KABUL: The United States and allies are hurrying to evacuate as many people from Afghanistan as possible before an Aug. 31 deadline. The combined effort has evacuated about 111,000 people since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban entered Kabul, the White House said on Friday. Here are some more details of the evacuation effort by country:
UNITED STATES
The US military will continue evacuating people from Kabul airport until Aug. 31 if needed, but will prioritize the removal of US troops and military equipment on the last couple of days, the Pentagon has said.
Washington has evacuated 5,100 US citizens since Aug. 14, the White House said.
There were still about 1,500 US citizens in Afghanistan and the US government was working to either contact them or had already given them instructions on how to get to Kabul airport.
BRITAIN
British troops will end their evacuation of civilians on Saturday, armed forces chief General Nick Carter said, adding that after this, Britain would be bringing out its troops on the remaining aircraft.
The defence ministry said late on Friday that it had evacuated more than 14,500 Afghan and British nationals in the two weeks since the Taliban took control of the country.
CANADA
Canadian forces in Kabul ended evacuation efforts for their citizens and Afghans on Thursday, acting chief of the defence staff General Wayne Eyre said. He said Canada had evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of about 3,700 Canadian and Afghan citizens.
GERMANY
Germany ended evacuation flights on Thursday. The German military has evacuated 5,347 people, including more than 4,100 Afghans.
Germany previously said it had identified 10,000 people who needed to be evacuated, including Afghan local staff, journalists and human rights activists. About 300 German citizens remain in Afghanistan, a spokesman for the foreign office in Berlin said on Friday.
FRANCE
The French Defence Ministry said that, as of Thursday evening, more than 100 French nationals and more than 2,500 Afghans had reached French soil after being evacuated from Kabul.
ITALY
Italy said that by Aug. 26, 4,832 Afghans had been brought out of Afghanistan. Some 4,575 have arrived so far in Italy. The Italian government expects its last evacuation flight to leave Afghanistan later on Friday, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told reporters.
SWEDEN
Sweden has ended its evacuation mission in Kabul, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Friday. She said that a total of 1,100 people had been evacuated, including all locally employed embassy staff and their families.
BELGIUM
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Thursday Belgium had ended its evacuation operations. Just over 1,400 people were evacuated, with the last flight arriving in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad on Wednesday night, he said.
IRELAND
Ireland's foreign ministry said that it had evacuated 36 Irish citizens after the completion of an emergency consular mission on Thursday.
It said it was now aware of approximately 60 Irish citizens and family members plus a further 15 Afghan citizens with Irish residency who are still in the country and have requested assistance, far more than they had initially estimated.
POLAND
Poland has evacuated about 900 people from Afghanistan, including about 300 women and 300 children, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday.
HUNGARY
Hungary has ended evacuations in Afghanistan after airlifting 540 people, including Hungarian citizens and Afghans and their families who worked for Hungarian forces previously, Defence Minister Tibor Benko said on Thursday.
DENMARK
Denmark made its last evacuation flight out of Kabul on Wednesday with the remaining diplomatic staff and military personnel, according to its defence ministry.
Denmark has airlifted about 1,000 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, including diplomatic staff, their families, former interpreters, Danish citizens as well as people from allied countries, the ministry said.
UKRAINE
Ukraine has evacuated of all of its citizens who wanted to leave, the president's chief of staff said on Saturday.
In all, it has flown out more than 600 people including foreign journalists, rights activists, women and children, Andriy Yermak said.
AUSTRIA
Austria is not operating its own flights and is relying on Germany and other countries to help with its evacuation. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told national broadcaster ORF on Wednesday 89 people with Austrian citizenship or residency had been airlifted out, while another two to three dozen people were still in Afghanistan.
SWITZERLAND
Switzerland, which is relying on Germany and the United States to help with its evacuation efforts via Tashkent, has got 292 people out of Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said on Tuesday. There were still 15 Swiss citizens in Afghanistan, but no more Swiss evacuation flights were planned.
THE NETHERLANDS
The Dutch government said on Thursday it had evacuated 2,500 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 15, with about 1,600 of them brought to the Netherlands. The Dutch ambassador left on the final flight on Thursday. The Dutch have no diplomatic presence left in the country.
SPAIN
Spain has concluded its evacuation of personnel from Afghanistan, the government said.
Two military planes carrying the last 81 Spaniards out of Kabul arrived in Dubai early on Friday, a government statement said. The planes were also carrying four Portuguese soldiers and 83 Afghans who had worked with NATO countries.
Over the course of its rescue mission Spain evacuated 1,898 Afghans who had worked with Western countries, the United Nations or the European Union.
TURKEY
Turkey has evacuated at least 1,400 people from Afghanistan, including about 1,000 Turkish citizens, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said this week.
QATAR
Qatar said on Thursday it had helped evacuate more than 40,000 people to Doha and "evacuation efforts will continue in the coming days in consultation with international partners".
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The UAE said on Thursday it had helped evacuate 36,500 people to date, including 8,500 coming to the UAE via its national carriers or airports.
INDIA
India has airlifted 565 people from Afghanistan, most of them embassy personnel and citizens living there but also dozens of Afghans including Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, a government official said.
AUSTRALIA
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday that Australia had evacuated 4,100 people, including over 3,200 citizens and Afghans with Australian visas, over nine days, with the last planned flight leaving before the airport attack. The other evacuees were from coalition partners.
Morrison acknowledged some Australian visa holders remained in Afghanistan though he did not know exact numbers.
Australia is committed to bringing at least 3,000 more people out over coming months as part of a humanitarian programme, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said.
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand's Defence Force ran three flights out of Kabul, and the last planned flight had left before the attack, a government statement said.
No NZDF personnel were in Kabul at the time of the explosions and no New Zealand evacuees were left within Kabul airport. According to preliminary numbers, at least 276 New Zealand nationals and permanent residents, their families and other visa holders were evacuated, it said.
Comments
Comments are closed.