MANILA
\nThe Philippines has agreed to temporarily host a US visa-processing center for Afghan nationals who had worked for American forces in Afghanistan and were left behind during their chaotic withdrawal from the country in 2021.
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken requested the Philippines in 2022 to allow up to 1,000 Afghan nationals to stay in its territory while their special immigrant visas were being processed.
\nPhilippine President Ferdinand Marcos said at the time that there were some legal and \u201cmany security issues\u201d to be addressed first.
\nEarly on Tuesday, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs announced that Manila would allow a \u201climited number\u201d of Afghan nationals to transit in the Philippines to complete their visa processing for Special Immigrant Visas and resettlement in the US.
\nDFA spokesperson Teresita Daza told reporters that they would be \u201cconfined to their billet facility for the duration of the processing of their SIV applications by the US embassy in Manila.\u201d
\nShe added that \u201cthe US government, together with the International Organization for Migration as facility manager, will ensure that the applicants, especially the children, will have adequate social, educational, religious and emotional support during their stay in the billet facility.\u201d
\nDaza said the refugees would be subject to \u201cfull security vetting by Philippine authorities and should secure appropriate entry visa prior to arrival (and that) the Bureau of Immigration retains full authority to exclude any applicant from entry into the Philippines.\u201d
\nMore than 160,000 Afghans sought resettlement when the Taliban took over Afghanistan as international forces withdrew from the country in 2021 \u2014 two decades after the US invaded it.
\nThousands of others are in third countries awaiting visa processing. Many of them had worked for the US government.
\nIn a statement, the US State Department thanked the Philippines \u201cfor supporting Afghan allies of the United States\u201d and that it \u201cappreciates its long and positive history of bilateral cooperation with the Philippines.\u201d
\nDr. Rikard Jalkebro, international relations expert and associate professor at Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, told Arab News that the US is \u201ctrying to keep the promise\u201d it had given to the Afghans who had helped its forces.
\n\u201cThese are the type of Afghans that have collaborated or helped the Americans somehow during the war. They would be interpreters, they could be politicians, or they could be from influential families. They can be soldiers that fought either side by side or something similar to that,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThe American immigration system is so incredibly strained at the moment, and they operate very slowly when it comes to processing green cards, etc. They need some kind of safe place for the people, for the Afghans … the Philippines is a close ally and they would be relatively safe there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MANILA The Philippines has agreed to temporarily host a US visa-processing center for Afghan nationals who had worked for American forces in Afghanistan and were left behind during their chaotic withdrawal from the country in 2021. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken requested the Philippines in 2022 to allow up to 1,000 Afghan nationals to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-426114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n