The last of the 34,900 refugees who had been flown out of Afghanistan to the US base Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate in August have left Germany again. The last flights had brought the people to Philadelphia in the US state of Pennsylvania, said the US base on Saturday. From there they were taken to other places in the United States. Ramstein’s role in the largest humanitarian airlift in history is over.
After the surprisingly rapid capture of the Afghan capital Kabul by the radical Islamic Taliban in mid-August, the USA, Germany and other countries had flown out tens of thousands of Afghans in just under two weeks, sometimes under the most difficult conditions. Most of them were local workers, i.e. people who had worked for the Western countries in some form. After the fall of the government, they feared for their lives and those of their loved ones, because they could be considered traitors by the Taliban. However, many local forces were unable to reach any of the evacuation flights. The U.S. had said it would bring its local forces first to Ramstein and then to the U.S.
The mission was about humanity, saving lives and hoping for a better future, said the US base. In addition to governmental and non-governmental organizations and inter-agency partners, thousands of US soldiers and NATO allies have helped. Around 2,500 volunteers from the region were also involved in catering, English courses, pastoral care, donations and other support. “Without our German partners, we would not have been able to do it,” said Clark Price, US Embassy official in Berlin.
