A whistleblower alleged on Tuesday that Britain’s Foreign Office left many of the country’s allies in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s mercy during the fall of the capital, Kabul, as a futile and arbitrary evacuation effort.
In devastating evidence to a parliamentary committee, Rafael Marshall said that thousands of requests for help via email were unread between August 21 and August 25.
A former Foreign Office employee estimated that only five percent of Afghan nationals who applied to flee under a UK program received help. He said that at one point, he was the only person monitoring the inbox.
“The inbox typically contained more than 5,000 unread emails at any one time, including several unread emails from early August,” he wrote to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which operates from Afghanistan to Britain. Investigating the chaotic departure of
“These emails were desperate and urgent. I was struck by a slew of headlines, including phrases like ‘Please save my kids.'”
The marshal said that some of those left behind were killed by the Taliban.
Soldiers risk their lives to save animals
One of Marshall’s most explosive allegations is the claim that British authorities spent time and energy arranging for the evacuation of nearly 200 dogs and cats from the Kabul animal shelter run by Naujad, a charity founded by former Royal Marine Pen Farthing.
Marshall claimed that Foreign Office staff had received instructions from the prime minister to use enough capacity to transport Naujad’s animals. He claimed that British soldiers were put at risk to drive the animals out of Kabul.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman Max Blaine said the allegation was completely untrue and that neither Johnson nor his wife, Carey, an animal-welfare advocate, were involved in helping the animals to be released.
He said Farthing and his animals had left Afghanistan on a private chartered plane, which was cleared by British authorities.
“We are confident that at no point did the clearance for that charter aircraft impede our ability to evacuate people,” Blaine said.
As the Taliban took power in August, the United States, Britain and other countries rushed to expel Afghans who had worked with Western forces and others at risk of violent retaliation.
Britain managed to get 15,000 people out of the country in two weeks, and the government says it has helped more than 3,000 others leave Afghanistan since then.
But an Afghan resettlement plan announced by the government in August, which aims to bring another 20,000 people to Britain, has yet to materialize.
Former Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who was transferred from the Foreign Office to become Justice Secretary after the crisis, defended his actions.
“Some of the criticism seems to be off the ground facts, the operational pressure with the Taliban takeover, which is unpredictable around the world,” he said. BBC,
“I think there hasn’t been enough recognition of how difficult it was.”
Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative lawmaker who heads the foreign affairs committee, said Marshall’s testimony “raises serious questions about the leadership of the Foreign Office.”
The committee is scheduled to question senior foreign office civil servants later on Tuesday.
The Taliban stormed across Afghanistan at the end of the summer, capturing all major cities in a matter of days, as Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the US and its allies melted away. Taliban Captured Kabuli on 15 august
Many working for the Western powers or the government worried that the country could plunge into chaos or the Taliban could launch vengeful attacks against them.
Many also feared that the Taliban would re-enact the harsh interpretation of Islamic law they relied on to run Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
At that time, women had to wear a burqa and be accompanied by a male relative whenever they went out. The Taliban banned music, cut off the hands of thieves and stoned the adulterers.
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