Five members of an Afghan all-girl robotics team and 124 media workers arrived in Mexico after being granted visas.
Fleeing an uncertain future after the Taliban took control of Kabul, the girls were relieved to arrive safely in Mexico.
“We are happy to be here,” Fatemah Qaderyan, a member of the team said, according a local media report, “From now on we will have opportunities for many more achievements in our lives” she added.
“We give you the warmest welcome to Mexico,” Deputy Foreign Minister Martha Delgado told the team during a news conference.
The Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard also took to Twitter, welcoming them as the first applicants for humanitarian status from Afghanistan.
Recibimos a las primeras solicitantes de status humanitario en México provenientes de Afganistán , ellas forman parte del equipo de robótica de ese país y defienden un sueño : un mundo con igualdad de género. Bienvenidas!!! pic.twitter.com/Kw0WFtR3Bk
— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) August 25, 2021
The team, made up of women and girls as young as 14, have won international awards for their robots.
They have also worked on an open-source, low-cost ventilator using old car parts.
Their arrival comes days after nine other members of the team arrived in Qatar.
Members of an all-girls Afghan robotics team arrived in Mexico as part of the first group of evacuees to land there since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. Other team members fled to Qatar and some have not been evacuated, according to a statement. https://t.co/paAWbfiAlu pic.twitter.com/NUIjZ6biV2
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 25, 2021
Others on the flight included Afghan media workers, who requested humanitarian, refugee or asylum visa’s from the Mexican government.
The Taliban, who stopped girls from attending school and working in the 1990s, promised to prioritise women’s rights and education.
They have also agreed to allow both foreigners and Afghan residents to leave the country after the 31st of August, when the US-controlled airlift ends.
Regardless of this, citizen’s of Kabul, along with the international community, are finding it difficult to hold the Taliban to their promise.
At a press conference in Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “The Taliban have made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals and Afghans at risk past August 31st,”.
He further mentioned that 19,000 people have been evacuated on US-organised flights in the past 24 hours.
