The Philippines has agreed to temporarily host a US visa-processing center for Afghan nationals who had worked for American forces in Afghanistan and were left behind during their chaotic withdrawal from the country in 2021.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken requested the Philippines in 2022 to allow up to 1,000 Afghan nationals to stay in its territory while their special immigrant visas were being processed.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said at the time that there were some legal and “many security issues” to be addressed first.
Early on Tuesday, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs announced that Manila would allow a “limited number” of Afghan nationals to transit in the Philippines to complete their visa processing for Special Immigrant Visas and resettlement in the US. DFA spokesperson Teresita Daza told reporters that they would be “confined to their billet facility for the duration of the processing of their SIV applications by the US embassy in Manila.”—Agencies
