Afghan New York Times journalists arrive in US

More than 120 Afghans who worked for The New York Times, including reporters, arrived in the United States on Tuesday from Mexico City, where officials took the evacuees after fleeing Afghanistan, the newspaper reported.

The 124 Afghans were evacuated on Aug. 19 to Qatar before ultimately heading to Mexico until resettlement services could be coordinated in the United States, according to The Times. The group include reporters, over 60 children, interpreters and others.

Mexico has offered to assist other news organizations such as The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to safely evacuate their own journalists.

Only one Afghan, a full-time stringer for The Times named Farooq Jan Mangal, has not yet received clearance to leave George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Thursday, although the remaining 123 people have.

“We hope border officials quickly resolve whatever issues have delayed the processing of one remaining Times journalist, Farooq Jan Mangal, who for more than a decade has reported bravely to help keep the world informed about Afghanistan,” The Times’ publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, said in a statement.

A Catholic nonprofit will be assisting the Afghan evacuees by helping place them into furnished housing, connecting them to possible employers and aiding in school enrollment for their children, The Times reported.

The announcement comes as over 123,000 civilians have been evacuated from Afghanistan since the end of July. U.S. officials have said that 6,000 Americans have left the country or have been evacuated. Many have fled the country as the Taliban quickly took over the country, culminating in the fall of its capital, Kabul, in mid-August.

“We are doing all we can to get other former colleagues on the ground to safety and will continue pushing the international community to help safeguard the many more brave Afghan journalists still at risk,” Sulzberger said in his statement, who noted that several other Afghans who have been employed with the newspaper have not yet entered the U.S.