Filipino workers in Kabul were repatriated on Monday night (August 16) as locals and foreigners scrambled to flee from the Taliban who have taken over Afghanistan.

Security guard Mark Suela, who works at a hotel near the Hamid Karzai International Airport, showed dozens of his colleagues sitting on the ground as they awaited a flight out of Afghanistan on August 16. They were able to board a plane the same night.

Suela said: ‘We were exhausted and terrified. It was a different kind of challenge for us Filipinos who worked in security.’

The Philippine government on August 15 raised a level 4 alert — the highest security warning requiring immediate evacuation — for overseas Filipino workers in Afghanistan. According to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, arrangements are underway to repatriate remaining Filipinos still stranded in the country.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said: ‘We’re on this. We’re taking out our people with chartered flights.’