Afghanistan: chaos and gunshots outside Kabul airport during evacuations - video report [_link]

— The Guardian (@guardian) August 20, 2021

Desperate crowds, empty flights and rage in Afghanistan at governments who failed to plan | The Guardian |

Inside and outside Kabul there is growing rage and despair at the failures of a crippled evacuation programme that in its current state risks leaving most of the most vulnerable Afghans behind.

"What's happening is a fiasco. We should all hang our heads in shame," said Rachel Reid, a human rights consultant working with Afghan organisations.
"Thousands of Afghans who have stood up to the Taliban for years are at risk. But they are being pushed out of the way at the airport gate as the US and UK and other states fly their citizens out over the heads of vulnerable Afghans."

The anger was directed at the governments that failed to plan, and the international organisations that are letting their staff down.

UN employees have resorted to begging friends and former colleagues for help, as they say the international institution has no plans to evacuate most of them.

"Dear Antonio Guterres. I worked for the UN in Afghanistan for four years and my inbox is full of Afghans I worked with at the UN desperately pleading for my help in escaping. Kindly advise me who I should refer them to," said Heather Barr, from Human Rights Watch, on Twitter.