MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Extremists and terrorists may disguise themselves as refugees in order to move from Afghanistan to neighboring countries, including Central Asian states, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.
"We see a serious risk of terrorists and extremists infiltrating the countries of the region, particularly Central Asian states, disguised as refugees," she noted.
"Afghanistan’s new authorities will soon face the need to provide a good standard of living to the Afghan people in their own country at a new stage of development. In order to achieve that goal, they will need to resolve the migration issue," Zakharova added.
Way to reduce migration flows
Maria Zakharova stressed that Western countries should provide effective assistance to Afghanistan in order to reduce or curb migration flows.
"We believe that the international community - first and foremost, Afghanistan’s long-time Western donors - should provide effective assistance to the country’s people in order to reduce or curb migration flows," she emphasized. "Western countries, who spent 20 years conducting experiments without control, though they had to abide by and implement the UN Security Council’s mandate <...> owe Afghanistan in every sense of the word and they can’t pretend that the story is over now that they have left," Zakharova added.
In 2015, the European Union was confronted with the biggest migration crisis in its history, when conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East, namely in Libya and Syria, caused an influx of refugees into Europe and more than one million illegal migrants arrived in the EU.
After the United States announced plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) embarked on a large-scale operation to take the country under control. On August 15, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stepped down and fled the country. Those unwilling to accept Taliban rule organized a resistance movement in the Panjshir Valley, which is led by Ahmad Massoud. Former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who declared himself caretaker president, called on the Afghan people to support the resistance leader. On August 15-30, the United States and allied countries evacuated their personnel and some of the Afghans who worked for them in the past 20 years.