Afghanistan airlift urgency as Taliban deadline closes in

Scott Morrison has vowed to keep up the ‘urgent and dangerous mission’ to get Australians and those with Australian links out of ­Afghanistan for as long as possible.

Australian citizens and visa-holders prepare to board the RAAF C-17A Globemaster III at Kabul airport on Monday. Picture: ADF

Scott Morrison has vowed to keep up the “urgent and dangerous mission” to get Australians and those with Australian links out of ­Afghanistan for as long as possible, amid Taliban warnings the international evacuation effort won’t be extended beyond August 31.

The Prime Minister declared Australia was “committed to doing the right thing by those who have stood with us” in Afghanistan, ­revealing RAAF flights had evacuated another 450 people from the capital’s besieged airport by Monday.

Mr 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,” he said.

The national security committee continues to meet daily on the rescue effort, but with just a week until the deadline for foreign forces to withdraw, many Australians and those with approved refugee visas are still to reach the safety of the airport.

Opposition Leader Anthony ­Albanese said the more than 700 Australians supporting the rescue effort had been “presented with an almost impossible task” that was made harder because the operation was launched too late.

“As we evacuated our own personnel, why didn’t we evacuate Australian nationals at the same time, as well as loyal Afghans who had worked for Australia and whose lives would be in jeopardy as a result?” Mr Albanese told parliament.

He also attacked the “sheer ­callousness” of the government’s rejection of asylum claims by ­nearly 200 security guards who worked at the Australian embassy in Kabul, before revealing it would help them the following day.

“It contrasts starkly with the leadership being exemplified by veterans who served in Afghanistan who have rallied behind their Afghan mates,” Mr Albanese said.

The latest rescue flights brought to more than 1000 the number evacuated on Australia’s behalf.

A charter plane transporting 175 people, including Australian and New Zealand evacuees and humanitarian visa-holders, arrived in Melbourne on Monday morning, lifting the number ­returned to Australia to 271.

Mr Morrison said those evacuated included “many women and children”, and he praised Australian personnel for their work in “some of the most extreme conditions our people have ever operated in”. “I want to thank them for the work they are doing on the ground. Incredibly difficult work under e­xtraordinary stress,” he said.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne flagged Australia’s support for an extension of the airlift beyond next Tuesday, in co-operation with the US.

US President Joe Biden said he hoped the deadline would not have to be extended “but there are going to be discussions I suspect on how far along we are in the ­process”.

But Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Monday any ­attempt to remain in Afghanistan beyond that date would amount to “extending occupation”, and “there would be consequences” for doing so.

“If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations, the answer is no,” he said.

Armed clashes broke out around the airport’s north gate on Monday, underscoring the spiralling dangers inherent in the international evacuation effort.

At least one Afghan security force member was killed and three others injured in the battle, which also involved US and German ­forces, the German military said on Twitter.

Taliban officials have repeatedly said all Afghans will be safe under their Islamic regime and that the desperate thousands now crowded outside Kabul airport were “economic migrants” looking for a better life in the West.

At least 20 people have died in and around the airport from gunfire and stampedes, while two young men died after falling from the undercarriage of a departing US Air Force plane.