Summary

  • The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee was quizzing top civil servants about the UK's handling of the evacuation of Kabul in August

  • The UK airlifted 15,000 people out as the Taliban took over but a whistleblower has described it as a chaotic and dysfunctional operation

  • Raphael Marshall said thousands of emails with pleas for help went unread and animals were helped over people at risk

  • Top Foreign Office civil servant Sir Philip Barton admits he should not have stayed on holiday as the Taliban advanced on the Afghan capital

  • Boris Johnson meanwhile denies claims that he and his wife Carrie intervened to organise the rescue of animals

  • But Labour's Chris Bryant produces a letter from the PM's aide to animal charity boss Pen Farthing about evacuations which he says is evidence of a "cover-up"

Live Reporting

Edited by Brian Wheeler

  1. Analysis

    Former Afghan interpreter still waiting for UK approval

    Secunder Kermani
    BBC News, Kabul

    Taliban walk near an abandoned US military plane in Kabul on 31 August 2021Reuters

    In August, Kabul airport was a scene of constant chaos and confusion.

    Afghans clutching documents proving links of any kind to the international presence crowded outside trying to board evacuation flights.

    For those who had directly worked for the British military or the UK government, the application process seemed beset by delays and many were left behind. They at least, however, had a clearer understanding of what they needed to do.

    For Afghans who had been independent civil society activists or worked as prosecutors, journalists – supporting the new Afghan state but not employed by a foreign government - who to contact and how seemed much more difficult to establish.

    Getting to the UK, for example, seemed to depend on somehow being recommended by a British MP or an international NGO, and then being fortunate enough to have your case looked upon favourably amongst the mass of emails, as is described by FCDO whistleblower Raphael Marshall.

    Only a very small proportion of people in this category, around 500, ended up being evacuated to the UK. A scheme announced earlier in the year, to relocate 20,000 vulnerable Afghans to Britain over the next 5 years has yet to begin.

    Many Afghans have travelled to neighbouring Pakistan on short term visas, hoping another country will eventually agree to host them.

    Meanwhile, there are also some who worked directly for Britain who are still anxiously waiting to be given permission to travel there.

    In August, I met a former British army interpreter living in hiding in Kabul. He had applied for evacuation but not received any response.

    We managed to find his former commanding officer in the UK who verified his case and shared supporting documents, nevertheless months later, he has so far not received any approval from the government. He described the situation to me as deeply “disappointing".

  2. Starmer: Dominic Raab should have resigned

    Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said Dominic Raab should have quit the government at the time of the Afghanistan crisis, when he was foreign secretary.

    Sir Keir told the BBC the "devastating" testimony from whistleblower Raphael Marshall "lays bare the shambolic incompetence of the government".

    Thousands of Afghans had been "let down and left to their fate" as a result, he said.

    "It is shocking that we are all now learning that emails and letters that we sent in to the Foreign Office - including from my office - were opened but haven't been actioned.

    "It's a total failure of political leadership with an ex-foreign secretary who was busy on the beach instead of doing his job."

    Asked whether Mr Raab, who is now deputy prime minister and justice secretary, should be in office, Sir Keir said: "I think Dominic Raab should have resigned at the time, that would have been the decent, honourable thing to do."

  3. The PM, the animal charity and Afghanistan

    Evacuation of AfghanistanMoD

    MPs may also want to ask about efforts to evacuate an animal charity from Afghanistan.

    The charity Nowzad operated an animal clinic, dog and cat shelter and donkey sanctuary in Afghanistan, training and employing Afghans.

    When the Taliban took control of the capital, its supporters launched a vociferous campaign for evacuation, saying staff were in danger due to their work with foreign organisations and the animals were at risk "because the Taliban considers companion animals, particularly dogs, unclean".

    Raphael Marshall, the ex-foreign office worker-turned-whistleblower, has claimed that Boris Johnson instructed the Foreign Office to evacuate the Nowzad charity, prioritising pets over people and putting soldiers at risk.

    The prime minister has denied intervening, saying: "No, that's complete nonsense."

    However, animal rights campaigner Dominic Dyer insisted the prime minister was involved, telling the BBC he had contacted the PM's wife, Carrie Johnson, to lobby on the issue - saying she would have given him a "hard time about it" - and that he had "forced the prime minister's arm".

    You can read more about the row here.

  4. What has the government said?

    Dominic RaabReuters

    Dominic Raab was foreign secretary during the evacuation from Afghanistan.

    He told the BBC lessons would be learned but the UK did a good job in Afghanistan when compared to other countries.

    He said 15,000 people were evacuated by the UK from Afghanistan in two weeks which he said was "the biggest operation in living memory" and a larger number than any nation except the US.

    Criticism of his decision-making was from a "relatively junior desk officer", he said, adding that the main challenges were in verifying the identities of applicants on the ground and safely escorting them to the airport in Kabul, not in making decisions from Whitehall.

    He described other criticisms as "rather dislocated from the operational pressures and conditions".

  5. What are the whistleblower's allegations?

    AfghanistanReuters

    Raphael Marshall, a former senior desk officer at the foreign office, has given written evidence to the committee in which he made a number of criticisms of how the evacuation from Afghanistan was handled.

    Here are his main allegations:

    • Only 5% of the 150,000 people who requested help received any
    • Nobody in the team dealing with requests had studied, had any detailed knowledge of Afghanistan, or had ever worked there
    • No one spoke any Afghan languages, with calls to people asking for help conducted in English
    • Decisions about who to rescue were arbitrary, and thousands of emails pleading for assistance were not even read
    • The IT system was dysfunctional, with eight soldiers drafted in to help left sharing one computer
    • Dominic Raab was slow to make decisions on difficult cases and did not fully understand the situation
    • Animals from the Nowzad charity run by a former Marine were not in danger and evacuating them was at the direct expense of people at risk of death

    You can read more here.

  6. Good afternoon

    Good afternoon and welcome to our coverage of the Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry into the evacuation effort from Afghanistan and the withdrawal of international forces from the country.

    The government has come under criticism for how the evacuation was carried out and a foreign office whistle-blower has already told the committee the UK’s handling of events was dysfunctional and chaotic.

    MPs will be putting questions to:

    • Philip Barton, the most senior civil servant in the foreign office
    • Nigel Casey, the PM’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
    • Laurie Bristow, the former British ambassador to Afghanistan