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Don't stop sending migrants back to Afghanistan, six European countries tell EU Commission
Internally displaced Afghans from northern provinces, who fled their home due to fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security personnel, take refuge in a public park in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, August 9, 2021

GOVERNMENT ministers from six European countries have called on the EU leadership to continue returning migrants to Afghanistan — even as the religious extremist Taliban group’s forces retake large swathes of the war-torn country.

A leaked letter posted online today revealed that the interior ministers of Austria, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Germany urged the European Commission last week not to accept a decision by the Afghan Ministry of Refugees & Repatriation to halt forced returns to the country for three months.

The ministers in the August 5 letter say they “fully recognise the sensitive situation in Afghanistan in light of the foreseen withdrawal of international troops” — but that they do not “foresee any cause to stop or suspend returns.”

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