KABUL (Pajhwok): Kyrgyzstan has rejected a proposal from the European Union (EU) to accept migrants from Afghanistan and Africa in exchange for providing employment opportunities for Kyrgyz citizens, the country’s foreign minister has announced.
Jeenbek Kulubaev made the remarks during a meeting of the parliamentary committee on international affairs, defence, security and migration, Sputnik Kyrgyzstan reported.
He said the EU had proposed that Kyrgyzstan serve as a third country to receive Afghan and African migrants who had travelled to Europe.
The EU had linked the acceptance of these migrants to providing skilled Kyrgyz citizens with employment opportunities in European countries, he explained.
“They proposed creating opportunities for our citizens to work legally. We told them they could recruit Kyrgyz citizens directly for employment, but we opposed accepting migrants from other countries,” Kulubaev said.
According to the report, five EU member states — Denmark, Austria, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands — had previously expressed interest in implementing a pilot scheme under which migrants whose asylum applications had been rejected would be transferred to designated centres outside EU territory.
The report also mentioned Uzbekistan among the Central Asian countries in connection with the scheme.
Meanwhile, EU member states are discussing the establishment of migrant processing centres outside the bloc’s borders.
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