Newly arriving at Al Maktoum Airport, mainly in traditional Afghan attire, including their families, the AFP reporter found before leaving for the United Arab Emirates.
“They were patient enough to get off the plane and rest,” an AFP airport official told them after they got off the plane. The AFP is not allowed to photograph the faces of refugees or talk to them.
Since the Taliban took power on Sunday, many Afghans and foreigners have sought to escape the Islamic fundamentalist movement.
On Monday, at the country’s only departure port, Kabul Airport, there were scenes of human seas fleeing and chaos clinging to the sides of people’s planes in the middle.
On the runway and boarding at the Dubai airport, some passengers were flying in front of journalists’ cameras, while women and girls were waiting with their only belongings in black trash bags.
Not long ago, a British Royal Air Force plane took off from the same airport heading to England with those leaving Afghanistan.
– Barriers –
In all, the UK expelled 306 Britons and 2,052 Afghans “under full protection”, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. London assured that the eviction would continue.
Considering the state of emergency, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace promised to analyze “visa applications of Afghans cooperating with British troops” as soon as possible and “changed the rules” to expedite the process as much as possible.
The British military was part of a US-led coalition that invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to drive out the Taliban, accusing the country of harboring organizers of the September 11 attacks on Al Qaeda.
Since the return of the Taliban to power, forces in Afghanistan have organized the expulsion of their civilians.
The Pentagon says the U.S. Fora Area has already evacuated 7,000 people. Among them, according to other sources, are about 2,000 Afghan refugees. In all, the United States hopes to deport more than 30,000 people through its bases in Kuwait and Qatar.
In Kabul, the area around the airport is controlled by the Taliban, which has been criticized by the United States for blocking the entry of thousands of Afghans seeking to leave the country.
Memories of the atrocities of the Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001 are particularly relevant to those fleeing human rights abuses. They do not believe the promises made by radical Islamists in recent days.
During his rule the Taliban imposed an extreme-Orthodox view of Islamic law, which restricted the rights of women, restricted entertainment such as music and movies, and limited religious education.
