No safe place in Afghanistan: Red Cross DG

Yves Daccord, the Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on Thursday expressed his worries about the safety in Afghanistan, saying "there are no safe places in Afghanistan now".

The comment came just days after Finnish Ambassador to Afghanistan said the situation there had been improved.

However, Daccord predicted the situation would remain difficult as "no political solution is in sight."

He told the Finnish national broadcaster Yle that "there are no safe places in Afghanistan now, including the capital Kabul."

Daccord began a two-day visit to Finland and he was scheduled to meet with Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Anne-Mari Virolainen and members of the parliament.

Discussing the issue of migration, Daccord said "closing the borders for some time" is not a durable solution. "Europe must decide on how many people it wants to take."

Earlier this week, Finnish immigration authority, Migri suspended granting asylum for applicants from Afghanistan. Migri told Yle on Thursday that the Finnish policy line regarding the safety of Afghanistan is likely to be clear early next week.

There has been a public debate in Finland on whether it is safe to repatriate rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan. Daccord underlined that he does not take a stand on the decisions taken by Finland.

The assessment by Daccord differed from comments of the Finnish ambassador to Kabul Hannu Ripatti last week. The ambassador told Yle that in his opinion the situation in Kabul had somewhat improved.

Ripatti said that the number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan is at the same level as in the drug related conflicts in the border areas between Mexico and Columbia.

The comments by the ambassador were quoted widely in Finland. He also said fewer civilians had been killed by terrorism in Afghanistan during the last two years than in traffic accidents in the country.