More than 122,000 people have now been evacuated from war-torn Afghanistan by the US and its allies — more than the population of Caribbean vacation destination Aruba.
With less than 24 hours until the deadline to withdraw from the Taliban-controlled country hits, a stream of US military jets continued to take off and land at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday.
Other allied countries have already ended their evacuations amid the deadly chaos last week that saw 13 US service members and dozens of Afghans killed by an ISIS suicide bomber.
In total, the US and its allies have evacuated 122,300 people from Afghanistan since July, according to the White House.
Flights ramped up when the Taliban seized control on Aug. 14 with 116,700 evacuated since then.
In the 24 hours into Sunday morning, about 1,200 were taken out of Kabul on US military flights — far less than the 12,700 evacuated in a single day last week.
Approximately 5,400 US citizens have been evacuated in the last two weeks.
The US has refused to say how many Afghans will be taken in by the United States before the stated deadline, which will come into effect at 3:29 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, Aug. 31.
But the Defense Department said last week it was building facilities on seven military bases to handle up to 50,000 evacuees.
As of late last week, there were already 21,000 Afghans at Virginia’s Fort Lee, Fort Bliss in Texas, Wisconsin’s Fort McCoy and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.
Additional bases are being set up in Virginia’s Marine Corps Base Quantico and Fort Pickett and Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico to house extra evacuees.
US officials expect to reach the 50,000 capacity by Sep. 15.
Prior to being clear to fly into the United States, Afghan evacuees are being processed by US Customs and Border agents at airbases in Qatar and Bahrain.
Once cleared, they are flown to the US airbases to undergo medical screenings and additional checks.
So far, officials say 34 Afghan children have arrived in the US without any family members, according to CBS. They are currently in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Breakdowns from other countries show France has taken in more than 2,600 Afghans, Italy evacuated 4,800 and Germany helped 4,100 Afghans flee in recent weeks.
