BRUSSELS — The European Union on Thursday warned of the risk of famine and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and underlined the importance of providing support to Afghans inside the country itself.

“Half of Afghans are in need of humanitarian assistance. There is a huge risk of famine, of humanitarian crisis and a total collapse of the economy. It is of outmost importance to provide support to Afghans in Afghanistan, “EU Commissioner for interior affairs Ylva Johansson told a news conference following the EU High-level Forum on providing protection to Afghans at risk held in Brussels Thursday.

“We need to support Afghans in Afghanistan and in neighboring countries. We need to avoid Afghans to go on dangerous smuggling routes towards the EU,” she said.

“We haven’t seen so many Afghans leaving Afghanistan to the neighboring countries but already before the Taliban took over we had 4 to 6 million Afghans in the neighboring countries out of whom 1.5 million are classified as refugees by UNHCR,” she said.

“We haven’t seen any rise of number of Afghans coming to Europe irregularly yet,” noted Johansson. She stressed that it “is not possible to evacuate all or resettle all Afghans that are in need, “but added “we have a moral duty to also give protections to Afghans at risk.”

She said EU member states already evacuated 22,000 Afghans but on the long term one has to think of resettlement of Afghans and member states announced that they are ready to increase their pledges.

“There was strong political support from participants to give support to Afghans,” she said.

The forum brought together, in a virtual setting, Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Interior Ministers of EU member states, representatives of the European Parliament, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, and the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, Antonio Vitorino as well as representatives of Canada, the UK and the US.

Grandi asked the EU member states to resettle 42,500 Afghans over the period of the coming five years, she said and urged member steps to stand up to the challenge.

This meeting followed the crucial meeting in September on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan where the situation of the Asian nation’s deepening humanitarian and economic crisis was highlighted.

Some 18 million Afghans — almost half of the population — were already in need of humanitarian assistance since the beginning of 2021. One in three Afghans is experiencing crisis or an emergency level of food insecurity, and more than half of the children under five are at the brink of acute malnutrition.

The EU is a lead humanitarian and development donor in Afghanistan. The EU has funded humanitarian operations in Afghanistan since 1994, providing over €1 billion. Funds are allocated strictly based on the humanitarian principles of independence, impartiality and neutrality to ensure access to those in need. — Agencies