A collective asks Macron to welcome a plane of 145 Afghans – The HuffPost

SGT GLEN MCCARTHY via AFP

A collective of French and American journalists appealed to the president Emmanuel Macron so that he authorizes landing in France of a chartered plane with 145 Afghans, in an article published Wednesday, August 18 on the website of the media franceinfo.

Among them are notably intellectuals, journalists, archaeologists, artists, some of whom are on Taliban “blacklists” and “have been in hiding for three days”.

The private research center Sayara Research, “established in Afghanistan for nearly twenty years”, supported by a group of French and American volunteers and journalists working or having worked in Afghanistan and “knowing this country in depth”, indicates that it “obtained the financing of a charter flight (…) thanks to the support of several private foundations, American in particular ”.

“Our goal: urgently evacuate the profiles most at risk in Afghanistan, those whom the Taliban have targeted relentlessly for twenty years. Commercial flights, shut down, cannot perform this task. Some of these men and women are on blacklists, others have already been targeted by attacks by the Taliban ”, say the signatories of the platform.

“Intellectuals, journalists, researchers, athletes, archaeologists, artists. They have all worked with foreigners, sometimes for French institutions, and have been in hiding for three days, ”note the signatories. Some have lost “many relatives in the race for targeted assassinations that have marked the past two years” in Afghanistan, underlines the forum.

“As soon as Kabul airport closes (…) it will be the hunt”

“As soon as the Kabul airport closes and it is a matter of days, it is the leaden cover that will close and it will be the hunt,” said Wednesday evening at theAFP Nama Vanier, manager of Sayara Research. “We already have reports of arrests in the provinces of targeted people,” she said.

Among these 145 people are also “Sayara employees, members of the LGBT + community, many translators and fixers,” she said.

The flight “received clearance from the Americans to land in Kabul”, specify the signatories, but “for the plane to take off, we must obtain a landing clearance letter from a third country, which will accept people. with or without Afghan passport. Without this letter, our plane will not be able to land and then take off from Kabul ”.

“We are now missing a destination. We call on President Macron to authorize these 145 faces marked by dread and terror to land in France. Before they live cloistered, or simply disappear, ”they add.

Petition to welcome Afghan women

The fate of Afghan women is also a matter of great concern. Nearly 78,000 people and organizations had signed Thursday, August 19 at the end of the morning a petition asking President Emmanuel Macron to welcome to France Afghan women committed to the feminist cause who would like to flee their country after the Taliban took power.

“France prides itself on carrying out feminist diplomacy. What support does Emmanuel Macron intend to offer to Afghan feminists who risk execution if they are intercepted by the Taliban? We must welcome those who wish it ”, affirms this petition launched by the association“ Pourvoir feministe ”.

In Afghanistan, “the lives of activists who tried to improve the living conditions of women, girls and minorities” are now “particularly threatened”, says this petition in favor of “Afghan women rights defenders”, and published on the site change.org.

The former Socialist Minister of National Education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is among the signatories, as is the association ONU Femmes France or the collective #NousToutes.

The evacuation of diplomats, other foreigners and Afghans who worked with them continued on Wednesday August 8 under difficult conditions in Kabul, which had fallen into the hands of the Taliban. A gigantic airlift has mobilized since Sunday a stream of planes from around the world, in an airport stormed by candidates for exile and whose surroundings are closely controlled by the Taliban.