With the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, the scramble of panicked and desperate residents to leave the country has triggered a major refugee crisis. As the insurgents, now in control of the country, solidify their rule, a gut-wrenching visual reportedly emerging from the Kabul airport on August 17 has rattled global humanitarian watchdogs.
The photograph, which was posted by the Aśvaka news agency on Twitter, shows an infant who was reportedly separated from parents during the chaos at Kabul airport. The child, who according to the agency is no older than seven months, is now waiting to be united with parents with the help of authorities issuing missing announcements on social media.
Also, some children have been separated from their parents and left behind at the airport.
Heartbreaking TV news footage showed a crying brother and sister after their parents were able to enter the airport without them after a mad scramble outside.
One man who had a British passport told ITV News he was “stuck” in Afghanistan with his kids.
He said: “‘I’m a British citizen, my kids are British, and they’re stuck here.
“They closed the door on us and they’re shooting back at us. My message for the Prime Minister is just to get us out of here.
“‘Otherwise our kids are struggling and we’re all in a big mess here. The British Army is right behind this fence, they’ve closed the gate and they’re not letting no one in.”
It comes as Taliban chiefs ordered British paratroopers out of Afghanistan in a week’s time — or risk slipping back into war.
The militants warned any delay would shatter the uneasy truce at Kabul Airport and added: “It’s our red line”.
Up to 1,000 Afghans who helped British troops fight the Taliban face being left behind.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace admitted that the airlift of 7,000 Brits and Afghans was “down to hours now, not weeks”.
PM Boris Johnson will urge US President Joe Biden to extend the August 31 deadline so as many people as possible can be evacuated.
They spoke by phone and agreed that the West must take a “common approach” in dealing with the Taliban.
If Mr Biden refuses to extend the mission, some of the next seven days will be spent airlifting troops, not evacuees, out of Kabul.
Defence chiefs are racing against time to liberate all those who are desperate to flee.
Every available RAF transport plane has been diverted to support the airlift with three C-17s, three A400 Atlases and two C-130 Hercules flying in and out of Kabul a day.
A couple living in PD-5 Kabul blame that their 7 months’ baby went missing from Kabul Airport yesterday during the chaos,” the news agency posted from its official handle on Twitter. “Up to this instance, they couldn’t find him. The Aśvaka news agency is trying to help them find their baby through missing announcements on social media.”
The photographs attached by the news agency show the infant who was reportedly separated from parents at the Kabul airport during the scramble to leave the country. While netizens expressed their anguish at the Taliban for the fate of the seven-month-old infant along with many others who saw their lives come down to ruin with the Taliban offensive, several Twitter users also came out with scathing remarks against international agencies as well as the United States for allowing such a situation to unfold.
Several horrific visuals have emerged from Afghanistan’s capital Kabul since the Taliban took control. While a video showed hundreds surrounding a taxiing aircraft at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, another showed the true desperation, sadness, and panic of citizens as they tried to board the last flights leaving Kabul before the airport was shut.
Perhaps the most haunting visual to emerge from the Kabul chaos was of two persons, who were clinging to an aircraft in desperation to flee the country, falling from the sky after losing grip mid-air.
Meanwhile, more than 2,200 students of Afghan-origin studying in India on scholarship stare at an uncertain future with the Taliban seizing control of Afghanistan that has forced thousands to either flee or seek evacuation from the country. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), a nodal agency for international students that promotes cultural exchange with other countries by formulating and implementing policies and programmes, has also been receiving requests from students in Afghanistan for expediting their visas to permit entry into India.
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