Countries partner with US to help transport and relocate Americans, at-risk Afghans

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Friday that a number of countries are working with the United States to help transit and relocate Americans and at-risk Afghan fleeing Afghanistan.

Price noted that Bahrain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Qatar, Tajikistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan have already or will start “transiting Americans, or in some circumstances others, through their territories to safety.”

He also said that a number of countries had “made generous offers regarding the relocation efforts for at-risk Afghans.” Those countries include Albania, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Mexico, Poland, Qatar, Rwanda, Ukraine and Uganda.

The UAE announced on Friday that it would also be hosting 5,000 Afghans on a temporary basis following a request by the U.S.

“The UAE is always seeking peaceful, multilateral solutions, and is keen to continue its work alongside its international partners to advance efforts to assist the Afghan people during this time of uncertainty,” Sultan Mohammed Al Shamsi with the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said in a statement.

Price said that around 13,000 people have been evacuated by the U.S. since Saturday, with the military evacuating 5,700 people within the last 24 hours. 

Evacuation flights had been temporarily paused on Friday as the processing center in Qatar which was receiving evacuees had reached capacity, though the flights were later resumed after eight hours as officials sought to find countries that might receive evacuation flights from Afghanistan.

Afghans and Americans are seeking to leave the country quickly as anxieties grow amid newly minted rule by the Taliban. Harrowing footage from earlier this week showed Afghans clinging to a U.S. military plane in an effort to leave the country.

President Biden acknowledged on Friday during an address that the evacuation process out of Afghanistan posed challenges, and he said he could not guarantee the results of the U.S. effort.

“Make no mistake, this evacuation mission is dangerous. It involves risks to our armed forces, and is being conducted under difficult circumstances. I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, or that it will be without risk of loss,” Biden said.

However, the president vowed that the evacuation flights would not stop until Americans and Afghans holding special immigrant visas were out of the country.