The Diplomat
The Government is speeding up its plans to evacuate the staff of the Spanish Embassy in Afghanistan, the Spaniards who are in the country and several hundred Afghans who collaborated during Spanish military missions and cooperation projects in that country. Two A4000 aircraft will leave today for Dubai and then head to Kabul.
Diplomatic sources reported yesterday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence had already established the logistics for the evacuation of Spaniards and Afghans in the face of the advance of the Taliban, who have already entered Kabul, the country’s capital.
Late last night, the two ministries issued a joint communiqué in which they stated that today, Monday, “two A400 aircraft will leave Spain for Dubai to cover the first phase of the repatriation of embassy staff, the Spaniards who remain in the country and all those Afghans and their families who have collaborated with our country for years”.
Foreign Affairs has been in contact with the Ministries of Defence, Interior and Inclusion, Social Security and Migration to coordinate the evacuation, which will involve all diplomatic personnel, police and other Embassy workers, the six Spaniards who are registered in Afghanistan – with the exception of one who works for an international organisation – and hundreds of Afghans who collaborated, many of them as interpreters, from the Spanish armed forces deployed in the country or from Spanish Cooperation projects.
Yesterday, the Foreign Affairs Minister, José Manuel Albares, insisted that “no one will be left behind” and the sources informed said that, with this premise, the evacuation will proceed, “as soon as circumstances allow”, taking into account at all times the safety of the people to be evacuated.
Spain announced on Friday that it was going to proceed with the evacuation, and the rapid advance of the Taliban has led it to try to shorten the time needed to carry out the operation, which other countries have announced and some, such as the United States, have already set in motion.
