CSTO countries against hosting Afghan refugees

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) countries are against hosting Afghan refugees and foreign military bases on their territories, the press office of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Thursday.

Tokayev took part in a session of the CSTO's Collective Security Council in Dushanbe on Thursday, Sputnik reported.

The press office, in a statement, said, "The head of state supported the common position of the CSTO on the unacceptability of the deployment of Afghan refugees and foreign military bases on the territory of our countries. He said that, based on humanitarian considerations and the importance of providing international assistance to the Afghan people, personnel of the UN field missions in Afghanistan was temporarily deployed in Almaty."

After the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan's refugee question has taken centre stage.

According to UNHCR numbers, this year alone, more than 4,00,000 Afghans have been displaced from their homes, fleeing as the terror outfit claimed territories under its control, adding to the 2.9 million who were already internally displaced by the end of 2020, with the overall numbers coming up to five million.

Afghanistan plunged into crisis last month after Kabul fell to the Taliban and the democratically elected government of then president Ashraf Ghani collapsed.

( With inputs from ANI )