President Joe Biden promised to the Americans still trapped in Afghanistan: “We will let you go home.”
Biden also said on Friday that the United States is committed to evacuation of all Afghans who assist in the war effort-given the tens of thousands of Afghan translators and other people and their close relatives, the government’s commitment to airlift may be greatly expanded so far. Seek evacuation.
Biden’s remarks at the White House press conference on Friday came as the U.S. government is working to increase air transport, clearing Americans and other foreigners and vulnerable Afghans through Kabul Airport, and removing them from the Taliban to the country. Rescued from the takeover.
Biden faced criticism for the chaotic and often violent scenes outside the airport, and it was difficult for the crowd to reach the internal safety zone.
U.S. officials said the evacuation flight at Kabul Airport was stopped for several hours on Friday due to support from the refugee transfer station. However, the flight resumed in the afternoon.
An official, who asked not to be named, said that as many as three flights are expected to fly from Kabul to Bahrain in the next few hours, possibly carrying 1,500 evacuees in total.
In Washington, some veterans in Congress called on the Biden administration to extend security beyond the Kabul airport so that more Afghans can go to the airport for evacuation. They also hope that Biden will make it clear that the deadline for the withdrawal of US troops on August 31 is not a fixed deadline.
The deadline “intensified the chaos and panic at the airport because some Afghans think they have 10 days to leave the country, or that the door will be closed forever,” said Michigan Representative Peter Meijer, who served in Iraq and also served Working in Afghanistan, helping rescuers provide humanitarian relief.
Tens of thousands of people still need to evacuate before the August 31 deadline for the United States to withdraw its troops from the country, although this pace has accelerated overnight. A defense official said that about 5,700 people, including about 250 Americans, left Kabul on 16 C-17s. In each of the first two days, about 2,000 people were airlifted.
With desperate crowds pouring into Kabul’s airport and Taliban militants wandering around its periphery, the US government once again warned Americans and others that it cannot guarantee that anyone desperately looking for a seat inside can pass through.
The proposal captures some confusion and the life-and-death struggle that many Afghans and foreigners see as they want to get inside. It said: “We are handling personnel at multiple gates. Due to the large crowds and security issues, the gates may open or close without notice. Please use your best judgment and try to get from any open boarding gates. Enter the airport at the gate.”
Although Biden had previously accused the Afghans of failing to bring more allies to the Taliban this month, US officials told the Associated Press that US diplomats had formally urged the government to increase its withdrawal a few weeks ago.
In July, more than 20 diplomats at the US Embassy in Kabul expressed their concern that the Afghans working for the United States were not evacuating fast enough.
In the telegram sent through the State Department’s dissent channel, the diplomats stated that the situation on the ground is very serious and the Taliban may seize control of the capital within a few months. This is a long-standing diplomat’s opposition to government policies. The way to withdraw troops on August 31, and urged the Biden government to immediately start a coordinated evacuation work. According to officials familiar with the document, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal debates.
Biden once said that as the nearly 20-year war is coming to an end, chaos as part of the withdrawal is inevitable. He said that he was following the advice of the US-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, rather than expanding US efforts earlier, putting translators and other Afghans at risk due to past cooperation with Americans. With the Taliban occupying the capital, Ghani fled the country last weekend.
Biden also said that many Afghan allies in danger do not want to leave the country. But refugee groups point out that thousands of Afghans have been backlogged for visa applications over the years, allowing them to asylum in the United States.
After the Afghan government collapsed much faster than government officials publicly expected, the government described its emergency plan as successful. However, prior to the current evacuation, the White House received a clear warning that the situation is rapidly deteriorating.
Kabul Airport has been the focus of intense international efforts to expel foreigners, Afghan allies and other Afghans who are most likely to be retaliated by the Taliban insurgents.
White House National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan said that American citizens can reach the airport, but face obstacles in the large crowd at the airport gate.
On Thursday, Taliban militants shot into the air in an attempt to control the crowd gathered at the airport’s blast wall. Men, women and children fled. US Navy fighter jets fly overhead, which is a standard military precaution, but it also reminds the Taliban that the United States has the firepower to deal with combat crises.
Sullivan acknowledged the possibility of hostage incidents or terrorist attacks, and said the government is working hard to provide safe passage for American citizens. The government has pledged to ensure that all Americans can leave, even if it means leaving after the August deadline.
“This is a risky operation,” Sullivan told NBC Evening News on Thursday. “We can’t expect anything.”
The number of people who need to be evacuated—Americans, Afghans, or others—is not definitive because the process is almost entirely self-selected.
The US State Department said that after Biden announced its withdrawal, when it ordered its non-essential embassy staff to leave Kabul in April, fewer than 4,000 Americans registered for the security update. The actual number, including dual citizens of the United States and Afghanistan and family members, may be much higher, estimated to be between 11,000 and 15,000. Refugee advocates estimate that about 100,000 Afghan allies and family members are also calling for seats in the US for airlift.
Compounding the uncertainty is that the US government cannot track how many registered Americans may have left Afghanistan. Some people may have returned to the United States, but others may have gone to a third country.
Although Afghanistan has been a hot spot for the coronavirus pandemic, the US State Department said on Thursday that evacuees do not need to obtain a negative COVID-19 result.
However, Afghans and Americans trying to help them escape said that the Biden administration has always insisted on visa requirements for potential evacuees. These requirements involve more than a dozen steps and may take several years to complete. These requirements usually include requirements that make the Taliban sweep dangerous or impossible, such as requiring Afghans to travel to a third country to apply for a US visa and to produce documents proving their cooperation with the Americans.
The head of an American refugee organization dedicated to getting Afghans to leave accused Biden of ignoring earlier warnings to speed up evacuation while ending the United States’ 20-year combat mission.
“The government’s failure to listen to the calls of veterans and advocates a few months ago puts our country in this unreasonable situation. It cannot allow innocent Afghans to die from bureaucracy,” Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services Agency Chairman Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said on Friday.
Additional U.S. troops continued to arrive at the airport to protect and manage partial U.S. evacuation operations. As of Thursday, there were about 5,200 people, including the Marine Corps specializing in evacuation coordination and the Air Force specializing in emergency airport operations. Biden has authorized a total of approximately 6,000 people to be deployed.
— Associated Press reporters Josh Boak and Lolita C. Baldor are from Washington.
© 2021 Canadian Press
