The Pentagon admits it has no plan to bring the Afghans who collaborated with the United States closer to Kabul from the rest of the country

Hundreds of Afghans surrounded a US military transport plane at Kabul airport on Monday.Shekib Rahmani / AP

After the scenes of tension experienced this Monday on the runway, the White House confirmed this Tuesday through a statement that the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul is open and that flights can land and take off, even from the civil sector of its facilities. where the day before incidents occurred due to the desperate attempts of thousands of Afghans to board any plane. A total of 3,500 US soldiers have been deployed to the airfield to ensure evacuation efforts. On Monday, more than 700 people were repatriated, including 150 Americans, and this Tuesday it is expected that US military planes will continue to remove nationals and personnel from the Embassy in Kabul, which has been closed since Sunday.The Pentagon confirmed this Tuesday that the repatriation flights will continue until August 31 and that they will be carried out "in a safe and orderly manner."

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However, as Pentagon spokesman John Kirby acknowledged on Tuesday, Washington has no plan to help Afghans from other parts of the country to reach the terminal, even if they have been collaborators with its troops in the past.

That would leave an unknown number of translators, drivers and other workers in the lurch, who now risk retaliation by the Taliban for their collaboration with the occupiers.

“The US has an obligation to help these people and their families, but now the government is focused on airport security. There's a lot to do about it, ”Kirby said. The Pentagon estimates between 5,000 and 10,000 the number of Americans who are "near Kabul," according to statements by the spokesman to the television network

CNN

. This Sunday it was calculated that the evacuation plans of the American colony and several thousand Afghan collaborators contemplate the departure of about 30,000 people.

That is why Afghans who cannot reach the airport facilities from other parts of the country must process their visas and consult with the State Department, the Pentagon spokesman said. It would be the only way to get Washington's help to leave the country, he insisted. “There is an [administrative] process to follow and I encourage you if you have not signed up for the system, please do so,” Kirby explained.

Afghan collaborators stranded after the US military withdrawal face an uncertain future, despite the existence of a special visa program created in 2008 to allow them to enter the US regularly.

The procedures to obtain one of these visas can take up to three years, which explains the desperation of those who once collaborated with the occupying troops and today are left at the mercy of the Taliban.

More than 20,000 Afghans were applying for entry permits last week, before the fall of Kabul, according to the State Department.

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President Joe Biden said Monday that Afghan civilians were not evacuated before because "some did not want to leave" and the Kabul government discouraged Washington, fearing that a mass exodus could trigger "a crisis of confidence" in the country. Around 2,000 Afghans, those who anticipated applying for the visa, have already been relocated to three US military complexes. They will be joined by another 22,000, while 8,000 more will land in a third country. Albania - a member of NATO -, Kosovo - very grateful to the US for its support during the war and subsequent independence - and North Macedonia have offered to host an unknown number of them.

The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, reiterated this Monday in statements to

CNN

"the commitment to do everything possible to help the Afghan partners who have worked with us during these twenty years."

Biden's head of diplomacy have stressed, however, that the White House's priority is to ensure the departure of the Americans.

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