Tashkent: The United States said that Tuesday evacuated nearly 500 Afghans “military and civilian” from Uzbekistan, while the former Soviet state stated that there were now no Afghan refugees in his region.
The days before the arrest of Kabul Taliban caused a chaos scene in the neighboring of Central Asia Afghanistan Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, as a loyal army to the destroyed government escaped from the military border on a military aircraft.
Uzbekistan has mostly held back comments on the number and status of the refugees for seeing to foster relationships with the Taliban next door.
But a spokesman for the US Embassy told Tuesday that it had evacuated 494 Afghanistan’s “military and civilian” from South Termez Airport Uzbekistan with the help of the Uzbek government.
“The evacuation was completed on September 12-13,” said the spokesman told AFP by telephone, making a comment at the final destination of the refugees.
Uzbek Foreign Ministry spokesman Yusup Kabulzhanov on Monday confirmed the evacuation in comment to the privately owned Kun.Uz outlet.
“All Afghan refugees have left the Uzbekistan area”, he said, without giving numbers.
A staff at the Afghan Embassy said to AFP last month that up to 1,500 Afghans may have crossed into Uzbekistan illegally after the Taliban secured control of the North Fortress of Mazar-I-Sharif in mid-August and began beating the road to Kabul.
In a rare statement of refugees in August, Uzbekistan said it had returned 150 people to Afghanistan at their own request and followed talks with the Taliban to ensure their safety.
Tajikistan, who has avoided official contact with the Taliban, both quietly about the number of refugees he took.
The European Union delegation in the country said on Tuesday that it provided 160,000 euros in humanitarian aid funding “to benefit 5,000 Afghan refugees” in two Tajik Provinces bordering Afghanistan.
The UE statement citing the UN refugee (UNHCR) said that “up to 50,000 refugees can be registered in Tajikistan after the total withdrawal of American and NATO troops at the end of 2021”.
The statement came after the Minister of Home Affairs Ramazon Hamro Rahimzoda earlier this month criticized international donors for failing to help Tajikistan home refugees.
Afghanistan will dominate the discussion at the peak of the Shanghai – Block cooperation organization which includes four former Soviet, Chinese, Indian, Pakistan and Russian Central Asian countries – organized by Tajikistan this week.
The US said nearly 500 Afghans were evacuated from Uzbekistan
