Spain pledges to host 2,500 Afghan asylum seekers
15 EU countries are ready to take in some 40,000 people from Afghanistan
15 European countries, including Spain, have pledged to take in some 40,000 people from Afghanistan, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said after a meeting of EU interior ministers on Thursday.
"15 EU Member States have pledged to give protection to almost 40,000 Afghans. This, hand in hand with better measures to deal with irregular migration, is how we move forward on #MigrationEU," Johansson tweeted.
According to a letter from Johansson to the interior ministers involved, Germany alone is ready to accept 25,000 refugees from Afghanistan. France has pledged to host 2,500 Afghans, in addition to 5,000 other refugees of various nationalities; the Netherlands will host 3,159 Afghans and 1,915 of other nationalities; Spain 2,500 and 1,200, respectively; Sweden 1,500 and 4,200, respectively.
According to the EU Commission, the 15 member countries have already evacuated around 28,000 people from Afghanistan in the past few months. The 40,000 now mentioned are additional evacuees. According to the Johansson letter, that figure is actually 38,146.
The letter mentions a total of 60,000 accepted admission places in EU countries for 2021 and 2022.
However, this number does not only apply to Afghanistan. Around two thirds of the 60,000 are earmarked for Afghans needing protection, Johansson writes.
Dramatic situation
After the Taliban came to power at the end of August, the EU states decided not to make any concrete commitments to accept people from Afghanistan for the time being to avoid creating incentives for illegal migration.
The current situation in Afghanistan is dramatic. The country is suffering from one of the worst droughts in two decades. The economy was battered before the Taliban came to power and is now in free fall.
According to the UN, more than half of the population does not have enough to eat.