Afghanistan: Labour urges action over evacuation 'crisis'

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Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has urged Dominic Raab to take action over the "crisis" facing Britons and Afghan nationals trying to leave Kabul.

She said hundreds of people could not reach Kabul airport or the Baron Hotel - where many British nationals have been told to travel to for processing.

It comes as the US warned its citizens to avoid the airport, with continued chaos outside the terminal.

The Foreign Office said it was trying to get people out as fast as possible.

A spokeswoman said the government's "top priority" was to "do all we can to deliver on our obligations to British nationals, and those who have helped us".

There have been chaotic scenes outside Kabul airport as thousands of Afghans have desperately sought to flee and governments have scrambled to evacuate their citizens and eligible Afghan colleagues.

About 4,500 US troops are in temporary control of Hamid Karzai International Airport, with about 900 British soldiers also on patrol at the site as part of efforts to secure the evacuation flights.

Ms Nandy told the foreign secretary: "My office is currently in touch with hundreds of people who cannot reach the Baron Hotel or Hamid Karzai International Airport, have been beaten at checkpoints or turned away - some with young children."

She said many of those stranded at the airport perimeter were women or girls, asking Mr Raab to consider establishing a military policing operation with Nato allies "just outside the gate, or a processing zone inside".

image sourceGetty Images

image captionAfghans have been waiting near the airport as they try to leave Kabul

Taliban militants have been manning checkpoints around the perimeter of the airport and blocking Afghans without travel documents from entering.

Twelve people have been killed in or around Kabul airport since Sunday, according to a Taliban official quoted by the Reuters news agency.

But even those with valid papers have struggled to get to the airport, with reports that some have been beaten by Taliban guards.

The US embassy in Afghanistan has issued a security alert advising American citizens not to travel to Kabul airport, warning of "potential security threats outside the gates", while other countries, including Switzerland and Germany, have raised concerns about the situation outside the airport.

Ms Nandy praised those - including military and diplomatic staff - "working around the clock to help people in difficult and dangerous circumstances". But she said "many, many people" were "in danger of losing their lives".

The shadow cabinet member requested all MPs receive a briefing on the current state of affairs, complaining that Tory MPs had been given information when opposition representatives had not.

"Why, despite repeated promises to arrange this, haven't all MPs been offered the same?" she asked.

image sourceNowzad

image captionPen Farthing insists he will not leave Afghanistan without his staff and the charity's rescued animals

Meanwhile, a former Royal Marine who founded an animal welfare charity in Kabul said he was now "in talks" with the Foreign Office about getting his staff out of Afghanistan.

Paul "Pen" Farthing said 68 workers and their families were being processed, so they could "hopefully" come to the UK.

The Foreign Office confirmed it was in contact with Mr Farthing, with a spokeswoman saying it was "working closely with the Home Office to offer assistance".

Mr Farthing set up his charity Nowzad 15 years ago, and it has helped raise awareness of animal welfare in Afghanistan and rescued stray dogs and abused donkeys.

He recently made an impassioned plea to the UK government to help his Afghan staff escape the Taliban, insisting he would not leave without them or the charity's animals.

Mr Farthing said he had been offered a UK repatriation flight, but that he would not abandon his staff who were the "innocent victims" of a "complete and utter disastrous policy on Afghanistan", which he blamed on US President Joe Biden.

media caption"You've seen my British passport, these are my children"

On Thursday, Mr Farthing wrote on Twitter that his wife, Kaisa, had made it on to an evacuation flight out of the capital, Kabul.

Sharing a photograph of the "empty" flight, he said the situation was "scandalous as thousands wait outside Kabul airport being crushed as they cannot get in", before warning people would get "left behind" in Afghanistan.

However, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has insisted that no plane carrying Britons and Afghans to the UK has left Kabul empty, adding the government was "absolutely ploughing through the numbers".

As of Friday, Britain had flown 2,400 people out of Kabul since Sunday - 599 of them UK nationals, BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Beale said.

Since late June, 2,000 Afghans who worked for the UK have been resettled with their families under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), according to the Home Office, with a target of 5,000 by the end of 2021.

The UK has also committed to take in up to 20,000 Afghan refugees over the next few years under a separate resettlement scheme - including 5,000 this year.

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