The Irish government is working around the clock to secure the evacuation of 34 Irish citizens still in Afghanistan.
Amid the chaos in Kabul, and especially at the city's airport, getting then out of the country will not be an easy task.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has warned that the window of opportunity is closing.
And who will provide the opportunity?
CNN, citing a source, said the U.S. was changing its policy on who would be admitted into the airport "and, from Monday on, only American citizens and green card holders and citizens of NATO countries would be allowed past the airport's gates."
Ireland is not a full member of NATO though is member of the Nato affiliate Partnership For Peace and is also a member of the NATO-linked Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.
“We have 34 Irish citizens remaining to be evacuated. 23 of them are adults and 11 are dependents. There are now eight Irish citizens have got out on various different flights," said Minister Coveney.
“The remaining 34 are a mix of Irish citizens working with NGOs or the UN and quite a number of Afghan Irish citizens who are Irish citizens but originally from Afghanistan and so on. Of course we are fully committed to all 34. We are staying in close contact with them through the embassy in Abu Dhabi. They are getting regular updates in terms of advice,” Mr. coveney told RTÉ’s This Week program.
“The situation in the airport yesterday was really chaotic. A number of people were killed in crowds, being crushed. The advice to citizens is to listen to the advice they are getting from our embassy team and not to travel to the airport without the instructions or advice to do that. This is a very complicated and difficult situation for all of the countries that are present in Kabul airport trying to get their citizens out. We are working with many of them to try and get Irish citizens on planes that are leaving but if you look at what happened yesterday, for most of the day no planes were landing or taking off and no people were able to get into the airport on foot."
Coveney said he hoped to get the remaining Irish citizens out in the coming days but, according to an Irish Times report, warned “this is a window that is closing and that is why we want to be sure that we can take advantage of any window of opportunity.”
Ireland is also readying to accept 195 Afghan refugees though there have been calls to significantly increase that number.
