Afghan, American troops turn away Canadian evacuees at Kabul airport – Toronto Sun

Canadian evacuees are being turned away from Kabul’s airport by American and Afghan soldiers, despite holding valid travel documents permitting them passage out of the besieged city.

And while other nations send helicopters and armed escorts to rescue their citizens from the Taliban-controlled city, Global Affairs Canada’s advice for evacuees to ‘wear red’ and identify themselves as Canadians is holding no sway for those tasked with gatekeeping the world’s most dangerous airport.

Granted three spots on a Canadian evacuation flight for himself, his disabled mother and teenage sister, Ottawa businessman Samim Iqbal tells the Sun he’s so far made the dangerous trek to the airport’s American-controlled north gate twice — and is still unable to get passed the guards.

“It’s terrible,” he said,describing a chaotic scene where people with legitimate Canadian travel documents were turned away, and those refusing to leave were being threatened and even shot at by soldiers.

“Please proceed to the NORTH GATE,” instructed the email from Global Affairs. “Wear RED if you have it, and make your way to the front of the crowd and identify yourself as CANADIAN.”

Experiences reported by Canadian evacuees in Kabul fly in the face of claims made earlier this week on the campaign trail by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who blamed Taliban interference — not bureaucracy — for Canada’s frustratingly flaccid rescue mission.

As of Saturday, three Canadian C-17 cargo aircraft are on the ground in Kuwait, running twice-daily flights into Kabul as part of Canada’s rescue mission.

The first Canadian airlift flew 175 fleeing Afghans and 13 foreign nationals out of the country Thursday.

A second flight on Friday saw another 106 Afghans airlifted to a safe third country on a C-17 Globemaster transport plane, Canadian officials said Saturday.

Global news reported RCAF crews were limited in the numbers they could transport by available seatbelts on the C-17s, which by using side-mounted jumpseats and pallet-mounted airliner seats are capable of carrying up to 188 people.

Members of the United States Air Mobility Command are managing to cram upwards of 600 people per flight — one USAF C-17 earlier this week carried 640 people between Kabul and Qatar, setting a record for the most people ever transported by the Boeing-built strategic airlifter.

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The situation outside the airport has become so dire that the U.S. Government is warning its citizens to stay away — advice that would leave stranded Canadians absolutely no way of escape if Canadian officials follow suit.

Inquires by the Sun to Global Affairs Canada went unacknowledged.

Making the hours-long, 50-kilometre journey to the airport on Friday, Iqbal — who now sports a beard on his normally clean-shaven face to avoid being beaten by Taliban fighters — was heartbroken when soldiers guarding the gate refused to even acknowledge their official paperwork from Global Affairs Canada and turned them back into the crushing, chaotic crowd.

A man in his 20s, who attempted to run past the guards, was shot dead in front of Iqbal’s horrified mother.

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“They shot in him in the throat,” Iqbal recalled.

By the time they made their second attempt on Saturday, the crowd outside the gate had grown to over 100,000 people — preventing them from even getting close.

Saturday evening, a defeated Iqbal said he had little choice but to try again once his mother felt up to it.

His ordeal parallels that experienced by a Toronto couple — both Canadian citizens — who, like Iqbal, arrived to a much different city back in June, where the mere idea of a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan seemed ludicrous.

“When my parents went out, it was absolute chaos,” their daughter told the Sun, requesting anonymity.

Her once-powerful father now whittled away by both age and cancer, her aged parents have absolutely no ability to fight through the crowds, she said, adding that by now most were wearing red and claiming to be Canadians.

“At one point they had a soldier point a gun at them, telling them to turn back,” she said. “There’s gunfire everywhere, and my mom said, ‘You know what? We’re safer at our condo.’”

While both say they’re grateful for the opportunity to escape Kabul, documents and facilitation letters mean nothing without a safe means of escape — and they criticize Canadian officials for their laissez-faire attitude towards the life-and-death situation unfolding at the airport’s north gate.

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On Friday, the German air force posted photos and videos on Twitter showing special forces helicopters being loaded onto Luftwaffe transport aircraft, intending on ferrying evacuees from Kabul to waiting flights and bypassing the crush of humanity at the north gate.

Canada, meanwhile, is still advising evacuates to wear red and be persistent.

“Why can’t they be escorted like some of the other countries?” wonders the daughter of the Toronto couple. “It’s just very upsetting.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume