UK pledges to welcome 20,000 Afghans fleeing Taliban

Thousands of Afghan refugees will be resettled in the UK after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. About it informs BBC.

According to the scheme approved by the British government, in the coming years, up to 20 thousand Afghans will be able to obtain asylum in the UK. In the first year, 5,000 Afghan residents will be eligible to participate in the program. Priority will be given to women, girls and members of religious minorities who are at risk from the Taliban.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel also called on other countries to help evacuate Afghans. “We don’t just want to set an example. We cannot do this alone, ”she said.

Other ministers noted that it will be much more difficult to withdraw people from the Taliban-occupied Afghanistan after the change of power. At the same time, officials stressed that the scheme “will not jeopardize the national security of Great Britain”, and all arrivals will have to go through “strict control”.

16 august became knownthat Britain, whose forces were first deployed to Afghanistan in 2001, will send more than 200 additional troops to the country. This decision was made to evacuate British citizens and the Afghans who helped them from Kabul (according to the Foreign Ministry, this is about 350 citizens).