Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

EU Must Take In Afghans Under "Immediate Threat", Says Official

EU Must Take In Afghans Under "Immediate Threat", Says Official

European commissioner for home affairs said EU countries "need to avoid a migratory crisis" from Afghanistan.

EU countries must take in Afghans under "immediate threat" after the victory of the Taliban, especially women and girls, the European commissioner for home affairs said on Wednesday.

"We should not wait until people are at our external border. We need to help them before that," Ylva Johansson said before taking part in an emergency videolink meeting of EU interior ministers.

"And it's important that we also help those in immediate threat to be resettled to EU member states."

She and the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell updated the ministers on the situation in Afghanistan, where EU countries are among those frantically evacuating citizens and Afghan staff following the Taliban's sudden return to power.

The ministers' virtual meeting had originally been called to discuss ways to respond to another pressing migration issue: that of Belarus encouraging thousands of migrants, especially from Iraq, to cross its borders into Lithuania and other EU states.

But the events unfolding in Afghanistan, which have fuelled European fears of a fresh wave of Afghan asylum-seekers headed to the EU, overshadowed the talks.

Johansson said that EU countries "need to avoid a migratory crisis" from Afghanistan.

Resettlement offers should be extended to Afghans in desperate need -- "people that have been working for fundamental rights for journalists, for example, and others in Afghanistan that now are under threat and really need to be resettled in safety to the European Union."

She added that the "gender dimension" was also important, meaning "we can help women and girls".

But the EU should also help countries neighbouring Afghanistan cope with expected inflows of Afghan migrants, and action should be taken to prevent them taking "dangerous routes that are facilitated by smugglers", she said.

Johansson added that it was "important that we can help these people in Afghanistan when possible to return to their homes".

The commissioner is spearheading a campaign to have EU member states adopt a new migration and asylum pact the European Commission is proposing.

But not all EU countries are on board with that plan, which foresees the burden of hosting migrants being shared out across the 27-nation bloc instead of being concentrated, as now, on countries such as Greece and Italy.

EU turns to Afghanistan's neighbours


Afghanistan has seen 550,000 internally displaced people since the beginning of this year, on top of 2.9 million counted at the end of last year, the Commission says, using UN figures issued before the Taliban takeover.

Johansson, in a statement, said the EU will "intensify" cooperation with Afghanistan's neighbours Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan, which are already hosting big numbers of Afghan migrants.

This also applies to Turkey -- the key country outside the EU that served as the main entry point for asylum-seekers until a 2016 deal struck between Brussels and Ankara that stemmed the flow.

Before the Taliban triumph in Afghanistan, several EU countries such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Germany had been intent on forcibly repatriating Afghans whose asylum bids had been turned down.

Most have now suspended those plans, but Austria on Wednesday said it would lobby the EU to set up "deportation centres" in countries neighbouring Afghanistan to take in deported Afghans.

French President Emmanuel Macron has also pledged a tough stance against illegal migration, though he has emphasised that France would "protect those who are most under threat in Afghanistan".

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×