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Militants may use chaos to infiltrate US, EU, says Nato
“We have put in place measures to avoid that, but in big numbers, it’s a risk,” Stefano Pontecorvo, the Nato’s senior civilian representative to Afghanistan, said.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) has warned that militants could join migrants fleeing Afghanistan, potentially adding to security threats for Europe and the US after the American withdrawal from Kabul earlier this week.
“We have put in place measures to avoid that, but in big numbers, it’s a risk,” Stefano Pontecorvo, the Nato’s senior civilian representative to Afghanistan, said in a Friday interview, referring to militants trying to use refugee flows to infiltrate Western countries. “I am sure it’s the case.”
The European Union is eager to stem migration from Afghanistan and has cited the potential security threat. So far, about 500,000 people have been displaced in Afghanistan this year, but there hasn’t been evidence of people entering neighbouring countries, nor has there been significant movement towards the bloc, according to an EU diplomatic note seen by Bloomberg.
Pontecorvo, who took part in the effort to evacuate Afghan civilians from Kabul in August, said the end of the US presence is expected to free up Islamic State-Khorasan’s territorial claims in the country. “That is a risk that the Taliban will have to deal with,” he said.
2nd evacuee boy dies of mushroom poisoning
A second child of an Afghan family evacuated from Kabul to Poland died on Friday after eating soup containing death cap mushrooms, which the family had unknowingly gathered in a Polish forest outside their quarantine centre.
The six-year-old boy had received an emergency liver transplant but doctors were unable to save him. His five-year-old brother was pronounced dead on Thursday at Poland’s main children’s hospital, where both were treated. The boys’ 17-year-old sister was treated at the hospital and released.
