H.E. Ambassador Barakzai meets with members of the Norwegian Parliament

Meeting with Members of Parliament, Mr. Stein Erik Lauvaas (Labor Party), Ms. Siri Gåsemyr Staalesen (Labor Party) and Mr. Øystein Skotheim (political advisor for The Norwegian Labor Party), regarding the asylum seekers from Afghanistan and the safety concerns in Afghanistan, at Stortinget (23.10.2017)

H.E. Ms. Shukria Barakzai would like to thank the members of Parliament Mr. Lauvås and Mrs. Gåsemyr for their invitation to this meeting at the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget). H.E. Barakzai would also like to reiterate her support for the bilateral agreements between the Kingdom of Norway and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Last week (23/10/2017), the situation in the I.R. of Afghanistan took a turn for the worse when five consecutive terrorist attacks occurred killing many innocent citizens and injuring hundreds.

Mr. Lauvås and Mr. Skotheim asked repetitively for a comment from the ambassador and her opinion regarding the deportation of young asylum seekers back to Afghanistan, to which the ambassador replied that the situation is unsafe and too unstable to keep returning asylum seekers to Afghanistan, but H.E. Barakzai renewed the Afghan government welcome policy for volunteer returnees. H.E. Ms. Barakzai added that the situation will most likely worsen in 2018. H.E. Ms. Shukria Barakzai offered a list of approved sources (including NGOs, UN agencies, NATO, News agencies…) that the Norwegian authorities could refer to in order to understand better the current security concerns in Afghanistan. Norway and Afghanistan have strong ties both sealed by Bilateral agreements but also by mutual understanding, the recent rise in attacks in Kabul as well as the rest of the country is alarming and should put a temporary halt to the forced returns of asylum seekers.