2,000 Afghan refugees to leave for UK by special flights

ISLAMABAD: After the withdrawal of US and Nato forces from Afghanistan two years ago, the United Kingdom will now resettle Afghan refugees, who were kept in hotels in Pakistan at the expense of the United States and Nato. Special flights will start from Thursday.

About a dozen chartered flights will start carrying Afghan refugees to the UK from Islamabad International Airport every week. The flight operation to take the Afghan refugees to Britain in chartered flights will be completed by the end of December.

A special delegation of the UK High Commission held talks with officials of Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, Airport Security Force, Anti-Narcotics Force, Customs, FIA and PIA regarding the flights.

According to sources, each chartered flight, which will operate once a week, would take around 200 Afghans to the UK and the evacuation of more than 2,000 Afghan refugees will end before Christmas holidays.

The lists of Afghan refugees were prepared by the US and Nato intelligence agencies.

Afghans, who cooperated with the United States and Nato forces during the war, were in the list.