Kabul: Wallace reveals end of ‘main processing’ of evacuations
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The attack outside the south gate of the airport killed 90 people, including children and 13 US military personnel. At least 150 people were also injured in the attack which ISIS splinter group ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for. Pakistan has said it will not accept refugees from Afghanistan and has built a border wall between the two nations which is nearing completion. The land crossing between Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, and Chaman, Pakistan, has remained open to trade and the movement of people whose families are divided across the border.
Afghans need papers to cross the border confirming they are visiting relatives or receiving medical treatment.
Inevitably, this has resulted in a black market of forged documents and smugglers.
More than 100,000 people gather at the border each day in the uncomfortable heat and dust for more than 24 hours in the hope of escaping Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
It took Naib Khan, a 25-year-old man, three days and sleepless nights to reach Chaman from Kabul with his family.
Mr Khan said: “Everyone is afraid in Afghanistan, they fear the Taliban.
“There is uncertainty, no one knows what will happen tomorrow.
“Everyone says there is no future, that’s why we left our home.
“We did not choose this life and war, but the US imposed [the] Taliban upon us and left – we should be allowed to enter into the US or the west.”
The scramble to escape has been heightened by the looming foreign troop withdrawal deadline August 31 and the UK defence secretary’s confirmation that UK evacuation has entered its “final hours”.
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07:50 UK evacuation efforts in ‘final hours’, confirms defence secretary
The UK has entered the “final hours” of its evactuation operation in Afghanistan and has said no more people will be called forward to leave.
Defence secretary Ben Wallace said: “It is with deep regret that not everyone has been able to be evacuated during this process.”
The Ministry of Defence said processing facilities at the Baron Hotel outside the Kabul airport had been closed after an ISIS-K terrorism attack killed 90 people yesterday.
Mr Wallace confirmed they would process the 1,000 people in the airfield and would try to find a few people in the crowds where possible but admitted the operation must come to an end.
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