Australian flights save 450 more from Kabul amid talks to extend deadline
Foreign Minister Marise Payne has flagged Australia’s support for an extension of the airlift beyond August 31.
Australian aircraft have evacuated a further 450 people from Kabul on four rescue flights as the “extremely volatile and very dangerous” rescue effort continues, amid ongoing chaos around the city’s airport as thousands of Afghans attempt to flee the Taliban.
The latest flights bring the number of evacuees brought out on Australia’s behalf, by the RAAF and the United Kingdom, to more than 1000, including Australians, locally engaged Afghan staff and humanitarian visa holders.
A charter plane transporting 175 people – including Australian and New Zealand evacuees and humanitarian visa holders – arrived in Melbourne on Monday morning, bringing the number returned to Australia to 271.
Scott Morrison said Australia, working with other countries, had managed to “expand the ways we are being able to process people to get more people into the airport and on the planes”.
“We will continue to do that in partnership with our allies who are working there and ensure that we can get greater uplift in the days we still have remaining as part of these operations,” the Prime Minister said.
He said those evacuated included “many women and children”, recognising Australian personnel for their work in “some of the most extreme conditions our people have ever operated in, if not worse”.
“I want to thank them for the work they are doing on the ground. Incredibly difficult work under extraordinary stress,” Mr Morrison said.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne flagged Australia’s support for an extension of the airlift beyond August 31, in co-operation with the United States.
“Our continued focus is on bringing out every Australian and Australian visa holder that we possibly can and supporting those vulnerable Afghanis as well to move if we possibly can,” Senator Payne said.
“There is a discussion going on about the prospect of the United States extending its withdrawal deadline.
“We are part of those discussions and if they are to be extended we are absolutely ready to support a continuing operation at Hamid Karzai international Airport.”
She said the conditions on the ground were “absolutely punishing … and complex” for those trying to get into the airport, and for those helping them.
US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that his administration could extend his deadline for removing all American troops from Afghanistan.
“Our hope is we will not have to extend, but there are going to be discussions, I suspect, on how far along we are in the process,” the president said.
He said the US military had evacuated 28,000 people since the Taliban seized control of the country, and suggested American forces had expanded the secure perimeter around the airport.
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