- Overnight, the US only put 2,000 people on 18 C-17 planes – an average of 110 per flight. This despite a single C-17 being used on Sunday to fly out 640 Afghans because the crew refused to leave them behind
- Just a fraction of that number have made it onto the most recent flights, despite US pledge of 9,000 per day
- In one shocking case, a German plane with room for 150 departed Kabul on Tuesday with just seven on board
- Meanwhile, the UK has managed to rescue around 1,000 people out of a total of 7,000 the MoD accounted for
- Comes as Taliban controlling the airport entrances are barring ex-pats and would-be migrants causing chaos
- Around 50,000 people are said to be outside the gates, with Westerners unable to get through the crush
- Western nations vowed to take more than 100,000 Afghan refugees – pledge that appears increasingly hollow
By CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 17:17 AEST, 18 August 2021 | UPDATED: 10:02 AEST, 19 August 2021
THE EMPTIEST FLIGHTS OUT OF KABUL
Germany: Airbus A-400M with space for 150 people, departed Tuesday with 7 on board
Australia: Hercules C-130 with space for 120 people, departed Wednesday with 26 on board
Netherlands: Boeing C-17 with space for 150 people, departed Tuesday with 40 on board
France: Airbus A400M with space for 150 people, departed Tuesday with 41 on board
Italy: Boeing KC767 with space for up to 200 people, departed Monday with 70 on board
Spain: Airbus A-400M with space for 150 people, departed Wednesday with unknown number on board – though officials earlier said just 25 embassy staff had made it to the airport
Overnight, the United States only put 2,000 people on 18 C-17 planes – an average of 110 per flight. A single C-17 has been used to transport more than 600 people out of a typhoon before, and one took off on Sunday with 640 Afghans on board because the crew decided not to leave them behind.
But Washington has pledged to ferry out at least 20,000 people at a rate of 9,000 per day.
Meanwhile Britain has managed to rescue around 1,000 people out of a total of 7,000 the Ministry of Defence said needed to be evacuated, meaning there are around 6,000 left. ADVERTISEMENT
Evacuation flights out of Kabul are taking off near-empty after the Taliban formed a ring of steel around the airport – blocking tens of thousands of desperate Afghans from entering as westerners said they are unable to get through the crush.
Those on the ground say the Taliban are blocking anyone who does not have a foreign passport from entering the airport, meanwhile foreigners including British and German expats say they have become trapped in the chaos, unable to get through the disorderly crowds to board flights home.
The situation is fueling fears that the West’s Afghan allies have almost no hope of making it out of Afghanistan. And there are growing fears that the fate of Westerners could become a bargaining chip for the Taliban, and they could even end up as hostages.
Sources told Bild that the German Ministry of Defence fears that the Taliban could take hostages as leverage for upcoming negotiations in Doha. Foreign Minister Hieko Mass said on Monday that the German government is seeking contact with the militants.
The first Dutch evacuation flight reportedly left Kabul without a single Dutch national on board after passengers were blocked by US troops.
‘The Americans were guarding the gate. I showed my passport and said I was Dutch,’ a man told Dutch media outlet NOS. ‘After saying three times that I was Dutch, he told me to keep my distance otherwise he would shoot.’
Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag said the Americans gave the plane 30 minutes on the tarmac before ordering it to leave, and pleaded for the US to ‘give us more time’. But the Netherlands did manage to evacuate its first nationals on Wednesday, with 35 on board a plane headed for Georgian capital Tbilisi, the Dutch defence ministry tweeted.
Massive US cargo planes are taking off with an average of just 100 passengers from Kabul – despite being able to carry more than 600.
Flights bound for Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, France and Italy – which between them have vowed to rescue thousands of people – have been taking off with just a few dozen people on board despite having capacity to take hundreds. Dailymail.co.uk: News, Sport, Showbiz, Celebrities from Daily MailPauseNext video1:35 / 1:53SettingsFull-screenRead More
In one case, a German plane with room for 150 departed Kabul on Tuesday with just seven on board.
Overnight, the US only put 2,000 people on 18 C-17 planes – an average of 110 per flight. A single C-17 has been used to transport more than 600 people out of a typhoon before, and one took off on Sunday with 640 Afghans on board because the crew decided not to leave them behind.
This despite Washington’s pledge to ferry out at least 20,000 people at a rate of 9,000 per day.
