Although there are Taliban militants around, Afghans are still walking on the street holding banners and the flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times
- The evacuees who left Afghanistan after the Taliban were arrested are heading to the UK to start a new life.
- The Taliban occupied the capital Kabul.
- The acquisition triggered a large-scale withdrawal.
On Thursday, after fleeing the Taliban to take over, dozens of Afghan evacuees waited nervously to board a Royal Air Force plane to the United Kingdom during a stopover in the United Arab Emirates.
At Al Maktoum Airport in Dubai, with the intensified evacuation work in London, passenger planes transporting passengers from Kabul to the UK continued to shuttle back and forth.
Dozens of exhausted passengers waited at one of the boarding gates during their stopover before the second stop on their journey to a safe journey.
Timeline | Taliban occupy Kabul
“They can’t wait to get off the plane and take a break,” an airport employee said.
Three children in traditional Afghan costumes circled a woman in black, and a masked man with a toddler showed a victory sign.
While waiting for the plane to take him to the UK, a boy with two red and black backpacks shook his legs nervously.
Staff from the British Embassy and airport staff in bright yellow vests stood at the door and gave instructions to the waiting team.
“We processed more than 1,600 eligible (individuals) through the UAE on the way to the UK,” said a spokesperson for the embassy.
The official added that the five battles were originally scheduled to leave the UAE on Thursday for the UK to carry passengers on three flights from Afghanistan.
Before boarding the plane, the evacuees received packed lunch boxes with sandwiches and juice boxes. If necessary, members of the medical team were on standby near the boarding gate.
Quoting | World leaders react to Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
While they were waiting, another group of passengers travelling from Afghanistan to the United Kingdom got off a Royal Air Force transport plane with the Minor Union flag, and then walked to the airport bus.
evacuation
Back in Kabul, thousands of Afghans crowded between the Taliban checkpoint and the steel circle around the city’s main airport, eager to board any flight after the Taliban returned.
At an Independence Day rally in Pashtunistan Square in Kabul, Taliban fighters mobilized to control the crowd raising the flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Gallo Image by Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times
A distressing picture appeared, people desperately trying to board any flight that was about to take off, and even had to hold on to the fuselage of a U.S. military aircraft as it skidded down the runway to prepare for take-off.
“We have not sent an empty plane,” British Defense Minister Ben Wallace told Sky News, adding that the vacant seats have been allocated to NATO allies.
Interpreter | How the Taliban planned the “political collapse” in Afghanistan
Wallace has stated that the UK will summon 2,000 British and Afghan employees to leave Afghanistan in the next few days.
But the government faces the question of where the evacuees will be taken when they arrive in the UK.
London stated that as long as the United States continues to carry out its own evacuation operations at Kabul Airport, the evacuation will continue.
Wallace said that according to the government’s resettlement plan, about 306 British nationals and about 2,000 Afghans went to the UK.
The British government said in a statement on Wednesday: “The British government’s goal is for the new Afghan Citizens Resettlement Program to resettle 5,000 Afghan nationals who are in danger due to the current crisis in the first year.”
The UAE has become the center of evacuation from Afghanistan, and the French authorities used the capital Abu Dhabi as a stepping stone to transfer its nationals back to France.
Abu Dhabi said in a statement that it “cooperates with international partners to contribute to Afghanistan’s global rescue efforts”.
At the same time, the United States has airlifted approximately 7,000 people from Afghanistan.
Since the United States began to accelerate its withdrawal at the end of July, nearly 12,000 people have been transferred out of Afghanistan because the Taliban swept Afghanistan before the United States withdrew.
