Airbnb is providing free accommodation for Afghan refugees

The Airbnb portal is temporarily providing free accommodation for around 20,000 Afghan refugees. The situation of Afghan refugees in the US and elsewhere in the world was "one of the greatest humanitarian crises" of the time, said Airbnb boss Brian Chesky. The company feels responsible to help. The offer is financed by the Airbnb leadership themselves and through donations. Airbnb will pay for the offer, but this only comes about through the "generosity" of the hosts, Chesky continued. On Twitter, he asked interested parties to contact the platform if they would like to offer shelter to an Afghan family. The accommodation portal has been offering its hosts the opportunity to temporarily offer their accommodation for a good cause free of charge since 2012, for example in the event of natural disasters, the escape from conflict areas or even during the Corona crisis. According to the US government, around 50,000 foreign and Afghan citizens have fled Afghanistan via Kabul airport since the Taliban came to power. More than 7,000 evacuees from Afghanistan have now landed on the air base in Ramstein, Palatinate. The world's largest US air force base outside of America has been a hub for refugees from the Central Asian country since Friday evening. "A total of around 40 machines from Afghanistan will have arrived here by tonight," said a spokeswoman for the base in the morning. The refugees, such as former US local staff in Afghanistan and their families, who are leaving their homeland for fear of the militant Islamist Taliban, are initially accommodated in tents and aircraft hangars at the air base. They will be registered and medically treated if necessary. According to the Ramstein spokeswoman, several hundred people seeking protection have already traveled by air - mainly to the USA. Also in the US military facility "Rhein Ordnance Barracks" in Kaiserslautern and on a military training area of the US armed forces in Grafenwoehr, Bavaria, a total of around 4,000 refugees from Afghanistan were to be temporarily accommodated, as a spokesman for the US Army Europe had confirmed.