Uzbekistan has rejected a US request for temporary accommodation for Afghan citizens

Ariana News Agency: Uzbekistan has rejected a US request for temporary asylum for Afghan citizens waiting to receive special immigrant visas.

Uzbekistan’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Esmatullah Ergashev, said temporary shelter for Afghans working with the US military was a very serious and sensitive issue for Uzbekistan and could not be decided immediately.

Orgashev added that Uzbekistan had not signed the 1951 Convention relating to the status of asylum seekers and that its domestic law on granting asylum to foreign nationals was not explicit.

“Therefore, given the external and internal factors, there is no legal or practical basis for sheltering Afghans who have worked with the United States” said the Uzbek President’s special envoy to Afghanistan.

The United States has recently asked Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan to grant temporary asylum to 9,000 Afghans who have worked with Western troops in Afghanistan and are under threat from the Taliban, Bloomberg News reported recently.

Tajikistan and Kazakhstan have not yet commented on the US request.

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reports that the US military is preparing to transfer 35,000 Afghan translators and their families to two US military bases in Kuwait and Qatar.