Belgium was the first country to end its participation in the airlift from Kabul on Wednesday evening. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo justified this primarily with concrete evidence of a suicide attack by the ISKP, the local branch of the “Islamic State”. However, there would hardly have been any time anyway, since the Americans asked their partners to cease flight operations before they end the mission themselves. The Netherlands also announced their departure on Thursday morning. The government spoke of a "painful moment" because, despite all efforts, not all those in need of protection were able to be brought to safety. This also affected their own nationals.

Both states flew around 1,400 people each. Belgium's Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès said that 114 people in the country had recently been contacted, and 12 had responded. Some did not manage to get through to the airport, others said they wanted to stay in the country first. Those who remained behind should be helped “in another way”, but it is uncertain how. Denmark and Poland also completed their evacuation missions on Thursday. According to the government in Warsaw, military and civil aircraft have brought a total of almost 1,300 people to Poland. The vast majority are Afghans. About 1000 of those flown out will initially stay in Poland; the rest had transported the Polish planes at the request of other countries,including around 180 Afghan employees of the Lithuanian troops and 30 employees of the International Monetary Fund. Poland's troops were stationed in Afghanistan for almost 20 years and 44 killed in that time. Denmark had brought around 1,000 people from Afghanistan in the past few days.

France started evacuation mission as early as May

In France, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Thursday morning that his country would suspend evacuation flights on Friday evening.

The people on the French rescue lists could all have left the country.

"We have brought about 2,500 French and Afghans out of the country who have helped the army, as well as threatened families, artists and journalists," said the head of government.

In the Elysée Palace, it is pointed out that at the beginning of May France instructed all endangered local workers and non-essential employees of the French embassy to leave the country.

At the time, this led to criticism within the EU and was condemned as an overly pessimistic assessment of the situation.

France withdrew its troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.

Italy has flown out the most people after the United States and Great Britain.

According to the Italian General Staff, 4,400 Afghans had been brought from Kabul by air by noon on Thursday.

There is also a small number of Italian citizens.

The Italians had already started to fly out Afghan local workers in June.

The last flight should be scheduled for this Friday.

Spain also planned on Thursday to end its return campaign on Friday.

The Spanish army was deployed until 2013 in the Baghdis province, which is 800 kilometers west of the capital.

By Thursday morning, more than 1200 Afghans, some of whom had also worked for the EU and the United States, had landed at the Torrejón de Ardoz air base near Madrid.

London warns against staying at the airport

The British government on Thursday called on all Afghans in the vicinity of Kabul airport to leave the area and go to a "safe place" in response to the terrorist warning. So far, the British have been able to fly more than 12,000 people, including almost 7,000 Afghans. Defense Secretary James Heappey on Thursday estimated the number of eligible local staff affiliated with British organizations still in the country to be around 1,000; there are also 400 British people in Afghanistan. Heappey refused to give a date for the end of British evacuation flights. Canada announced Thursday that it was ending its rescue mission after around 3,700 people were brought to safety.

Other states also flew larger contingents from Afghanistan.

Australia and New Zealand took 1,200 people out of the country.

In the middle of the week, Turkey announced the number of 1,400 people who had flown out.

Hungary announced, for example, that the armed forces had taken all of their own citizens out of the country, as well as many Afghans who had worked with Hungary during the 18 years of operation and made inquiries “in good time”.

According to Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, “two or three dozen” people with Afghan roots are waiting to leave for Austria.

87 people have already been brought out.

A special unit of the Czech military police has taken almost 200 people out of the country in the last seven days, 170 of them Afghans.