Mexico City, August 26.- Mexico has opened its doors to Afghan journalists who worked for the New York Times ( NYT ) in their country and were relocated after the Taliban took power.
Following the arrival of the journalists and their families— 124 people in total, including children —the Times published an article describing how it had to desperately seek help outside Washington to rescue its staff. "Mexican officials, unlike their counterparts in the United States, managed to overcome the bureaucracy of their immigration system to quickly provide the documents that, in turn, allowed the Afghans to fly from Kabul's besieged airport to Doha, Qatar," the newspaper reported.
The Afghan journalists arrived on a Qatar Air Force flight at Mexico City International Airport, where they were welcomed by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who played a key role in the rescue of the NYT contributors, according to the newspaper itself, which has been critical of Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration and criticized by the president.
An urgent decision
On August 12, Azam Ahmed, the newspaper's former chief correspondent in Kabul and Mexico, asked Ebrard if Mexico would be willing to accept refugees from Afghanistan. Initially, the foreign minister said it wouldn't be possible, but decided to consult the president, who agreed that "the situation was moving very quickly and the decision had to be made just as quickly," Ebrard said in an interview this week. And the request was granted.
Once Mexico was able to offer guarantees to the Times journalists , it extended an invitation to other U.S. outlets, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post , to offer humanitarian protection to their Afghan employees. The Journal has indicated it plans to send its staff to Mexico , while the Post has not commented on its plans.
"We are deeply grateful for the assistance and generosity of the Mexican government," said A.G. Sulzberger, publisher and president of The Times . "Their help has been invaluable in bringing our Afghan colleagues and their families out of harm's way. We urge the entire international community to follow this example and continue working on behalf of the brave Afghan journalists who are still at risk."
