The Diplomat
His Majesty the King yesterday thanked the personnel who took part in the operation to evacuate the Spaniards and Afghan collaborators who were in Afghanistan after the Taliban entered Kabul.
Don Felipe visited the facilities set up at the Torrejón air base yesterday, accompanied by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and chaired the meeting of the inter-ministerial working group on Afghanistan, which coordinated the actions of the operation until Friday, when the operation came to an end, with the last flights arriving from Kabul, via Dubai.
At this meeting, which was also attended by the ministers who made up the working group, the monarch asked the head of the Executive to convey “recognition” to all the people who have participated in the reception of Afghan refugees “for their willingness and professional capacity”, according to sources at the Royal Household.
After the meeting, which lasted half an hour, Felipe VI and Sánchez, accompanied by seven ministers, toured the camp set up at the air base, where 2,206 Afghan citizens who have collaborated with the Spanish Armed Forces or Spanish Cooperation, transferred by Spain or by the European Union for subsequent distribution to other points, have been received over the course of the month.
The King was first received by the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Teodoro López Calderón, and then greeted the Spanish ambassador in Kabul, Gabriel Ferrán, and his ‘number two’, Paula Sánchez, who were at Kabul airport throughout the evacuation process and who arrived in Spain on Friday on the last of the flights.
According to Royal Household sources consulted by Europa Press, the King was interested in the situation in Afghanistan and in some specific regions that the monarch was familiar with, after the 20 years of the Armed Forces’ mission in the Asian country. Afterwards, the group followed the same route that the Afghans have been doing for days on their arrival in Spain, and Don Felipe chatted with some of the people in charge of the operation installed at the base.
The first counter set up in an Air Force hangar is the Foreign Health counter, where the first medical attention was given to the new arrivals, taking their temperature and performing a PCR test before being attended to by Consular Emergency personnel for identification.
The refugees were then attended to by Red Cross services, especially children and families, and by members of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Services and Migration. Members of the Ministry of Defence coordinated the whole process and members of the National Police, supported by the Guardia Civil, carried out their final identification and initiated the procedures for the granting of a temporary permit to stay in Spain.
The visit concluded with a family photo and a round of applause from the King, the head of the Executive and all the ministers for the staff who have taken part in this reception arrangement.
Felipe VI and the members of the government then visited the camp, where, at the end of Friday, there were around 600 Afghans in the camp, although it was expected that only around 200 would remain on Sunday, according to sources at the Moncloa Palace.
Meanwhile, between Friday night and yesterday afternoon, arrived at the Zaragoza base the three A400M planes deployed by the Air Force in Dubai to make the evacuation flights between Kabul and the Emirates. The 36 soldiers who have been in charge of the operation of the aircraft arrived in the planes.
