The Government completes the third phase of the rescue on the anniversary of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban
Spain received this Wednesday 294 Afghan refugees who had not been able to leave the country since the fall of Kabul at the hands of the Taliban a year ago. This group of collaborators –and their families– was forced to flee to Pakistan after not being able to be evacuated in the operation that the Government carried out between August 19 and 27, 2021 in order to “not leave behind” the people who had worked side by side with the Spanish authorities throughout the almost 20 years that they were present in Afghanistan.
A rescue operation that was then directed by the heads of the departments with whom the now refugees had worked for nearly two decades: the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, and the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares. The latter was in charge of receiving them last night at the Torrejón de Ardoz air base (Madrid), where they arrived around 10:30 p.m. on a plane from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. According to government sources, there were 297 former employees who were going to travel, but three decided not to do so at the last moment.
Better fortune befell those whom the Executive was able to rescue when it carried out the ‘Antígona’ operation last summer, which lasted for nine days and with which it was possible to get 2,181 collaborators and their families out of the country. On August 27, and after 17 rotations of the Air Force A400M (Dubai-Kabul-Dubai), ten Air Europa flights (Dubai-Torrejón) ––the one that arrived yesterday also belonged to this company– and a first flight from A400M (Dubai-Torrejón), the operation was terminated.
A group of refugees is on foot to the Torrejón hangar where they were to be treated this Wednesday upon arrival in Spain. /
Then, last October, the second phase of said rescue operation, ‘Antígona II’, took place. Although it was already from outside Afghanistan. Between 84 and 150 people who had fled to neighboring countries such as Pakistan and Qatar arrived in Spain at that time. Now, after this latest arrival, the number of Afghans who have arrived in Spain since then is close to 4,000.
On this occasion, the government operation has been totally discreet. This has been due to the problems that the refugees have had to cross the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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