51 evacuated on private jet, thanks to Instagrammer

WASHINGTON: Dozens of desperate Afghans who had been trying to flee the Taliban before Tuesday’s deadline for the US withdrawal from Kabul made it to safety with help from an unexpected place - Instagram influencer Quentin Quarantino.

Quarantino is the alter ego of 25-year-old Tommy Marcus of New York City, previously bestknown for memes and jokes about opponents of Covid-19 vaccinations.

Along with his followers, Quarantino raised $7 million within days on Gofundme to launch rescue missions into Afghanistan to evacuate as many people as possible, many of whom said they had been threatened by the Taliban.

On Wednesday, their mission “Operation Flyaway” helped ferry 51 people from Afghanistan to Uganda on a privately chartered plane financed by the Gofundme campaign.

More than 121,000 people had donated to the campaign after Quarantino made an appeal to his 832,000 followers, making it one of the largest humanitarian fund-raisers in Gofundme’s history. “It’s beyond humbling that they have that faith in me, that they’re willing to put significant amounts of money into hands that I trust,” he said.

Saraya International, a global development firm, and the Rockefeller Foundation, which both provided organisational support for the flight to Uganda, as well as another company involved with the evacuation, confirmed to the AP that the flight was chartered by the emergency collaboration financed through Quarantino’s campaign.

“I don’t know what word to use besides miraculous, because it’s restored a faith in humanity,” Quarantino said. Those who were evacuated, he said, were women, children and others “who’ve been fighting for the greater good in Afghanistan”.