Six Georgians evacuated from Afghanistan via Hungarian flight
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Six Georgian citizens, who worked for a US company in Afghanistan, have been evacuated from the country via a Hungarian charter flight, the Georgian Foreign Ministry has reported.
The Georgian citizens, who were trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized control of Kabul on August 15, have already landed in Tbilisi.
Sixteen other Georgian citizens remain in Afghanistan currently and the Georgian Foreign Ministry says they are doing ‘their utmost’ to ensure their safe return.
The ministry stated on August 16 that Georgia would send a plane to Kabul to evacuate its citizens.
The flight landed at Tbilisi International airport earlier today. Video: RFE/RL.
However, Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia Aleksandre Khvtisiashvili stated earlier today that sending a plane is ‘quite complicated because there is a chaotic situation’ in Afghanistan.
He said that bringing Georgian citizens to the Kabul airport is also ‘a very complicated task.’
We are cooperating with partner states to ensure the return of our citizens via flights which are already scheduled if we will not be able to send a plane soon,” Khvtisiashvili said.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to #Hungary for helping evacuate six Georgian citizens out of #Kabul. This show of solidarity and partnership in this difficult time is very important.
— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) August 18, 2021
I’m confident that the remaining Georgians in Kabul will come back home safe very soon.
All the 22 Georgian citizens are former soldiers who had contract job either in Canadian or American companies in Afghanistan.
US, British and Turkish soldiers are currently operating the Kabul airport, as crowds are trying to flee the country.
President Ashraf Ghani fled the country shortly before the Taliban took control of Kabul and declared its victory.
The joint statement of 25 European Union member states and more than 40 other countries calls for ‘the safe and orderly departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who wish to leave the country’ amid the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry and the administration of the government of Georgia are working in coordination to ensure the safe return of several Georgian citizens who are now in Afghanistan, after the Taliban seized control of Kabul yesterday and crowds are trying to flee the country. The Georgian Foreign Ministry said yesterday that the Georgian citizens, who were contract employees in Afghanistan, contacted them yesterday and ‘we have instantly begun taking actions to help them.’
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has attended an event celebrating the end of the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan earlier this morning where he stated that for 17 years 'our country and our heroic military have made a worthy contribution to world peace and the fight against terrorism'.
One hundred Georgian soldiers from the third infantry brigade have already left Afghanistan and returned to Georgia as the US and NATO have begun withdrawing their troops from the country after two decades of war.
The last sixteen Georgian citizens remaining in Kabul following the Taliban’s capture of Kabul on August 15 have been evacuated from the country. The IPN news agency has cited the Georgian Foreign Ministry as saying that the individuals have been evacuated via a British charter flight. The agency said that the British plane will land in Dubai and the individuals will be able to return to Georgia from Dubai later today.
The last sixteen Georgian citizens remaining in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s capture of Kabul on August 15, arrived in Tbilisi earlier today after their evacuation from Kabul on August 20. Deputy Head of the Administration of the Government of Georgia Revaz Javelidze and Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandre Khvtisiashvili were waiting for them at Tbilisi international airport. Javelidze said that the evacuation process of Georgian citizens from Afghanistan ‘was very complicated’ and it was made possible thanks to the support of the US, UK, Turkey and Hungary.
United States Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said the US is ‘enormously grateful to the huge network of countries that have provided critical assistance’ for their evacuation efforts from Afghanistan, including Georgia.