Poland has ended its evacuation mission in Afghanistan, during which it has airlifted out Polish, Afghan and other allied citizens.
Since beginning the operation, Poland has undertaken 44 flights between Kabul and Warsaw, including with stopovers in Uzbekistan and Georgia. They have transported 937 Afghans, as well as an unspecified number of Poles and other nationalities, announced the prime minister’s chief of staff, Michał Dworczyk.
“We will of course provide them with support here,” said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki today, referring to the Afghan nationals, who include 300 women and 300 children.
💬PM @MorawieckiM on the #evacuation operation for Poles and Polish associates from #Afghanistan⬇️ pic.twitter.com/PNr9zJ7auN
— Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (@PremierRP_en) August 26, 2021
The Afghans evacuated were people who had cooperated with the Polish embassy in Kabul, Polish military forces that were part of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, as well as non-governmental organisations, said Dworczyk, who oversaw the operation.
The country also evacuated employees of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), people working with the Permanent Representation of the European Union in Kabul, as well as with the governments of Germany, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, and one Dutch citizen with their family.
Poland also last week pledged to evacuate 300 Afghans who had worked with NATO. That number has now risen to 500, according to Dworczyk.
Of the 44 Polish flights, 14 were civil aircraft and 30 military. They travelled through an air corridor with stops in Tbilisi in Georgia and Navoi in Uzbekistan.
Following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, Poland granted humanitarian visas to Afghans who worked with Polish and EU missions in the country, as well as to their families.
Separately, however, the Polish authorities have been blocking the entry of a group of Afghan asylum seekers trying to enter Poland across the border with Belarus, where record numbers of migrants have been seeking to cross this year.
Main image credit: PremierRP/Twitter
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
