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An estimated 6,500 people were waiting for evacuation flights inside Kabul airport on Tuesday morning, a source familiar with the situation told CNN as G7 leaders prepared to meet for a summit. emergency to discuss the August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of US troops.
The vast majority of those still trying to get out of Kabul were Afghans, the source said, adding that candidates for the Special Immigrant Visa Program (SIV) – a route allowing Afghans who worked for US forces and agencies to leave the country – are now allowed to enter the airport.
SIV candidates were told not to go to the airport on Monday as the United States tried to clear back evacuees and ensure that holders of U.S. passports and green cards boarded a plane from Kabul before the August 31 deadline to complete evacuations.
But solid estimates of the number of people both at and out of the airport were difficult to determine.
The Pentagon said Tuesday morning that 17 planes from the U.S. military and partner nations had evacuated approximately 16,000 people from Harmid Karzai International Airport in the past 24 hours, with the U.S. Air Force carrying just under 11. 000.
This gave an opening to extend the evacuation, the source said.
“The opening has widened,” they said. SIV holders along with their immediate families and anyone who can “clearly and credibly articulate a clear and credible connection” to the US government could now come out, the source said.
Despite this easing of restrictions, the airport gates remained closed, the source said.
“But the people who are already there or who are individually drawn, they flex a bit,” they said.
About 300 U.S. citizens were brought in overnight and action was coordinated with the Taliban, the source said.
However, the closure of the airport gates considerably reduces the number of SIV candidates who can join the base.
Afghan security forces continued to use unofficial means to bring their colleagues and friends to the base, the source said. “I don’t know who the Afghans are again, but it seems like a steady trickle,” they said.
The source also said there has been no progress in evacuating locally employed embassy staff, although planning is underway.
As the backlog of evacuees narrowed in Kabul, tensions were emerging elsewhere on the route that would eventually lead to evacuees resettling outside of Afghanistan.
One of the main crossing points for evacuees, the gigantic US air base in Ramstein in Germany, had reached its capacity of 7,800 evacuees on Monday.
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