Flights Resume From Kabul Airport, Still No Clarity On Who All Taliban Would Allow To Fly Out
The first commercial flight from Kabul Airport, which is now under the control of the Taliban took off on Thursday.
The Qatar Airways flight to Doha had an estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans on board.
As per reports, the flight operation was with the cooperation of the Taliban and the foreign minister and deputy prime minister helped facilitate the operation.
200 passengers to leave Afghanistan
According to Qatari envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani another 200 passengers will leave Afghanistan on Friday.
While the resumption of commercial flights from Afghanistan is good news for foreign nationals and green card holders, it is not something that Afghans who want to flee the Taliban can cheer about.
On Thursday itself, a days-long standoff over charter planes has left hundreds of mostly Afghan people stranded, waiting for Taliban permission to leave.
Many thousands of Afghans remain desperate to get out, too, afraid of what Taliban rule might hold. The Taliban have repeatedly said foreigners and Afghans with proper travel documents could leave. But their assurances have been met with skepticism, and many Afghans have been unable to obtain certain paperwork.
The Taliban has also made it clear that it is not in favour of Afghan nationals, especially the highly educated and talented ones leaving the country.
Taliban leaders have also repeatedly said that Afghans from religious minority communities should also stay back in the country.
Despite the assurances by the Taliban that they are not vindictive, hundreds of other Afghans who say they are at risk for helping the Americans still are unconvinced.
Many have gathered for more than a week in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, waiting for permission to board evacuation flights chartered by U.S. supporters. Many are believed not to have the necessary travel documents.
In Mazar-e-Sharif on Thursday, an Afghan who worked 15 years as an interpreter for the U.S. military was moving from hotel to hotel and running out of money as he, his eight children and his wife waited for the OK from the Taliban to leave.
"I'm frightened I will be left behind,'' said the man, whose name was withheld by The Associated Press for his safety.
The interpreter said he was one of many former U.S. employees whose special visas the United States approved in the last weeks of the American military presence in Afghanistan. But with the U.S. Embassy closed when the Taliban took Kabul on Aug. 15, it has become impossible to get the visa stamped into his passport.
He said he doesn't trust Taliban assurances that they will not take revenge against Afghans who worked for the Americans.
"No, never,'' he said. "I never believe them, because they are lying.''
Afghanistan war veteran Matt Zeller, who founded the organization No One Left Behind to help Afghans who supported American troops, said he does not believe it is possible for applicants to the special immigrant visa program to get a visa without an embassy in Kabul.
"For all intents and purposes, these people's chances of escaping the Taliban ended the day we left them behind," he said.
Meanwhile, the airport in the capital is no longer the Hamid Karzai International Airport, but simply Kabul International Airport, with the name of the country's former president removed.
The airport is said to be operated by the Taliban with the help of technicians from Qatar, as the militia doesn't have the expertise to do so.
