They have in common not having been able to benefit from air bridges to Western countries during the fall of power at the hands of the Taliban, in the summer of 2021.
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A modest but symbolic first. France welcomes, Monday, September 4, five Afghan women threatened by the Taliban and exiled in neighboring Pakistan. This evacuation operation had been demanded for a long time by their supporters, who are calling on Paris to set up a humanitarian corridor dedicated to women. For the moment, five women, including one accompanied by three children, are due to land on Monday afternoon at Paris Roissy airport, several months after fleeing the Taliban regime which regained power in Afghanistan at summer 2021.
Former director of the University of Sciences, consultant for NGOs, television presenter or teacher in a secret school in Kabul, they have in common not to have been able to benefit from air bridges to Western countries during the fall of power. in the hands of the Taliban. And to have had to flee on their own to Pakistan.
“Low noise, Operation Apagan [d’exfiltration des Afghans vers la France] continue”, declared the prefect Didier Leschi, Director General of the French Office for Immigration and Integration, emphasizing that this type of evacuation operation is “brought to reproduce if other women corresponding to this profile have found refuge in Pakistan”. However, if these arrivals constitute “good news”, they are not “not the result of a political decision” but have been “hard won” by activists who fought “to obtain visas” to these women, deplores to AFP Delphine Rouilleault, director general of France land of asylum, whose center will initially welcome them.
