Feb 11, 2022: According to a report by Reuters, hundreds of Afghans have staged a protest at a facility in the UAE where they have been living since fleeing their homeland last year, holding banners calling for independence and relocation to the United States.

Thousands of Afghans were transported to the United Arab Emirates last year by the United States and other Western nations amid a US-led withdrawal from Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban movement to power. The UAE has agreed to provide Afghans with temporary accommodation until their relocation applications are processed and they can travel to third countries.

Six months later, however, many are still in the UAE in tightly controlled facilities.

Men, women and children demonstrated on Thursday inside an Abu Dhabi facility, calling on Washington to welcome them to their second home.

The UAE government and the US embassy in Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It is not clear how many Afghans are still living in the UAE, which said in September that it had evacuated 9,000 Afghans heading for third country relocation. Ahmed Mohibi, a former US counterterrorism adviser in Afghanistan who has helped those fleeing Afghanistan, said there had been no flight from the United Arab Emirates to the United States for evacuation since late November.

Afghans are now threatening to go on hunger strike.

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