“The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that President Ashraf Ghani and his family have been received in the UAE for humanitarian reasons,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday when the Taliban rebels fell to Kabul.
In a statement, Ghani said “the Taliban have won” and that he is leaving Afghanistan to avoid “bloodshed”.
Until Wednesday, Ghani’s whereabouts were unknown, and there were allegations that he had fled to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan or Oman.
This is not the first time that the UAE has provided refuge to former heads of state and their relatives who have become undesirable in their own country.
In 2017, the UAE hosted former Thai Prime Minister Jingluk Shinavatra, who was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.
King Juan Carlos of Spain also went into voluntary exile in the UAE last August, accepting questions about the origin of his property.
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhuto spent eight years in exile in the UAE and was assassinated in 2007 after returning home.
The UAE is one of three countries that, alongside Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, recognized the previous Taliban regime, which was in power from 1996 to 2001, when it was overthrown as a result of the US invasion.
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