US in race to screen refugees fleeing Kabul
Afghans being flown to packed holding bases around the world prior to entering America
THOUSANDS of Afghans airlifted out of Kabul to escape the Taliban are being shuttled between American air bases across Europe and the Middle East as the US struggles to complete security checks and process visas.
The US and its allies airlifted 21,600 people out of Kabul in just 24 hours yesterday, and 58,700 have been flown out since Aug 14. But the huge numbers are causing bottlenecks at military bases.
Reports have emerged of severe overcrowding at al-udeid air base in Qatar forcing the US to transfer thousands of evacuees to Germany.
One Afghan man told US television yesterday that his wife and daughter were flown to Qatar only to be told there was no room. Their aircraft then took off for Bahrain but was turned back mid-flight. They were forced to spend 16 hours on the grounded plane before finally being transferred to Germany.
“We’re aware of terrible sanitation issues in Qatar,” a Pentagon spokesman said yesterday.
“Nobody here wants anyone to be less than safe, secure and comfortable … but we’ll be the first to admit that conditions at al-udeid could have been better. They are improving now.
“Nobody’s making excuses, nobody is ducking from this. We recognise that things are not at the sanitation level we would want.”
With Special Immigration Visas for Afghan evacuees taking as long as 1,000 days to process, it is feared the scenes currently playing out around the world could be a taste of what is to come when people reach the US, where they could be housed in military bases for months.
The US administration is said to be determined not to let in anyone on the security “no-fly” list, as Britain did this week in a blunder, and it wants to avoid evacuees ending up in “legal limbo” in America if their visas are later rejected.
“Planes taking off from Kabul are not flying directly to the United States. Anyone arriving in the United States will have undergone a background check,” President Joe Biden said.
“We have intelligence and law enforcement personnel at these sites making sure a robust screening is done of these individuals so that nobody comes into the US that hasn’t been screened in a robust manner,” John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said.
But the procedures are causing a logistical nightmare at American bases across Europe and the Middle East.
Ramstein air base in Germany is currently housing about 7,800 evacuees in converted hangars and tents.
There were initial reports of shortages of food and lavatories at Ramstein, but the problems appear to have been resolved yesterday.
The base has capacity for up to 9,000 evacuees, and two other US army bases in Germany, Kaiserslautern and Grafenwöhr, are standing by for 4,000 more.
Under the terms of a deal between the US and Germany, they can only stay for a maximum of 10 days, meaning the pressure is on to process them and send them on to the US.
“My intent is everybody is out of here in between 24 and 72 hours,” Brig Gen Josh Olson, the US Air Force’s 86th Airlift Wing commander said this week.
According to the latest official figures, just 700 evacuees have left Ramstein headed for the US so far. Spain has agreed to allow up to 4,000 evacuees headed for the US to stay at Rota joint naval base in Andalucia and a smaller nearby base, but only for up to 14 days.
There are currently 662 at Sigonella
‘We have personnel making sure nobody comes into the US without screening’
‘The soldiers are working hard ... no disrespect to them [but] they should start moving people out’
naval air base in Sicily and Italy has agreed to let the US also use Aviano base but evacuees can only stay up to 14 days.
Figures are harder to pin down in the Middle East. Al-udeid airbase in Qatar has room for 8,000 refugees but was reported to be facing overcrowding.
Kuwait has approved passage for 5,000 people. The United Arab Emirates has agreed to host 5,000 for up to 10 days, while Bahrain has agreed to take 1,000 for 14 days.
Military bases in the United States including Fort Mccoy, Wisconsin; Fort Lee, Virginia; Joint Base Mcguire-dixlakehurst, New Jersey and Fort Bliss, Texas are taking evacuees as they arrive. About 1,200 have reached the US so far.
“The soldiers are working hard, no disrespect to them,” Mamsoor, an evacuee who worked with US forces in Afghanistan and is now at Ramstein, told reporters from Stars & Stripes, the US military’s in-house newspaper.
But he was critical of the US political leadership. “Everything is not being managed really well,” he said.
“They should start moving people out of here.”