The United States is airlifting thousands of Afghan refugees out of afghanistan, but they are being greeted with unsanitary living conditions at a U.S. processing center in Qatar, Russian television station RT reported Thursday.
Udayd Air Base in Doha, Qatar, is the first port of call for many Afghan refugees who are lucky enough to board a U.S. flight from Kabul airport. They will be processed and screened at several bases, including the U.S. military base, before flying to the U.S., Europe and Asia.
However, Colin Sullivan, an official at U.S. Central Command, told State Department and Pentagon officials in an email Friday that the conditions at the base were “living hell,” according to the Axios website Tuesday.
“Garbage, urine, faeces, dumped liquids and vomit covered the floor,” Sullivan wrote, describing the hangar where the refugees were being taken in. “I picked up an hour’s garbage in there… almost suffocated to death. ”
“We are in a humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by every flight to Doha,” he added. ”
According to Sullivan, the lack of air conditioning in the hangar is a serious problem, as temperatures in Doha are expected to reach 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41.6 degrees Celsius) this week. “There’s a reason they didn’t choose to host the World Cup on Midsummer Day,” said one official, who asked not to be named. He was referring to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which is scheduled to begin in November. ”
A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. military has installed more than 100 toilets in hangars and now provides refugees with three traditional Afghan meals a day.
The exact number of refugees placed in hangars is unknown, as is the total number of refugees the Biden administration plans to bring into the United States. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC News on Sunday that “about a few thousand” Americans remain in Kabul and that U.S. media reported that they were the priority. However, Sullivan told reporters Monday that “thousands of people” are evacuated from Kabul every day. Presumably, most of them Afghans, went to processing centers such as Udayd Air Base.
Recently, the head of the U.S. Embassy evacuated their staff from the hangar, citing fears that they would be infected with the coronavirus from incoming refugees. Less than 1 per cent of the Afghan population has been vaccinated against the Coronavirus.
