UAE to Temporarily Host 5,000 Afghans at US Request

Read More

DUBAI—The United Arab Emirates has agreed to host 5,000 Afghan nationals to be evacuated from their country for 10 days on their way to a third country at the request of the United States, the Gulf Arab state’s foreign ministry said on Friday.

“The evacuees will travel to the UAE from the Afghan capital of Kabul on U.S. aircraft in the coming days,” the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM.

The foreign ministry told Reuters they would be hosted for 10 days.

The UAE has so far facilitated the evacuation of 8,500 people from Afghanistan on its aircraft and through its airports, it said.

The announcement came after U.S. officials told Reuters Washington was expected to announce that countries in Europe and the Middle East have agreed to temporarily shelter people evacuated from Kabul as its base in Qatar reached capacity.

A Qatari official told Reuters the Gulf Arab state was “continuing our efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan. Additional flights are scheduled during the upcoming days.”

Bahrain will allow planes carrying evacuees to stop over in the kingdom as part of efforts to assist rescue operations in Afghanistan, the Bahraini foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

By Maher Chmaytelli & Alexander Cornwell

Related articles

You may also be interested in

Headline

Never Miss A Story

Get our Weekly recap with the latest news, articles and resources.
Cookie policy

We use our own and third party cookies to allow us to understand how the site is used and to support our marketing campaigns.