“The decision to close the airlift makes it impossible to evacuate Afghan students and academics in danger”

Tribune. As researchers who have worked for many years in Afghanistan and its neighboring countries, we are deeply concerned about the situation in the country. The daily news we receive from our academic colleagues and students living and working in Afghanistan only increases our apprehension.

This is why over the past few days, we have mobilized individually and collectively to establish lists of people in danger and their families in order to facilitate their evacuation.

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Our efforts were notably motivated by the intervention on August 14 by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE), via its crisis and support center (CDCS) in charge of identifying people to be evacuated.

Consternation

On August 20, the CDCS claims to have received around 100,000 calls, of which only 10% are processed. The number of Afghan people evacuated to date remains derisory (1,300 people) while the lists keep growing as the hours and days go by, as Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of foreign affairs in Sunday Newspaper August 22.

We learn with dismay that the airlift organized by France is to be closed on Thursday August 26, in anticipation of the departure of the coalition troops scheduled for Tuesday August 31. This decision, taken only ten days after the start of the CDCS intervention, makes it impossible to evacuate the people in danger that we have identified. To date, no information guarantees that academics and students at risk who wish to leave Afghanistan will be able to do so after the closure of the airlift.

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This is why we ask the MEAE to reverse this decision so that all the people who have placed their trust in us and that of the CDCS can enjoy this possibility and be protected.

In order for academic institutions to continue their efforts in welcoming Afghan academics and students in danger, we also call on the Ministry of Research and Higher Education to provide additional funding for graduate programs. reception of students and academics in exile.

List of signatories: Adam Baczko, researcher, CNRS; Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento, CNRS, director of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (2014-2108); Julie billaud, professor of anthropology, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID); Lucia Direnberger, researcher, CNRS; Cloé Drieu, researcher, CNRS; Rosanna Sestito, doctoral student, Paris-Nanterre University;

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