EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell blamed on Saturday American troops at Kabul’s airport for preventing evacuees from leaving, making it impossible for Europe to evacuate all of its Afghan allies from the city by the end of August, NDTV reports quoting AFP.
Several European nations evacuated and started repatriating their citizens by helicopters.
US troops ringed Hamid Karzai International Airport that remains the only lifeline between Kabul and the West, when thousands desperate Afghans stormed the runway attempting to get aboard American transport planes by any means necessary.
On top of that, Taliban are beefing up security around the airport, hampering the EU efforts to evacuate European citizens by preventing the access to the airport
Borrell complained that the very strong US control and security measures makes impossible for the EU to get their employees through, so they asked them for more flexibility, arguing it would be “mathematically impossible” to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghan workers out of Kabul by the end of August when the last US troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan.
He branded developments in Afghanistan “a catastrophe” for the Afghan people, the Western values and credibility, and for the developing of international relations.
EU foreign policy chief also addressed concerns that divided the countries in the bloc with regard to the possible new wave of Afghan migrants to Europe, underlining they’re not migrants, but exiled people who are fleeing to save their lives.
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