Belgium suspends deportation of illegal Afghan migrants as Taliban takes over Kabul

As a gruesome migrant crisis grips Afghanistan, Belgium has announced that it would not deport failed Afghans back to their homeland. On Monday, Belgian State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Sammy Mahdi confirmed the announcement highlighting that situation in the central Asian country was “terrible” and that the Belgian administration had agreed on not sending anybody back. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people from Afghanistan are now hoping to reach Europe in the quest for a better life and also to escape the extremists’ ultra-austere rules.

"The individual assessment of each [asylum] request shows that the situation in Afghanistan is terrible and you cannot send anyone back," Mahdi told the VRT public broadcaster.

No blanket ban 

Mahdi also emphasized that Belgium would not pass a blanket ban on repatriations to Afghanistan because it studies every case separately. Earlier this week, other states in the European Union halted repatriation given the worsening situation in the Taliban controlled country. 

Irregular migration is not a new phenomenon, said Afghanistan’s newly-appointed ambassador to Ankara, Amir Mohammad Ramin on Thursday, adding that they are working with Turkish authorities over the issue. While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had made it clear that his country wasn’t a “roadside inn” for the fleeing population, it is to mention that the country hosts around 4 million refugees and the number is expected to surge with the Taliban making sweeping advances in Afghanistan.  

Meanwhile, United States President Joe Biden broke his silence on the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban on August 17 shortly after midnight IST. The head of state stood by his decision in ending the US's longest military engagement by completing its withdrawal from Afghanistan where it has been embroiled since 2001. 'I am President of the US and the buck stops with me,' Biden said, adding that he was saddened by the facts the world now faces, but that the decision was the correct one for America.

Image: AP