The fall of Kabul after the Taliban blitzkrieg in which Islamic extremists have regained power in Afghanistan 20 years after their expulsion after 9/11 has created a huge logistical challenge. While the situation at Kabul airport deteriorates as the hours progress, with Taliban militias preventing access, 89 people, including five Spaniards, landed early Thursday at the base of Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid) in an A400 of the Forces Armed (53) and in another Italian (36). The Italian aircraft is part of the EU Foreign Service, with which Spain collaborates as a gateway to distribute Afghan collaborators in different EU countries.
After nine o'clock at night, neither of the two Spanish military planes stationed in Dubai had been able to take off for the Afghan capital, although Defense and Foreign Affairs announced early this night that they would take off for three o'clock in the morning on Friday. , Spanish peninsular time.
Where appropriate, the five repatriated families will be accommodated in Denmark, Germany, Poland and Latvia.
A dozen of those evacuated by Spain requested international protection to stay in the country, according to government sources.
The Asylum and Refugee Office of the Ministry of the Interior will process the applications.
The government hastily organized the airfield as an operations center to house Afghans working with the country and the EU institutions and their families. The Air Force and the Military Emergency Unit set up the camp in one day, with capacity for 800 people. The maximum time of stay foreseen in Torrejón will be 72 hours before asylum seekers enter the reception system of Spain and other EU countries, according to sources from the Executive. The facilities, built at the foot of the track and which include a dining room for 200 people, toilets and showers, have different spaces for men, on the one hand, and women and children. They are attended by professionals from the Secretary of State for Migration and NGOs. The minors have a play area, another for breastfeeding and baby feeding,and a health and psychological care point. In addition to food and drinks, they will also be provided with masks and hygiene utensils. One of the 32 minors who arrived has been admitted to the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid due to diarrhea. All the people evacuated to Torrejón have tested negative for antigens carried out by Foreign Health workers.
I want to thank the work of @UMEgob @CruzRojaEsp who have worked non-stop to enable this first reception device for people evacuated from Afghanistan.
Thanks also to the entities that will help to accompany them in their new life in our reception system pic.twitter.com/ErR1jWO4ZF
- José Luis Escrivá (@joseluisescriva) August 18, 2021
The maximum time of stay foreseen in Torrejón will be 72 hours before asylum seekers enter the reception system of Spain and other EU countries, according to sources from the Executive. The Spanish are not subject to this protocol, but the sources consulted do not clarify whether they continue in Torrejón. The first thing that newcomers to the base do is undergo a coronavirus detection test by personnel from the Ministry of Health. The next step is to be identified by the police, before whom they have to express their interest in requesting international protection. A unit of the Central Border Unit of the General Commissariat for Immigration and Borders is in charge of verifying the identity of new arrivals and issuing them an exceptional authorization to enter the country. José Luis Escrivá,Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, who has received them together with the Head of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, explained that they will be informed about the international protection procedures before they are distributed to the different EU countries. Extremadura, Murcia, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Barcelona have shown their availability to host them, but Escrivá has assured that in principle the state network has "sufficient resources", although it has not ruled out resorting to the autonomous communities and cities that have offered to facilitate logistics work. The system currently has some 3,000 free places spread throughout Spain.It has explained that they will be informed about the international protection procedures before they are distributed to the different EU countries. Extremadura, Murcia, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Barcelona have shown their availability to host them, but Escrivá has assured that in principle the state network has "sufficient resources", although it has not ruled out resorting to the autonomous communities and cities that have offered to facilitate logistics work. The system currently has some 3,000 free places spread throughout Spain.It has explained that they will be informed about the international protection procedures before they are distributed to the different EU countries. Extremadura, Murcia, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Barcelona have shown their availability to host them, but Escrivá has assured that in principle the state network has "sufficient resources", although it has not ruled out resorting to the autonomous communities and cities that have offered to facilitate logistics work. The system currently has some 3,000 free places spread throughout Spain.Although it has not ruled out resorting to the autonomous communities and cities that have offered to facilitate the logistical work. The system currently has some 3,000 free places spread throughout Spain.Although it has not ruled out resorting to the autonomous communities and cities that have offered to facilitate the logistical work. The system currently has some 3,000 free places spread throughout Spain.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, responds to the media in the device launched to receive the passengers of the A400M plane after their evacuation from Kabul.
