ARCHIVED - Spain offers to help evacuate EU and NATO staff from Afghanistan
Madrid and Barcelona offer accommodation for Afghan refugees and their families
The Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Spanish government, José Manuel Albares, made an official offer on Monday to help the EU and NATO in its mission to evacuate staff from Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters have taken the capital city Kabul after twenty years.
Spain is already involved in evacuating Spanish nationals as well as Afghans who have collaborated with the Spanish government in recent years, including translators and other staff, and Sr Albares extended the offer during conversations with Josep Borrell, the head of the EU’s Foreign Policy department as well as a former holder of Sr Albares’ post, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The offer is for Spain to be used as a point of entry into the EU for those being hurriedly transported out of Afghanistan, many of them via Dubai, and the Minister has supplied details of Spain’s current evacuation plan, including the deployment of two military Airbus A400 aircraft to the largest city in the UAE.
It is not certain when the planes will take off with their passengers on board, but the Minister for the Interior has stated that it will be “as soon as possible”.
Meanwhile, the Town Halls of both Madrid and Barcelona have made public offers to take in Afghan women fleeing the repression they will inevitably suffer under Taliban rule. In Madrid, Deputy Mayoress Begoña Villacis has announced that 25 places at temporary accommodation centres are being made available, with another 75 to follow if needed, while in Barcelona councillor Jaume Collboni has stated that the city is ready to welcome refugees, especially women and children, fleeing the “fundamentalist” rule of the Taliban.
At the same time, the Madrina foundation has offered to relocate Afghans who collaborated with the Spanish government over the last 20 years in depopulated rural areas of this country with their families, announcing that refugees will be given preference despite there already being a waiting list for new homes of some 800 people.
Image: One of the Spanish Airbus A400 planes prepares to take off for Dubai (Ministerio de Defensa)