Kosovo's PM on temporary housing for Afghans at risk

(17 Aug 2021) Kosovo’s prime minister on Tuesday said the country would temporarily house Afghans threatened by the Taliban during the peacekeeping military mission there.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that since mid-July, two teams from Kosovo and the United States were coordinating efforts to shelter a number of Afghans under threat.

President Vjosa Osmani said Monday that a month earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had asked for a temporary shelter of Afghan local staff working with the U.S. forces.

Kurti said in an interview with The Associated Press that “by sheltering some of the refugees from Afghanistan we are doing a small help in return to an immense contribution that the United States did for our country and our people during the war and after it.”

Kurti did not give numbers of the place where they will be housed due to security concerns.

Kosovo Albanians left in a mass exodus in 1999, amid a brutal war between separatist ethnic Kosovo Albanian rebels and Serb forces.

The war ended after a 78-day U.S.-led NATO air campaign drove Serb troops out and a peacekeeping force moved in.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008, which is recognized by most of the West but not by Serbia and its allies, Russia and China.



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