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No positive solution to issue of accommodation for Afghan refugees — Kazakh president

According to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kazakhstan is seriously concerned about what happened in Afghanistan

NUR-SULTAN, September 3. /TASS/. No positive solution has been found to the issue of accommodation for Afghan refugees in Kazakhstan, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a video address to the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum on Friday.

"As for accommodating Afghan refugees, who used to work for the US administration, for an indefinite period of time - perhaps two, three or six months - we did not find a positive solution because many nuances have emerged related to Kazakhstan’s sovereignty. The people who were supposed to arrive in Kazakhstan did not have entry visas," Tokayev noted.

According to him, Kazakhstan is seriously concerned about what happened in Afghanistan. "We promptly took measures to evacuate our citizens from the country though our embassy continues to operate there and has established contact with the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia - TASS) and managed to make an agreement on ensuring the safety of our diplomats and the embassy," the Kazakh president added.

After the United States announced plans to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban 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. US troops completed the withdrawal process in the early hours of Tuesday, ending their 20-year-long presence in Afghanistan.