On Thursday, the first civilian flight out of the Kabul airport since the US completed its military withdrawal departed Afghanistan and arrived in Doha, Qatar. About 100 passengers were on the flight, including US citizens.
National Security Council Spokesperson Emily Horne said the US “facilitated the departure of US citizens and lawful permanent residents on a chartered Qatar Airways flight from Hamid Karzai International Airport.”
The US is dependent on the Taliban to allow US citizens and Afghans seeking refuge to leave Afghanistan, and Horne had good things to say about the Taliban’s cooperation.
“The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from HKIA. They have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort. This is a positive first step,” she said.
The Taliban have been working with Qatar and Turkey to get the airport up and running. Qatar’s special envoy in Afghanistan said earlier on Thursday that the airport was “fully operational.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Kabul airport will soon be ready for commercial flights. “In the very near future, the airport will be ready for all sorts of flights including commercial flights,” he said.
They seem to have repaired the facility quickly, evidently Qatar has over 120 technicians in Kabul today working on restoring systems destroyed by American soldiers during the evacuation.
Translation: The Taliban finally let people without valid travel documents fly out.
What could go wrong?
What’s a “valid travel document?” A plane ticket that isn’t fraudulent?
Valid passports to start, from what I can tell. The average migrant wouldn’t have those. There was also some fluff about COVID testing, but they can’t be serious about that.
The Taliban were working closely with the U.S.and NATO to move people along. Presumably the Taliban know how to check for valid documents on U.S. and NATO nation workers, proof of foreign residency, and foreign citizenship.
There’s a fair amount of hype about the Taliban seeking vengeance over foreigners and collaborators, but it makes far more sense to let all those people leave peacefully and quickly.
So much the harder for an anti-Taliban rebellion to find supporters.
Well over 100,000 potential insurgents and sympathizers have left Afghanistan, far quicker and cleaner than the Taliban killing them off.
A passport is a note from one ruling gangs asking other ruling gangs to let you travel over their turf. That’s not a “valid travel document,” it’s just a gang control scheme.
I’m not old, but I’m old enough to remember when one didn’t need a passport to enter or leave the US via the gang turf lines with Mexico and Canada. My mom was in her teens before the US regime required passports at all (1947).