Thousands of Afghans flee across desert to escape the Taliban

Incredible new footage has revealed the extent Afghans are going to escape the Taliban.

Afghans are fleeing in their thousands across the desert in a mass exodus to escape the Taliban.

Footage of their desperate departure has emerged and shows a line of thousands of people as they scramble along the dusty desert alongside a chain of steep hills.

The journey began in Nimruz – the country’s most sparsely populated province, largely covered by deserts and mountains – and will likely end in Europe, as they trek across Iran to Turkey.

The footage shows people stretched out of view of the camera and the people are walking largely quietly with few voices heard.

The Sunreported a migrant who made the same journey recently said the people in the footage would have just finished a four-hour trip across rough terrain.

“These are the poorest people, because there are other ways which involve less walking, but those routes cost more,” he said, adding Iranian people smugglers might assist some for the rest of their journey.

The migrant said: “At around 10pm Iranians came and they asked everyone for a code, or a keyword.

“Then after everyone found his smuggler, we were divided into groups, each group with its own smuggler. Then we moved towards Iran, group after group.

“I went through this way several times in the past. Previously there were maybe 200 or so, people but this time it was chaos.

Pakistan’s US Ambassador told the BBC said it would reject the refugees as the country was “overburdened”.

“We are already overburdened by the refugees, and it is beyond our capacity to host any more refugees.”

Uzbekistan, which borders the north of Afghanistan, has also said its main crossing point will remain closed to “ensure security”.

The mass exodus under way in Afghanistan.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, has urged Afghanistan’s neighbours to open their borders, estimating up to 500,000 Afghans could flee the country.

“Around 3.5 million people have already been displaced by violence within the country – more than half a million since the start of this year,” he said on Monday.

It comes as the Taliban celebrated the withdrawal of Coalition forces after the end of the 20-year war, but a scorched earth policy by the US has meant Hamid Karzai international airport is littered with trashed planes – rendering them useless to the Taliban.

“Not a single foreign soldier left in Afghanistan – the victory of our jihad could never be sweeter,” said Mohsen, a 23-year-old soldier from the Taliban’s elite Fateh unit.

“But the infidels destroyed everything,” he said.

A Taliban fighter sits in the cockpit of an Afghan Air Force aircraft at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021, after the US has pulled all its troops out of the country to end a brutal 20-year war — one that started and ended with the hardline Islamist in power. Picture: AFP

A Afghan Air Force A-29 attack aircraft is pictured inside a hangar at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021, after the US has pulled all its troops out of the country to end a brutal 20-year war — one that started and ended with the hardline Islamist in power. Picture: AFP

“There is little left for us to capture here. Our country is liberated, but the Americans have left us with junk.”

Not a single helicopter or plane in the fleet of 73 left behind could serve the Taliban, with all their engines and control systems destroyed.

Most of the coalition’s abandoned trucks and personnel carriers were also disabled, although the Taliban did find several working armoured vehicles and a special forces dune buggy, which they raced along the empty runways in victory laps.

The destruction was so severe computers and screens had been smashed in the hanagrs.

At the departure gates was a jumble of razor wire, bullet casings, glass, water bottles and human excrement.

Anas Haqqani, younger brother of the Taliban’s deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, condemned the tactics of the departing US soldiers.

“This is a civilian international airport. Yet the Americans have left it destroyed and inoperable, which means it will be very difficult for us to start any flights without extensive work first.”

Originally published as Thousands of Afghans flee across desert to escape the Taliban