about Accuses the government minister of “missing in action” Afghanistan The crisis serves as a blame game for dealing with the withdrawal of troops after 20 years of campaigning in the country.
The Sunday Times reported that the Foreign Affairs, Federal and Development Office (FCDO) was blamed for lacking a route to escape the country, and claimed that as many as 9,000 people may be eligible to flee — such as women, journalists, and aid workers. Left behind.
The Minister of Defense Ben Wallace has previously stated that he believes that 800 to 1,100 Afghans who meet the Afghanistan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap) plan will be left behind, while about 100 to 150 British nationals will remain in Afghanistan, although Mr. Wallace said that some of those people would stay.
but Congressman I once said that from their correspondence, they think the real number is much higher.
at the same time, Observer Thousands of emails purporting to be from members of Congress and charities highlight potentially eligible cases, which the department did not read.
FCDO told the Sunday Times: “This is the largest and most challenging evacuation operation in people’s memory-without the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this is impossible teamwork.”
But the newspaper reported that the foreign minister, Dominic Raab, decided to continue his vacation at the beginning of the crisis, which meant that as many as 1,000 people could have been evacuated.
According to reports, a whistleblower with access to the email account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told The Observer that an inbox used to receive potential Afghan evacuation cases from members of Congress and others often has a backlog of 5,000 unread emails. , Including emails from government ministers, the leader of the Labour Party, Sir Kyle Starmer And members of Congress are unopened.
FCDO told The Observer: “We have been working tirelessly in the past two weeks and have evacuated more than 15,000 people from Afghanistan. We have deployed a 24/7 trans-Whitehall team at the center of our crisis to deal with British nationals. , Arap applicants and other vulnerable Afghans’ incoming emails and phone calls.”
A spokesperson added: “We have always warned that the nature of the security situation in Afghanistan means that we cannot evacuate everyone we want to evacuate.”
But Sir Keele of the Labor Party said: “The complacency and incompetence of this government have been exposed again with tragic consequences. For 18 months, we all know that this moment is coming. There is no strategy that can make us owe all our debts. It is unreasonable for British nationals and Afghans to leave.
“I pay tribute to all FCDO staff and military personnel who, as always, stood up when leaders failed them.
“The fact that so many e-mails are not opened at all is not the fault of the civil servants, but the fault of the government minister who disappeared throughout the crisis. Members of Congress and their staff have been hearing about the many people we should have taken care of but were abandoned by the Taliban. A tragic story.”
Labour MPs tweeted about their staff’s efforts to sort out information and send it to officials.
Sir Keele added: “Can the government tell us how many of these emails were leaked, or more importantly, who is not eligible?
“We need an urgent response from the Prime Minister on what measures will be taken to ensure the safety of those left behind, appropriate support for members of Congress to complete their work, and the new leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Serious times require serious leadership, and this government is simply not up to this task.”
