EU officials have been pleading with the bloc’s 27 capitals to give visas to Afghan workers at the bloc’s mission in Kabul and their families

Brussels: EU foreign ministers will hold emergency talks via videolink Tuesday on the situation in Afghanistan as European nations scramble to evacuate personnel from the country, officials said.   

Member states and the EU executive in Brussels are frantically trying to pull their foreign and Afghan staff out of Kabul amid fears of reprisals after the Taliban’s takeover.

“Following latest developments in Afghanistan, and after intense contacts with partners in the past days and hours, I decided to convene an extraordinary VTC (video teleconference) of EU Foreign Ministers tomorrow afternoon for a first assessment,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted Monday.

“Afghanistan stands at a crossroad. Security and wellbeing of its citizens, as well as international security are at play.”

EU officials have been pleading with the bloc’s 27 capitals to give visas to Afghan workers at the bloc’s mission in Kabul and their families, estimated to number around 500, European diplomats said. The European Commission has no power to issue visas on its own behalf.