UN Refugees Chief Says Global Community Must Avoid Afghanistan's ‘Implosion’

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said that the international community must avoid the collapse of Afghanistan in order to prevent the mass exodus of refugees from the country.

“If the country implodes, then yes,” Grandi said when asked whether the United Nations expects refugees to start fleeing Afghanistan. “That is why we have to avoid that implosion.”

Last week, Grandi, in an interview with the Associated Press, said the global community will need to support a government led by the Taliban (banned in Russia) to keep Afghanistan “stable and viable.”

The Afghan economy facing collapse since the Taliban takeover in mid-August led to automatic suspensions of a myriad of international aid, which the US-backed government had come to rely on, and freezing of Afghan assets abroad. The International Monetary Fund also blocked an automatic payout of $460 million and suspended the country's special drawing rights in August.

In an interview with Sputnik last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was critical to create mechanisms to inject cash into Afghanistan’s economy to avoid its collapse and a massive outflow of refugees that could destabilize the entire region.