US official says Kosovo to house some Afghans

The United States intends to send Afghan evacuees who fail to clear initial screenings to the nation of Kosovo, which has agreed to house them for up to a year, a U.S. official told the Associated Press on Saturday.

The U.S. plan for potentially long-term stay in a third country for Afghan evacuees whose cases require more processing is likely to face objections from refugee advocates.

They complain that of a lack of transparency and uncertain legal jurisdiction in the Biden administration's use of overseas transit sites to screen the roughly 120,000 evacuees from Taliban-held Afghanistan.

Other U.S. officials have said they expect most or all Afghans whose cases may initially raise red flags or questions to pass further screening.

Saturday's disclosure was the first time the U.S. revealed its plans for Afghans or other evacuees who have failed to clear initial rounds of screening or whose cases otherwise require more time.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not yet authorized for release, said "transit centers provide a safe place for diverse groups, an opportunity to complete their paperwork while we conduct security screenings before they continue to their final destination in the United States or in another country." U.S. officials have given conflicting accounts of whether they are readying for the evacuees a military camp near the Kosovo capital used by the U.S Army, Camp Bondsteel, or a site just outside the army camp that was previously used to house crews of road builders.

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