Washington (Associated Press)-The United States tried to speed up the evacuation of the United States and Afghanistan at the Kabul airport on Thursday, restricted by obstacles such as armed Taliban checkpoints and clerical issues. As the August 31 deadline approaches, tens of thousands of people are still airlifted from this chaotic country.
Taliban fighters and their checkpoints surround the airport, the main obstacle for Afghans, who fear that past cooperation with Westerners has made them the main target of retaliation. Hundreds of Afghans without any documents or evacuation permits also gathered outside the airport, adding to the chaos, and even some Afghans with documents and flight promises were unable to pass.
The inability of many Taliban fighters to read these documents is of no avail.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in Washington that 6,000 people were allowed to evacuate on Thursday and are expected to board military flights in the next few hours, which is a sign of hope. This will mark a substantial increase in recent days. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that about 2,000 passengers have taken off every day in the past two days.
Kirby said that the military has aircraft that can evacuate 5,000 to 9,000 people per day, but until Thursday, there were far fewer designated evacuees who were able to reach and enter the airport.
Kirby told reporters that the limiting factor is the available evacuees, not the aircraft. He said efforts are being made to speed up processing, including adding consular officials from the State Department to verify the paperwork of Americans and Afghans who managed to reach the airport. He said that the additional entrance door has been opened.
However, at the current rate, it is difficult for the United States to evacuate all Americans and Afghans who are eligible and seeking to evacuate before August 31. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he will ensure that no Americans are left behind, even if it means waiting until after August, an arbitrary deadline set a few weeks before the Taliban’s amazing military victory in Kabul last weekend. It is not clear whether Biden will consider extending the evacuation deadline for non-US citizens.
At the airport, military evacuation flights continue, but many people still have difficulty entering. 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.
The number of people who need to be evacuated—Americans, Afghans, or others—is not accurate because the process is almost entirely self-selective. For example, the State Department stated that when it ordered its non-essential embassy staff to leave Kabul in April after Biden announced its withdrawal, fewer than 4,000 Americans registered for security updates. 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. Tens of thousands of Afghans may also need to flee.
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.
At the Pentagon, Kirby declined to say whether Secretary of Defense Austin had advised Biden to extend the August 31 deadline. He said that in view of the Taliban’s takeover of the country, at least the taliban’s acquiescence is required beyond that date. He said he knew that there was no such negotiation between the U.S. and Taliban commanders, and they had maintained regular contact for several days to limit airport conflicts as part of what the White House called the “safe passage” agreement made on Sunday.
Kirby said: “I think this is just a basic fact of the reality we are in. It is necessary to communicate with the Taliban on what we are trying to achieve and reach a certain level of agreement.”
Kirby said that of the approximately 2,000 people transported by air from the airport in the 24 hours as of Wednesday morning, nearly 300 were Americans. According to two congressional aides, US lawmakers learned on Thursday morning that 6,741 people have been evacuated since August 14, including 1,762 US citizens and green card holders.
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.
The department stated: “All the U.S. government’s relocation of personnel from Afghanistan has been tested for COVID-19, and a comprehensive humanitarian exemption has been implemented.” Before the Taliban took over Kabul, the evacuees were required to undergo physical examinations, including COVID-19 tests. This has increased the urgency of evacuation of Afghans in danger.
Additional American troops continued to arrive at the airport. 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.
Those hoping for evacuation seats are American citizens and other foreigners, Afghan allies of Western powers, women, journalists, activists, and others most vulnerable to threats from the fundamentalist Taliban.
Will the US military cross the airport border to collect and escort personnel? Austin said on Wednesday that this is currently not feasible. “We don’t have the ability to go out and gather a large number of people,” he told reporters.
Austin added that the evacuation will continue “until time runs out or our capacity runs out.”
The Afghans are in danger because of cooperation with the US military or US organizations, and the Americans scrambled to drive them out, and they also pleaded with Washington to cut the red tape that complicates the problem.
Marina Kielpinski LeGree, the U.S. head of the non-profit organization Ascend, said: “If we don’t solve this problem, we’re actually condemning people to death.” It’s been a few days. After the chaos, tear gas and shooting incidents, the organization’s young Afghan female colleague was among the crowd waiting for the flight at the airport.
© 2021 Canadian Press
