Bangladesh turns down US request to shelter Afghan citizens

Bangladesh has turned down a US request to temporarily shelter people from Afghanistan who are facing an apparent risk of Taliban reprisal in the aftermath of the radical Islamist group's takeover of the war-torn country.

"The US is a friendly country to us. They made the request, and we said 'no' to them," Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters in Dhaka on Monday.

He said US officials had informed Bangladesh through diplomatic channels that they were looking to relocate certain Afghan people to other countries for safety reasons.

"And they requested that we host some of them," he said, adding that the US officials could not specify the number or the names of the countries hosting the Afghans.

As part of its response to the US, Bangladesh cited the trouble it has been facing after sheltering hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.

"We are not in a position to host any further in the most densely populated country," the foreign minister said in Bangladesh's response to the US request.

Bangladesh is host to more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims, more than 750,000 of whom crossed the border from Myanmar after a brutal military crackdown on the minority group in Rakhine state in 2017.

Earlier, the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry in a statement said it was carefully observing the fast-evolving situation in Afghanistan.

"We urge all stakeholders in Afghanistan to maintain peace and calm, ensuring the safety and security of all, including foreign nationals," added the statement.