Afghans desperate to leave country remain stuck at Kabul airport

In chaotic scenes outside shuttered airport, hundreds of families gather as Taliban tries to disperse crowds.

Kabul, Afghanistan – For the last three days, Yasna Haqparast has been standing outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport with her husband and two children. Each day, as they wait by the divider between the airport and the Stars Wedding Hall, Haqparast and her family hear the sounds of gunfire as members of the Taliban shoot round after round into the air, trying to disperse the hundreds of families gathered outside the shuttered airport. Haqparast and her family had fled the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, one of the last urban centres to fall to the Taliban last week, and were hoping to head to Canada on Sunday evening. When they got to the airport though, they found themselves face-to-face with a calamity.