Unhealthy conditions at Kabul airport and U.S. bases temporarily detaining Afghan refugees exacerbate the humanitarian crisis the Biden administration faces as it works to prosecute tens of thousands of people who fled or are trying to flee the country. ‘a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Reports of overcrowding, feces, urine, and rats have forced the U.S. military to look for new ways to get as many people as possible to their next destination, which for many will not yet be in the United States. of a week to finish by the withdrawal deadline agreed with the Taliban, the military is striving to properly equip U.S. national bases and set up tent cities in bases to accommodate all incoming evacuees.
“We are aware and concerned like no other of the terrible sanitation conditions in Qatar that were facilitated by the large number and speed with which they all arrived,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said.
A cable sent to the State Department by personnel from the U.S. embassy in Kabul, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, details scenes of chaos and danger at the gates of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, with hostile Taliban guards and criminal gangs surrounding him. For those who manage to get through the doors, expect more difficulties.
“Some staff members said they would rather die with dignity at home than suffer the humiliation, danger and frustration of the existing system at the airport,” said the cable, which was sent over the weekend, in reference to Afghan staff employed by embassy or other U.S. agencies.