Berlin: Taliban examination post around Kabul Airport blocks Afghanistan to access the terminal, making it difficult for the West to evacuate local staff working for West Troops, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Tuesday.
“The Taliban has established a checkpoint everywhere in the city and has all areas and the airport environment in their hands,” Maa said at a press conference.
The only people who are allowed to enter the airport are “foreign citizens, but there are no local workers and no Afghans” given access, he said.
Germany was dialogue with the United States about this problem, hoping to suppress US representatives who were discussing with the Taliban in Doha received a safe passage for Afghanistan to the airport.
Maas said a German diplomat would also be sent to Doha to join the conversation.
Thousands of people panicked fled to the airport in an effort to go to the western flight departing, after the Taliban confiscated the country’s control.
According to the government report seen by AFP on Tuesday, the situation has been calm since the Taliban set up a security post around the airport.
This makes it easier for international forces to evacuate their citizens but “the closing of the airport to Afghan citizens made it more difficult to evacuate the former Afghan local staff”, said the document.
Speaking in Berlin on Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the big question for the next few days would be “above all, how many can reach the airport in Kabul”.
Berlin estimates that 2,500 local employees working with German forces or at the embassy, as well as members of their family, need to be evacuated from the country.
2,000 other Afghanistans, such as human rights activists or non-governmental organizational employees, also need to be taken out of the country.
The amount swells to 10,000 if their family members are included.
Officials admitted on Tuesday that the German military aircraft left Kabul only brought seven refugees while hundreds of waiting on the ground because the allies responsible for security at the airport could not secure their access to the plane.
However, the second plane left Kabul on Tuesday afternoon with more than 125 people on board, including Germany, Afghanistan and other citizens, said Maas.
180 other people are currently at the airport waiting for evacuation by the German military, the minister added.
Taliban inhibits Afghan’s evacuation: German minister
