MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has responded to a request from the United States to temporarily host an immigrant visa processing center for a limited number of Afghan nationals seeking to settle in the United States, the parties said on Tuesday.
The Philippine government’s approval of the request, which initially met with local concerns about potential security and legal issues, reflects deepening relations between Manila and Washington under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in 2022.
The Foreign Ministry in Manila said the agreement still needs to go through final national formalities before it can take effect. No further details were given, including how many Afghans will be allowed to stay temporarily in the Philippines while their special immigrant visas are processed to resettle in the United States.
“The U.S. government is assisting Afghans temporarily in the Philippines with necessary services, including food, shelter, security, medical care and transportation to complete visa processing,” the Philippine Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The United States thanked the Philippines in a State Department statement “for supporting the United States’ Afghan allies,” adding that it “appreciates their long and positive history of bilateral cooperation with the Philippines.”
The Afghan nationals eligible for resettlement mostly worked for the U.S. government in Afghanistan or were considered eligible for special U.S. immigrant visas, but were left behind when Washington withdrew from the country as Taliban fighters regained power during a chaotic period in 2021.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken first raised the request with 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 American officials told him that a maximum of 1,000 Afghan citizens would be allowed to stay in the Philippines at one time while their special immigrant visas were being processed.
He said at the time that difficult legal and logistical issues had to be resolved for the program to go ahead as hoped.
Some Philippine officials have expressed concern that Afghan nationals could be targeted while in the Philippines. Others have raised legal concerns about an agreement that gives U.S. authorities a say in screening for entry into the Philippines.
One potential problem is what to do with Afghan nationals whose application for a special U.S. visa is stalled indefinitely or rejected, Marcos said, expressing concern that thousands of Afghan nationals could be stranded in the country while they wait to resettle in the United States.
Marcos has revived relations with the United States since he overwhelmingly won the presidency two years ago.
In February last year, he allowed an expansion of the American military presence as part of a 2014 defense agreement. But China warned that the decision would give American forces a launching pad for intervention in the South China Sea and Taiwan, jeopardizing stability in the region.
