MANILA: The Philippine Senate’s foreign relations committee will debate a plan on Friday for housing thousands of Afghans awaiting resettlement in the United States.
In October, the Philippines received a request from the US to temporarily house the Afghans, Manila’s envoy to Washington told CNN Philippines in an interview Thursday. According to Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, Afghans who have worked with the US government would be awarded special immigration permits to be processed at a facility in the Philippines. He said the information they have so far indicates that there are approximately 50,000, which includes the families of Afghan people who worked with the US government.
A US embassy spokesperson in Manila told reporters that according to the Senate hearing scheduled for Friday, the Foreign Relations Committee will address “proposed temporary housing” in the country for Afghan applicants. The Philippine foreign ministry refused to comment on the plans when contacted by AFP. “We do not comment on ongoing diplomatic discussions.
The spokesman said that the (US President Joe) Biden Administration remains committed to the thousands of brave Afghans who have stood beside the US for the past two decades. The United States and its allies will withdraw from Afghanistan in 2021, bringing an end to America’s longest war, which began with the September 11, 2001 attacks.
During the chaotic migration of August 2021, tens of thousands of Afghans abandoned their country. Many of those who had worked with the deposed Western-backed government sought resettlement in the United States through a special immigrant visa program. However, thousands of people were kept behind while their visas were processed.
Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership stresses that no harm will come to anyone who worked with Western forces or the previous government, and they encourage those who have fled to return and help rebuild the country.