Australia tries to rescue Afghans previously involved with coalition: PM

Canberra [Australia] August 13 (ANI/Sputnik): Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday that his government was engaged in a set of initiatives to save Afghans who helped Australian troops during the war in their homeland.
Australia will cooperate with the United States and other allies on this matter through various means, including certain visa schemes to ensure the safety of Afghan citizens who were previously working for the coalition forces as translators, security guards, drivers, and others, according to the Prime Minister.
"[We] will be working closely with them [partners], including where necessary, using Australian Defence Force personnel to assist in securing that outcome, both for the safe passage of people who we are taking out of Afghanistan to Australia, and also the remaining people who may still be there under the conditions that we've had them still thereon," Morrison was quoted as saying by his office.
Following the departure of US-NATO forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban (a terrorist organization, banned in Russia) have launched a major offensive across the country, taking control over much of the north and west of the country and some provincial capitals.
Locals who cooperated with the coalition forces during the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan are now under threat from the militants, the prime minister noted.
In this regard, some 400 Afghans have so far settled in Australia under the state employment visa program since April, while the government continues to work toward ensuring the safe departure and further resettlement of other at-risk Afghan citizens in Australia, he added. (ANI/Sputnik)