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Foreign expats say crowds of ‘terrified locals’ hindering access to Kabul airport in Afghanistan: Report
The US has demanded safe passage for the tens of thousands of people trying to flee Afghanistan.
As chaos continued in Afghanistan on Thursday following the Taliban’s takeover, some expats have said that they were unable to reach the airport, as several countries scramble to proceed with the evacuation process.
On Thursday, some expats said that they could not reach the Kabul airport due to the crowds of “terrified locals” who blocked their way, British news website Daily Mail reported. Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing, a former Marine who currently lives in Kabul with his wife, told the Daily Mail that two expats were forced to return as they could not get through the crowds.
“Two expats - one British and one Norwegian - have already been forced to turn back this morning because they can't get through,” the Daily Mail quoted Farthing as saying on Thursday.
He also said that on Wednesday, a UN convoy was also forced to return due to the number of people on the streets. “And last night a UN convoy carrying various foreign nationals, who had been working in Afghanistan for NGOs, had to turn around because of the sheer volume of people on the street,” he further said.
The report also noted that earlier in the day, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace had said that the Taliban militants were allowing people with travel documents through checkpoints and no British flights were flying empty, saying that “not a single seat is wasted.” Wallace also said that as many as 120 people were evacuated from Afghanistan on Thursday morning with another 138 people scheduled to be evacuated later in the day, the Daily Mail also reported.
Meanwhile, the US has demanded safe passage for the tens of thousands of people trying to flee the hardline regime in the country. Earlier, several news reports said that the Taliban militants have manned checkpoints around the Kabul airport, which raised concerns about the safety of the people trying to reach the airport. “We have seen reports that the Taliban, contrary to their public statements and their commitments to our government, are blocking Afghans who wish to leave the country from reaching the airport,” news agency AFP quoted deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman as saying.
The official further said that the US expects the militants to allow “all American citizens, all third-country nationals and all Afghans” who wanted to leave the country to do so without any harassment.
