UN sanctions imposed on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan are preventing the deportation of 1,500 illegal Afghan immigrants being held in UAE jails, reported the Gulf News on Tuesday.
“Many of the prisoners despair of ever returning home,” said Hafez Hazizur Rahman, Acting Charge d'Affaires at the Afghan embassy in Abu Dhabi.
Calling on the international community to allow the Afghans to fly home, he said "we visit jailed Afghans every week. They always ask about their deportation, and our answer is, 'Two days.' Weeks have now passed and they have lost trust in us.
"Now there is fear that diseases may spread in the jails with the increasing number of prisoners. Things will get worse if these people remain in jail."
He said that the embassy, through the UAE Foreign Ministry, had approached the UN to find an alternative way to repatriate stranded Afghans.
Last month, the embassy made a fresh plea to the UN and sent a letter to the Abu Dhabi-based office of United Nations Development Program asking for help, said the paper.
The UNDP forwarded the letter to the office of Secretary-General Kofi Annan and is awaiting a response.
Rahman said the foreign ministry had tried to plead the Afghan case with the UN on this particular issue – Albawaba.com
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