Two weeks after the Taliban reclaimed Kabul in 2021, diplomats and US soldiers in Kosovo welcomed with open arms and newly built accommodations Afghans who had been evacuated because of their work with the United States and allied governments. Camp Liya, constructed alongside the US Army base Camp Bondsteel, would briefly be their home — a "lily pad," they were told — while Washington arranged their resettlement in the United States or a third country.
"We are honored to be able to help Afghan refugees who worked for NATO,” Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on August 29, 2021, greeting the first arrivals at the airport. "They left their homes and their country in desperation. But we will do everything to make sure that they will be safe, secure here.”
John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman at the time, said the agreement signed with Kosovo pledged the US to relocate Afghans that are housed in the camp "to the United States or a third country within 365 days.”
Read more at: Afghans adrift on US ′lily pad′ in Kosovo | Europe | News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 28.08.2022
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