Germany: Evacuees from Afghanistan land in Frankfurt

Berlin, Aug 18: A plane chartered by the German government to bring people evacuated from Afghanistan to Germany landed in the city of Frankfurt early on Wednesday morning.

Some 131 people who had been evacuated by German military planes from Kabul airport to the Uzbek capital of Tashkent arrived in Germany several hours after leaving Afghanistan.

The German airline Lufthansa put on special flights to fly evacuees from Tashkent. It said it would carry out more such flights in the next few days "in the framework of an air bridge and in agreement with the German government."

Flights were also scheduled to leave from the Qatari capital Doha as well as other neighboring countries.

Over 250 already evacuated from Kabul

Plans for the flight were laid out in a matter of hours. "Traffic rights were applied for at short notice, crew deployment planning was carried out and the aircraft was cleared for deployment," Lufthansa said.

An earlier flight on Tuesday had brought the first personnel evacuated from the German embassy in Afghanistan. They landed at Berlin's Schönefeld airport.

A third military A400M transport aircraft left Kabul late on Tuesday, bringing another 139 people to Tashkent. More than 260 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan by the Bundeswehr so far.

The German government came under heavy criticism after the first evacuation mission left Kabul with just seven people on board on Monday.

Germany rushes to act

Germany, like many other countries, has been scrambling to react to the fall of Kabul and most of Afghanistan to ultraconservative Taliban insurgents on Sunday.

The rapid takeover by the militants caught many people by surprise, leading to chaotic scenes at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport. Desperate crowds swarmed onto the tarmac in the hope of escaping the country.

One US plane took off with over 600 people on board. German aircraft sent by the Bundeswehr were prevented from landing, however, until security forces were able to clear the runway again.

Germany is trying to evacuate German citizens as well as locals who worked with the Bundeswehr during the occupation and who face possible persecution by the Taliban. The German government has been criticized for failing to secure local helpers earlier.

Source: DW