Catalonia will host at least 121 Afghan refugees

Catalonia is will be hosting at least 121 Afghan refugees – a figure that could change in the coming days as more people are evacuated from the country that fell to the Taliban on August 15.

58 people will be relocated to the Barcelona area, while 48 will move to Girona, and 15 will be sent to Tarragona. Of these, 54 are minors.

A total of 1,548 people have already been evacuated to Spain's Torrejón de Ardoz military base, near Madrid, and 759 Afghans have already made their way through the Spanish asylum system.

EU should evacuate women MPs, says speaker

Catalonia's parliament speaker, Laura Borràs, has sent European Commission president Ursula Van der Leyen a letter calling for the evacuation of some 50 Afghan women who served as MPs in the National Assembly.

The EU and the United States must "urgently launch a rescue mission," she writes.

The international community pushed for "Afghanistan's constitution to stipulate that 25% of seats be reserved for women." Despite this, Borràs says, "now nobody thinks of these 50 MPs" who face possible reprisals.    

Són moltes les notícies que ens arriben del drama humanitari que viu l’Afganistan, però n’hi ha una que m’ha colpit especialment: la situació desesperada de les 50 diputades que integraven l’Assemblea Nacional.
He escrit als representants parlamentaris europeus per ajudar-les. pic.twitter.com/sCechmzV32

— Presidenta Laura Borràs 🎗️ (@mhp_LauraBorras) August 26, 2021