On video, Albares's statements.ALEJANDRO MARTÍNEZ VÉLEZ |
VIDEO: EUROPA PRESS
On the Italian flight, which landed in Madrid at midnight after making a stopover in Rome, 36 Afghan citizens collaborating with the Brussels institutions have arrived.
The Government has reported that there are five repatriated families who will be accommodated in Denmark, Germany, Poland and Latvia.
Sánchez has offered himself to the high representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, to “temporarily” host Afghans who have worked for the Union, before they are distributed among the member states.
Spain offered at the extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers held on Tuesday to receive around 400 Afghans who have worked for Brussels in recent years, before they are resettled in countries of asylum. The number that is being talked about now is about 500, according to government sources, who explain that they are working with a list that varies and grows as some last minute requests arise from other European countries. La Moncloa's initial forecasts were to accommodate between 40 and 60 individuals: the quota has yet to be defined, waiting for the community partners to negotiate it. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, thanked on Twitter for the effort of "all European countries that are helping" in the process.The government sources consulted are very cautious and do not specify the details of the next flights whose arrival is expected in Torrejón. "The situation is very complicated and, for example, the forecasts of several European partners have not been met," says an authoritative voice.
The Executive of PSOE and United Podemos has already concluded the first phase of the operation deployed to remove all Spaniards from Afghanistan who are not essential in the evacuation work of the Kabul airport, whose perimeter protects the US Army and the that the Taliban try to prevent access. Sánchez has chaired by videoconference the meeting of just over an hour that he has held with the Ministers of Foreign, Defense, Interior and Migration, coordinated by the Minister of the Presidency, involved in the repatriation. The Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, whose presence was not originally planned, has also participated representing United We Can, the minority partner of the coalition government. The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños,has remarked in the meeting that the device is "fully operational". Albares stressed that the priority for the duration of the rescue operation will be to preserve the safety of the group that remains to be transferred to Spain. The head of Defense, Margarita Robles, has influenced the Government's commitment to "bring with guarantees" the entire Spanish contingent. Díaz has appealed to the “responsibility” of Brussels and Spain “in the solidarity reception” of the Afghan citizens. In this sense, he has proposed to speed up and facilitate the entry into our country of women and minors as they are the most vulnerable population, without forgetting activists and union representatives, "also in a special situation of risk."The leader of United We Can has insisted that the operation be carried out "with the full involvement" of the EU, promoting the establishment of safe corridors without bureaucratic obstacles for those who are forced to flee Afghanistan.
The forecast this Thursday morning was that at least one of the two Spanish military planes that remain in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), 1,700 kilometers from Kabul, would travel to the Central Asian country. The objective is that the evacuees exceed 53 of the flight that landed after 4:30 in Madrid. In the best scenario, the two aircraft operating at this time in Dubai, one of them medicalized, would land throughout the day in Kabul. But the situation at the airport is so complicated they stayed on the ground. The Government hoped that in the next few hours at least one would be able to leave for Afghanistan. Proof of the unforeseen and constant modified plans is that a European plane that had planned to transport refugees to Torrejón has changed its destination when the Spanish authorities already had their arrival. Meanwhile,In the afternoon, another transport plane took off from Zaragoza to the Emirates, to meet the objective of having three available in the area. The ten agents from the Special Operations Group (GEO) and seven from the Police Intervention Unit (IPU), Ambassador Gabriel Ferran and other components of the diplomatic mission will remain at the airport in the Afghan capital until the end of the operation.
In La Moncloa they are extremely cautious and the government sources consulted warn that no plane will take to Afghanistan until the largest number of priority people is safe inside the Kabul airport. "The airplanes can only be the essential thing to return immediately to Dubai", they explain in the Executive. The current objective is the evacuation of collaborators and relatives of Afghans who have worked with Spain, as well as human rights activists, a task that can last days. The government contemplates that the airline Air Europa operates from Dubai in the event that it could ensure the exit of a significant number of people from the mousetrap that the Taliban have turned Afghanistan.