A number of Kuwaiti parliamentarians expressed their refusal to host Afghan translators who worked with the US occupation of Afghanistan, now that the process of evacuating them from their homeland has begun.
The Kuwaiti MPs justified their refusal on several grounds, including national and strategic security, and the demographic structure of the Gulf country, that already consists out of around 69% immigrants.
Kuwaiti officials have often emphasised the need to modify the imbalance in the demographic structure, which may contribute to their unwillingness to take in Afghan collaborators on the US behalf.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a joint press conference with his Kuwaiti counterpart Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah, that the issue of transferring Afghan translators was raised during his meetings in Kuwait.
US officials confirmed a few days ago that the US military is “ready to house up to 35,000 Afghan translators and their family members at two US bases in Kuwait and Qatar, to protect them from possible retaliation from Taliban fighters that are making progress across Afghanistan,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Several Kuwaiti officials and movements have announced their rejection of this US policy, that will de facto see Kuwait bear the cost of taking in Afghan collaborators with the US occupation.
The US occupation of Afghanistan, which started in 2001, is set to officially end on 11 September, 2021, marking the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington DC
