MADRID – Today (Tuesday), three Spanish planes will land at the airport of the Torrejón de Ardoz base in Madrid with 420 Afghans. These add to the 800 that have been arriving in Spain since Thursday. Spain evacuates with priority given to women and children.
Defense Secretary Robles informed CadenaSer on Tuesday morning during her explanation regarding the operation to evacuate Afghans. “The Taliban are getting more and more aggressive,” Robles said in the “Hoy por hoy” program. ‘230 people have already landed in Dubai. Another plane will take another 130 people to Dubai and arrive there tonight.”
The minister called the situation “dramatic” and said it is “deteriorating every day”. There are still Afghans who have worked with Spain and urgently need to leave the country. The Taliban is becoming more aggressive and the controls are getting tougher. Many of the interpreters and translators are not only in Kabul but also in Herat. These cities are at a distance of 3 hours by car from each other. “We are removing as many people as possible.”
‘Humanitarian drama’
According to the minister, there are families who cannot reach the airport in Kabul. But also do not know how to return to their homes. There are curfews in Kabul. “The humanitarian drama is so big that we are really doing everything we can,” said the minister. “The priority list has been expanded to include women and children. Yesterday a 15-day old baby arrived. Some come with their elderly parents. One who wouldn’t come because she didn’t want to leave her 80-year-old mother, eventually came because her mother could come.”
Minister Robles continued: “The Spanish government is now busy evacuating as many people as possible. The US has to decide whether to stay after August. I don’t like to give dates. We have to be very careful for safety reasons. There is a human drama and this is a military operation. There are all kinds of risks. We can’t give much information because there is a big security risk.’”
According to the minister, two of the planes will arrive in the middle of the afternoon and another will land at dawn. Spain will continue to evacuate people from Afghanistan for as long as it can.
To request asylum
Spain evacuates and continues to act as the gateway to Europe, and a new plane arrived at the Torrejón base on Monday carrying 260 new evacuees, most of them families. Among them are 55 minors, 14 of whom are babies, one just 15 days old and another a month old. There are also 16 elderly people. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, 815 Afghans have arrived on Spanish flights since last Thursday. 354 wish to apply for asylum in the country.
