Filipino workers were evacuated on military planes today (August 18) amid the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

Mark Suela, a security guard who worked in a hotel in Kabul city, recorded evacuees on their way to board military planes leaving Afghanistan on August 18. He added that they were unable to take off right away because of a sandstorm in the area.

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.’

Taliban forces seized Kabul on August 15, settling into the presidential palace after Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.