{"id":54556,"date":"2021-09-07T21:40:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T21:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/09\/07\/veterans-groups-evacuees-plead-for-action-we-are-in-some-kind-of-jail\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T09:20:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:20:47","slug":"veterans-groups-evacuees-plead-for-action-we-are-in-some-kind-of-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/2021\/09\/07\/veterans-groups-evacuees-plead-for-action-we-are-in-some-kind-of-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans groups, evacuees plead for action: \u2018We are in some kind of jail\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 American veterans groups and others are pleading for U.S. and Taliban action on a weeklong standoff that has left hundreds of would-be evacuees from Afghanistan desperate to board waiting charter flights out of a northern Afghan airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These groups say several dozen Americans, along with a much larger number of U.S. green card holders and family members, are among those waiting to board pre-arranged charter flights at the airport in Mazar-e-Sharif that are being prevented from leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe think we are in some kind of jail,\u201d said one Afghan woman among the would-be evacuees gathered in Mazar-e-Sharif. She said elderly American citizens and parents of Afghan-Americans in the U.S. are among those being blocked from boarding evacuation planes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman, an employee of a U.S.-based nonprofit, Ascend, that works with Afghan women and girls, spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity for her security. She said those in her group have proper passports and visas, but that the Taliban currently are blocking them from entering the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said she has been waiting for eight days. At one point last week, alarm spread through the women\u2019s side of her hotel in the city when warnings came that the Taliban were searching the would-be evacuees on the men\u2019s side, and had taken some away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am scared if they split us and not let us leave,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we can\u2019t get out of here, something wrong will happen. And I am afraid of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday the U.S. was working with the Taliban to resolve the matter. He rejected an assertion from a Republican lawmaker, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, over the weekend that the standoff at Mazar-e-Sharif was turning into a \u201chostage situation\u201d for American citizens in the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been assured all American citizens and Afghan citizens with valid travel documents will be allowed to leave,\u201d Blinken said in Doha, Qatar, a major transit point for last month\u2019s frantic U.S. military-led evacuations from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\t