When the sudden coup by Afghanistan‘s militant group Taliban inflicted fear in almost every mind across the world, donors from Silicon Valley including online career platform LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Facebook came forward to fund an evacuation flight that could get journalists and aid workers to Mexico city and start a new life away from the war-torn country.
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However, things took an unexpected turn when the flight was meant to carry 188 journalists and aid workers was stuffed with 155 additional people because of Kam Air, reported Bloomberg.
The flight, which left Afghanistan on August 30 with all the 188 pre-listed evacuees from Afghanistan, also carried at least 155 additional passengers of the Kam Air. The extra passengers were Kam Air’s employees, their families and more, as per US officials and organisers of the flight.
However, this surprising turn created apprehensions at the State Department and in the United Arab Emirates because those 155 extra passengers, who were on the official list, were not screened for that flight and thus, raised security and immigration concerns.
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This last-minute change also created tensions among many of the organisers and financial supporters, who assured the authorities that all the evacuees on the plane were carefully vetted and weren’t aware of the extra passengers until the plane landed in Abu Dhabi, said the Bloomberg’s report.
While most of the pre-listed passengers made it to Mexico, the additional Kam Air employees and other last-minute additions to the Facebook flight remain in the UAE, where they are being vetted with other evacuees, according to administration officials.
After that, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken while praising charitable organisations who facilitated evacuations in Afghanistan, said that some privately-funded airlifts created challenges with US personnel on the ground or normal security procedures.
“Some of the groups claiming to have all the documentation and arrangements locked down, unfortunately, don’t,” he said.
However, Eric Montalvo, a lawyer and former US Marine who helped arrange the flights, was unapologetic for the way the flight transpired, saying the plane had extra room for people whose lives were in danger if they remained in the country, reported Bloomberg.
“Extra lives being saved should never be associated with a complaint,” Montalvo said. “Life is precious. One cannot create the circumstances for failure and then blame the victims of that failure for their desire to survive,” Bloomberg quoted Montavalo as saying.