Meanwhile the UK has managed to rescue around 1,000 people out of a total of 7,000 the Ministry of Defence said needed to be evacuated, meaning there are around 6,000 left.
Flights bound for Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, France and Italy – which between them have vowed to rescue thousands of people – have been taking off with just a few dozen people.
In one shocking case, a German plane with room for 150 departed Kabul on Tuesday with just seven on board.
There are now thought to be around 50,000 people – mostly Afghans – gathered outside two entrances to Hamid Karzai airport – the civilian south side and military north side, both of which are under Taliban control.
Those on the ground say the Taliban are blocking anyone who does not have a foreign passport from entering the airport, meanwhile foreigners including British and German expats say they have become trapped in the chaos, unable to get through the disorderly crowds to board flights home.
Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing, a British ex-pat and former marine who is stranded in Kabul, tweeted today that ‘it is still a crush of desperate people at Kabul airport [with] ex-pats still being turned away. Somebody get a grip. Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Joe Biden. You created this disaster.’
Meanwhile, Vanessa Faizi, a German national who was visiting family in Afghanistan when fighting broke out, said she is now trapped at Kabul airport and trying desperately to get back to her fiance in the city of Hesse.
‘People are trampled, children are trampled, please get us out,’ she said in a tearful video sent to German newspaper Bild.
In scenes of utter desperation today, people began passing babies towards guards stationed at the airport’s northern gate so they could be put on flights. Earlier in the day, women had stood at the same gate reaching towards US troops and begging to be allowed through, with one shouting: ‘Please. The Taliban are coming for me.’
The heartbreaking footage is a far cry from the ‘big-hearted’ response to the crisis pledged by western nations, which between them have vowed to take more than 100,000 refugees out of the country.
The movement of people into the airport is ‘painfully slow’, sources on the ground told MailOnline. One airport worker who had been summoned to work via email two days ago had only just managed to clear the Taliban checkpoints on Wednesday.
The civilian and VIP gates are both under the strict control of the Taliban who ‘don’t have much idea of what they’re doing,’ the source said.
US troops manning the airport fired crowd-control shots last night, the Pentagon revealed on Wednesday, in an effort to bring order to the thousands throning at the perimeter.
In his second TV interview in under 12 hours, Donald Trump accused Joe Biden of ‘leading lambs to slaughter’ by abandoning Afghans to the Taliban, and said his successor’s handling of the military withdrawal makes his widely-criticized border crisis look like ‘baby food’.
A NATO C-17 plane arrives at Tbilisi airport in Tbilisi, Georgia, on August 18, 2021
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Overnight, the US only put 2,000 people on 18 C-17 planes – an average of 110 per flight. A single C-17 has been used to transport more than 600 people out of a typhoon before (right), and one took off on Sunday with 640 Afghans on board (left) because the crew decided not to leave them behind.
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In scenes of utter desperation at Kabul airport today, people began passing babies to guards at the northern entrance hoping they will be put on flights out of the country and escape Taliban rule
Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing and his wife Kaisa got caught up in the crush, saying it is a ‘lottery’ as to who gets on a plane. Meanwhile German national Vanessa Faizi said she also got trampled at the airport and has been unable to leave
Sir Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to Afghanistan who has stayed in Kabul to help people leave, said his team were putting ‘everything we can’ into getting people outGirls in tears as they cry ‘Taliban are coming for me’
Women were filmed pleading with US troops that the ‘Taliban are coming’ in footage that appeared to have been taken at Kabul airport this morning as thousands of desperate Afghans try to flee Islamist rule
Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport (pictured) with gunshots fired over the heads of arriving passengers, with British forces admitting that evacuations are only taking place with their ‘consent’
Taliban fighters stand along a road in Kabul on August 18, 2021 following the takeover of Afghanistan
Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul and are deciding who gets to come in and who has to stay out. Checkpoints have been set up on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back
Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp.Taliban publicly shame looters and walk streets with rocket launchers
An alleged looter is placed up against a wall with fighter training their guns on his back after he was dragged out of his house by the Islamist ‘Angels of Salvation’Taliban fires gunshots at peaceful protest in Afghan city of Khost
Taliban gunmen opened fire on crowds late Tuesday, with images showing a bloodied child being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road
Pictured: Protesters walk through a busy road-way in Jalalabad waving an Afghan flag, moments before the Taliban opened fire and reportedly killed three people
Coercion Code - "Dark Times are upon us" 