‘I Saw Children Falling Down’: Panic and Despair in Kabul as Time Runs Out

THE GUARDIAN: Faced with crowd stampedes and Taliban reprisals, even those eligible for travel to UK start to give up hope

Tensions are rising in Kabul as hopes fade for the crowds who have waited outside airport since the start of the week. Photograph: TWITTER/DAVID_MARTINON/via REUTERS
For the past four days, Nangyalai, a 42-year-old minicab driver from south London, has been queueing with his wife and 11-month-old baby outside the Baron hotel on the edge of Kabul airport, trying to get close enough to the entrance gate to show guards his British passport.

There is a sign by the gate stating: British passport holders only. Inside the hotel, officials are working to grant evacuation visas for thousands of UK nationals and Afghan citizens who have worked for British organisations. Diplomatic staff say they are “processing hundreds every hour” but there is a growing sense of despair among the crowds who have been waiting outside since the start of the week – and tensions are rising.

Speaking by phone from outside the airport, Nangyalai (whose identity we are not revealing) said his repeated attempts to attract the attention of UK officials had failed. With reports suggesting military airlifts could end within 36 hours, he was beginning to lose hope. Others described giving up and going home, concerned the crowded streets were increasingly unsafe since the Taliban said they would prevent Afghans from leaving the country they now control. » | Amelia Gentleman and Lisa O’Carroll | Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Taliban Reject Extended Deadline as U.S. Races to Finish Evacuation

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Tens of thousands are still hoping for rescue, with priority recently being given to Americans over Afghan allies, according to a U.S. official and those involved in the effort.

Afghans desperate to flee the country wait in a field outside Kabul’s airport on Monday. | Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
As a desperate U.S. effort to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan gained momentum on Monday, Taliban leaders rejected a suggestion from President Biden that American forces might remain past an Aug. 31 deadline to complete the operation, injecting fresh urgency into an already frantic process.

American officials are increasingly worried that even with the vast number of Afghans, Americans and people of other nationalities evacuated in recent days — a total of about 10,400 people in the 24 hours from Sunday to Monday alone, according to the White House — many still remain to be rescued. In recent days, that operation has increasingly focused on the Americans still left, over the Afghans who worked with the United States.

On Monday, a State Department official said that some former Afghan military interpreters or other close U.S. allies, a designated priority group for evacuations, were being turned away from the airport by American officials in order to give priority to U.S. passport and Green Card holders in recent days. The official was not authorized to brief the press, and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official’s account was supported by interviews with Afghans who have approached the airport in recent days, and with American veterans’ groups and other organizations that have tried to organize evacuations for interpreters and other Afghans at risk from the Taliban. » | Mark Landler and Megan K. Stack | Published: Monday, August 23, 2021: Updated: Tuesday, August 24, 2021