Live: US airlines approved for evacuations, but Afghans die trying to reach Kabul airport

Issued on: 19/08/2021 – 08:14

This page is being regularly updated.

• The deadly route to Kabul airport

While military evacuations out of Afghanistan have stepped up four days after Kabul fell to Taliban control, the access to the Hamid Karzai International Airport has turned into a majority security challenge for Afghans trying to flee. At least 12 people have been killed in and around the airport since Sunday, according to Taliban and NATO officials.

The deaths were caused either by gun shots or in stampedes, a Taliban official told Reuters on Thursday. He urged people still crowded at the gates of the facility to go home if they did not have the legal right to travel.

Despite reports of Taliban fighters blocking Afghans from reaching the airport, Taliban officials insist they are not hindering access, but attempting to control crowds. “We don’t want to hurt anyone at the airport,” said the Taliban official, who declined to be identified.

• US carriers can conduct evacuations with Defence Department approval

In a statement released late Wednesday, the FAA said that without prior approval, US carriers cannot fly over Afghanistan airspace or fly into Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. The FAA cited “a lack of high altitude air traffic control services”.

All relief flights into Kabul “must have permission” from the Defence Department, the FAA said.

Without prior approval, US passenger and air carriers are prohibited from flying over nearly all of Afghanistan, the FAA said, adding it does not apply to Defence Department operated flights.

There are no indications yet that the Defence Department will use US carriers as part of the massive planned evacuation effort of thousands of people.

• Reports of Taliban stopping some Afghans from reaching Kabul airport

Armed members of the Taliban have been stopping Afghans from reaching the Hamid Karzai International Airport, according to witnesses. 

Afghans who arrived in Germany Wednesday said Taliban members prevented people from getting into the airport compound, including those with the necessary documents to travel.

An Afghan national who previously worked for the French government told FRANCE 24 that the security situation on the route to the airport was a problem. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the former French government employee said the reports of the situation on the ground was terrifying – “anything can happen”, he explained.

An Afghan seeking France’s help to fly out of Kabul speaks to FRANCE 24

Many Afghans are in hiding, awaiting a chance to reach the airport, amid reports of traumatic scenes on the road to the airport.

Video clips of desperate Afghans trying to reach the airport are circulating on social media sites with at least one report of US troops at the airport not allowing a US-Afghan national access into the Hamid Karzai International Airport, according to the New York Times.

Photos of an Afghan translator being treated for gunshot wounds sustained while trying to reach the airport were published on SBS News Australia Thursday. 

• Second French evacuation flight from Kabul lands in Paris

The second group of Afghans to be flown out of Kabul by France after the Taliban’s seizure of power arrived at Paris’s Charles-de-Gaulle airport on Wednesday.

An air force plane carrying more than 200 passengers, with 25 French citizens and a majority of Afghans including a large number of women and children, landed shortly before 17:00 GMT.

In a message posted on Twitter Thursday, French Ambassador to Afghanistan David Martinon said French police escorted the French, Afghan and international families out of Kabul’s green zone. The French embassy has been working out of the airport since Monday. 

France’s Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII) and the association Terre d’Asile will provide care for the flight’s Afghan passengers, but both declined to provide details of their accommodation.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)