Since the Taliban’s effective takeover of Afghanistan on Sunday, the Kabul airport has come to symbolise the desperation of thousands of Afghans trying to flee the country. Several people have been killed in and around the Hamid Karzai International Airport in multiple incidents of firing or stampedes as fleeing Afghans mobbed the facility with some trying to force their entry onto planes leaving the country. Pictures and videos on social media showed heartbreaking scenes of men and women handing over their children to soldiers across razor wires.
A video showed a child being passed to a man by a woman before she herself scales a wall at the airport, while a child was seen sleeping on the cargo floor of a U.S. Air Force C-17 in a picture that has gone viral on social media.
“It was terrible, women were throwing their babies over the razor wire, asking the soldiers to take them, some got caught in the wire,” Sky News quoted a senior British military officer as saying.
“I’m worried for my men, I’m counselling some, everyone cried last night.”
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About 4,500 US troops and 900 British soldiers are helping with evacuation efforts at the airport.
The US says it has evacuated around 7,000 people so far.
The Taliban, who have set up checkpoints around the airport, are blocking Afghans without travel documents from entering, according to the BBC.
There have been reports of some children getting caught in wires.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky News the UK government “cannot just take a minor on their own.”
Children will be evacuated along with their families, Wallace added.
He rejected reports that some flights were taking off with just a handful of people aboard, saying the UK was “absolutely ploughing through the numbers”.
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British charities say they are being “overwhelmed” with donations for refugees from Afghanistan, according to another media report.
Care4Calais in Manchester said it has received £40,000 in donations.
