Philippines has agreed to a request by the United States to temporarily host a U.S. immigrant visa processing center for a limited number of Afghan nationals aspiring to resettle in America, the treaty allies announced Tuesday.
The Philippine government’s approval of the request, which initially faced local concerns over potential security and legal issues, reflects how relations between Manila and Washington have deepened under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in 2022.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said the agreement was undergoing final domestic procedures and needs to be finally ratified by Marcos before it takes effect. It did not provide other details, including how many Afghans would be allowed to temporarily stay in the Philippines at any time while their special immigrant visas for resettlement to the U.S. are being completed.
A senior Philippine official, however, told The Associated Press that only 150 to 300 applicants would be accommodated in the Philippines under the “one-time” deal. The official who had knowledge of the negotiations agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to speak publicly.
Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Assistant Secretary Teresita Daza said Afghan nationals should secure a visa to enter the Philippines and would be subjected to “full security vetting.” Each visa applicant can stay not more than 59 days.
The U.S. government will shoulder the costs for the stay of the Afghan nationals, including food, housing, security, and medical and transportation expenses, Daza said. She added that the U.S. government and the International Organization for Migration, as manager of the unspecified facility where the Afghan visa applicants would be billeted, would ensure they have adequate social, educational, religious, and other support.
The U.S. thanked the Philippines in a statement by the State Department “for supporting Afghan allies of the United States” and added that it “appreciates its long and positive history of bilateral cooperation with the Philippines.”
The Afghan nationals to be considered for resettlement primarily worked for the U.S. government in Afghanistan or were deemed eligible for U.S. special immigrant visas (SIVs) but were left behind when Washington withdrew from the country as Taliban militants took back power in a chaotic period in 2021.
As over September 2023, there were “some 130,000” outstanding applications for the Afghan SIV program, which provides a pathway to resettle Afghans who worked for the U.S. government as well as their families. Some of them are in Afghanistan, where they fear retaliation and persecution from the Taliban government. Others have fled to third countries like Pakistan, which instituted a deportation drive targeting Afghan and other migrants in fall 2023. Many Afghans stuck in the lengthy SIV approval process were sent back to Afghanistan during the past year.
A visa processing center in the Philippines would provide a place for some Afghans to safely await a decision on their SIV applications.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken first relayed the request to his Philippine counterpart in 2022, and President Joe Biden discussed the request when Marcos visited the United States last year, Philippine officials said.
Marcos said last year that he was told by American officials that a maximum of 1,000 Afghan nationals would be allowed to stay in the Philippines at any one time while their special immigrant visas are being processed.
He said at the time there were difficult legal and logistical issues to address for the program to run as hoped.
Some Filipino officials have expressed fears the Afghan nationals could become targets of attacks while in the Philippines. Others raised legal questions about an arrangement where U.S. authorities would have a say in vetting who could enter the Philippines.
One prospective problem is what to do with Afghan nationals whose U.S. special visa immigrant application is indefinitely stalled or rejected, Marcos said and expressed concern that thousands of Afghan nationals could be stranded in the country while awaiting relocation to the U.S.
Marcos has rekindled relations with the U.S. since winning the presidency with a landslide margin two years ago.
In February last year, he allowed an expansion of the American military presence under a 2014 defense agreement in a decision that China warned would allow American forces to gain a staging ground to intervene in the South China Sea and Taiwan issues and threaten regional stability.