Uruguay could welcome Afghan refugees

Luis Lacalle Pou has confirmed that the Uruguayan government has received formal requests from Afghan citizens to flee to Uruguay. He clarified that the countrys “has open arms for these people who have to flee their homeland” and added that the corresponding evaluations will be made for this.

The Uruguayan president added that he will not recognize the Taliban-imposed Afghan government that overthrew pro-Western leader Ashraf Ghani.

Uruguay’s ambassador to Iran, Carlos Sgarbi, had revealed that some requests had already been submitted by Afghans seeking refuge in the country. The cases so far have been of students and professionals.

Uruguay does not have an embassy in Afghanistan, so relations are in charge of the embassy in Tehran. At the time, Sgarbi assured that these were isolated cases and not a situation of mass exile.

“I have spoken with Latin American colleagues and they receive, both at the embassy and in other Latin American embassies, requests from students who wish to come to study in Latin America on the pretext that they do not cannot continue to do so in Afghanistan, ”he added. the ambassador said Telemundo.

For its part, the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry declared in a statement its concern and rejection of the “situation of instability, insecurity and institutional degradation in Afghanistan, in particular due to the obvious lack of respect for human rights of the Afghan people. . “.

In addition, he supported the role of the United Nations High Commissioner. Through surveillance and control, it “aims to protect and support those who are the object of attacks, persecution and violations of their rights, as well as to ensure the opportunity for all foreigners and Afghans who the wish to leave freely the territory of the country “.

Last week, the Taliban prevented Afghans from leaving their country and said Kabul airport was only open to foreign nationals. Despite this, nearly 100 countries have confirmed that they have received assurances from the Taliban that Afghan citizens wishing to leave the country will be able to do so.

Uruguayans in Afghanistan

Nelson Rimbau is a Uruguayan who works in Afghanistan to provide food aid. He is the acting chief of humanitarian aviation for the World Food Program. In conversation with the newspaper The observer, he told how he lives daily, two months ago, working at the airport in Kabul.

He is transported in United Nations armored cars and cannot be disembarked on the streets, at least until he reaches the airport. Living nearby, whenever there is an explosion, the windows and door of your building move. In the same way that you can wake up with it, you can also wake up in absolute silence.

In Kabul, he works in the conduct of operations from the United Nations terminal at the airport, managing all humanitarian flights for the various United Nations agencies and international NGOs. He knows and says that because of his job he will be the last to go.

The other case that has gained public importance in Uruguay is that of Maylín Tourn and Noemí Shur. The two women were born in Young, a town of 16,500 people in western Uruguay. They had been working since 2008 as volunteers for the Shelter Now organization until they had to be evacuated from Afghanistan due to the political situation.

They managed to leave on a German Air Force flight that the Uruguayan Chancellery obtained.

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