majority that declared independence in 2008, has “unhesitatingly” accepted a US request to “temporarily” host Afghan refugees, according to a Facebook account from Kosovo Wajosa Osmani.

“We have to be with our friends, especially in the United States because they are right next to us,” she says.

Unlike the United States and most EU member states, Serbia, like its ally Russia, does not recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Eddie Rama confirmed, “Washington has already asked Albania to look into the possibility of serving as a transport country for many Afghan political immigrants whose final destination is the United States”.

Right-wing opposition leader Luljim Basha also spoke on Sunday for a “positive” response to a US request for a reception for Afghan refugees.

The United States was already in contention against time before it withdrew from Afghanistan to move Afghans who had served for the United States military.

Canada has expressed its readiness to welcome more than 20,000 refugees due to the Taliban’s advance in major cities in Afghanistan.

At the request of the United States, in 2006, Albania agreed to host five Chinese militants detained in Guantanamo, Beijing considered terrorists.

In 2013, at the request of Washington and the UN, the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI) hosted 200 members after Albania bombed their camps in Iran.

Since then their numbers have grown and the “Ashraf 3” camp in Manje now has nearly 3,000 people, making it the largest PMOI expatriate group in the world.