(Reuters) – Western nations are scrambling to get diplomats, civilians and eligible Afghans out of Kabul as the Taliban make first efforts to set up a government after their lightning sweep into the capital.
About 5,000 diplomats, security staff, aid workers and Afghans have been evacuated in the last 24 hours, a Western official told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that evacuations by military flights will continue around the clock.
UNITED STATES
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on Wednesday that in the last 24 hours U.S. military flights had evacuated approximately 2,000 more people.
The Pentagon is aiming to evacuate up to 22,000 Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants, their families and other at-risk people.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there were about 4,500 U.S. military personnel in Kabul and there “have been no hostile interactions with the Taliban and our lines of communication with Taliban commanders remain open.”
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris discussed ways to accelerate evacuations of Americans and refugees from Afghanistan with his national security team on Wednesday, a White House official said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan said his team had evacuated about 700 people on Tuesday and hoped to scale up the operation in coming days.
A spokeswoman for Britain’s foreign ministry said that since Sunday, approximately 1,200 people had left Kabul on flights for the United Kingdom.
When asked on Wednesday whether Britain hoped to take 1,000 people out of Afghanistan a day, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman told reporters they were “aiming to operate at that capacity.”
GERMANY
Germany has evacuated some 500 people from Afghanistan since Sunday, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday, adding that a fifth of the rescued people were Afghan nationals.
FRANCE
Twenty-five French nationals and 184 Afghans were evacuated from Afghanistan overnight, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday.
SPAIN
Spain plans to airlift around 500 people including Spanish embassy staff and Afghans who worked with them and their families from Kabul, radio station Cadena SER said on Wednesday, citing sources close to the evacuation.
NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands managed to get 35 of its citizens out of Afghanistan on Wednesday, Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld said.
The Dutch aim to evacuate a total of 1,000 local embassy workers, translators and their families from Afghanistan.
DENMARK
Denmark’s prime minister said 84 people were evacuated on Wednesday from Afghanistan on a military plane.
HUNGARY
Hungary said on Wednesday it had organised the evacuation of a group of 26 Hungarian nationals working as contractors from Afghanistan and they would return to Hungary shortly on a flight organised by another country.
POLAND
Poland has evacuated around 50 people from Afghanistan, a deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday, a day after Poland said it had around 100 people on an evacuation list.
CZECH REPUBLIC
The Czech Republic’s first evacuation flight took off from Kabul and headed for Prague on Sunday with 46 Czech and local embassy workers and their families, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said.
JAPAN
Japan is in close contact with a “small number” of its nationals still in Afghanistan, seeking to ensure their safety after Taliban militants took over Kabul, the government’s top spokesman said on Wednesday.
Japan has closed its embassy and evacuated the last 12 personnel, officials said this week.
AUSTRALIA
Australia flew 26 people out of Afghanistan in its first rescue flight, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday, after Australian troops arrived to help with the evacuation.
Morrison warned on Tuesday that Australia was unlikely to be able to help all the Afghans who worked for it during its two-decade-long involvement in Afghanistan.
CANADA
Canada plans to resume military flights to Afghanistan to evacuate civilians as the United States regains control of the Kabul airport, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) said late on Tuesday.
INDIA
An Indian air force plane evacuated over 170 people from Kabul on Tuesday, including India’s ambassador to Afghanistan, a government official said.
TURKEY
President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey has evacuated 552 citizens from Afghanistan so far, including around 200 people flown from Kabul to Islamabad by a military plane on Wednesday. A Turkish Airlines plane was scheduled to bring them to Istanbul from Islamabad later the same day.
SWITZERLAND
The Swiss government said it was working to evacuate 230 local aid agency workers and their families from Afghanistan and bring them to Switzerland.
Around 40 local employees who worked for the Swiss Development Agency in Kabul and their families will be allowed into Switzerland in a humanitarian operation, the government said.
(Compiled by Catherine Evans and Hugh Lawson; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
