H E Lolwah Al Khater speaking to a Sky News anchor.
The State of Qatar has facilitated the safe evacuation of many Afghans and tried to focus on the most vulnerable like female students in addition to journalists and their families. “Qatar has facilitated the safe evacuation of more than 40,000 and continues to be a trusted mediator in this conflict,” said Assistant Foreign Minister and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs H E Lolwah Al Khater.
Speaking to Sky News about Qatar’s ongoing evacuation efforts and Qatar’s role in Afghanistan, she said that: “It is difficult to assess the situation, from our perspective, we tried to focus on the most vulnerable like female students in addition to journalists and their families.Now it's very difficult to speak of the rest, but I think we need to wait and assess situation, Al Khater said, speaking at one of the compounds where Qatar hosts the evacuees. To a question about expanding the capacity of the facility, she added: “I should mention that currently we host evacuees other than those who are accommodated in this compound, there are around 6,000 more who are transiting at the military base.”
“From our side we are trying to provide the basic needs that is necessary during their short stay such as medical services, logistics, catering etc.” H E Al Khater added: “Honestly, we did not expect this number of babies, kids and pregnant women. We are trying to cope with the situation, everyone was talking about the time line that would last for weeks or months.”
“We should deal with the situation, and in Qatar we are trying to increase our capacity, at the end of the day we are a small state that is not necessarily equipped for such a situation. For example, this compound was built for the World Cup, but currently utilising some of the facilities to accommodate the evacuees,” H E Al Khater said.
“The situation is very surprising to all of us, honestly at this point of time we try to think productively, and just think of solutions, we try to be solution oriented. Yet some more planning could have been more helpful.” On how Qatar led the process of evacuation, she said: “Qatar led the evacuation as a streamline process, we get the names, we check that families are exactly families specially if kids involved etc, and then we carry out the process. Once this process happens we communicate with our embassy in Kabul, the ambassador himself and his own personnel security make sure to evacuate the people and shuttle them to a secure place.”
Replying a question about Taliban’s promise about women’s rights, Al Khater said: “Very difficult to speak on anyone’s behalf, yet we have been mediating for years and because of this mediation, now many countries are able to do many activities including evacuation, because we can discuss and negotiate and talk.
“So it is very important to have a mediator in the middle that is considered impartial by all parties to facilitate such talks. We still believe the role Qatar played in the mediation has been constructive, and we will continue this role especially that we receive more requests to continue doing this,” Al Khater said
