PM: Faroes cannot take in Afghan refugees

The United Nations have called on all countries of the world to prepare to take in refugees from Afghanistan amid the humanitarian crisis caused by the Taliban taking control of the country.

But the Faroe Islands are not the right place for refugees to seek shelter, according to Prime Minister Bárður á Steig Nielsen.

“We are a tiny, culturally sensitive country with an insufficient social infrastructure to suddenly be able to accommodate severely emotionally scarred refugees who have suffered at the hands of the Taliban in a country so vastly different to the Faroe Islands,” he says.

 >> SEE ALSO Faroese law may breach human rights convention

“It would be difficult for us to establish the social aid that these people require at such short notice. So I believe our efforts would be much better spent by supporting humanitarian organisation than to offer these people some ill-prepared refugee services here in the Faroe Islands.”

He adds that we should also take notice of the difficulties that countries around us have experienced after taking in refugees, not least considering how small the Faroese society is.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

Translated by prosa.fo.

More Faroese News in English