UK AFGHAN EVACUATION CHAOTIC AND DYSFUNCTIONAL: WHISTLEBLOWER

British nationals and Afghan evacuees depart a flight from Afghanistan at RAF Brize Norton, Britain (REUTERS) 

Britain’s handling of the evacuation of vulnerable Afghans from Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August was dysfunctional and chaotic, a Foreign Office whistleblower said in evidence disputed by former foreign secretary Dominic Raab.

The government has repeatedly defended its airlift from Kabul against criticism that Britain potentially left thousands of eligible Afghans behind in the country after being caught out by how quickly the Afghan government fell. In written evidence to parliament’s Foreign Affairs committee, Raphael Marshall, a former Foreign Office desk officer, said the process for prioritising who to evacuate as “arbitrary and dysfunctional”.

He said there was limited staffing capacity, with one afternoon where he was the only person processing emails, and despite the urgency of the situation, the expectation remained that staff would only work eight hours a day, five days a week. He estimated between 75,000 and 150,000 people applied to be evacuated but fewer than 5% received assistance. “It is clear that some of those left behind have since been murdered by the Taliban,” he wrote. Staff shortages were exacerbated by people working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and initially soldiers brought in to help had to share one computer between eight, he said.

“Emails received an automatic response that the request for assistance had been ‘logged’. This was usually false. In thousands of cases emails were not even read,” he said. LONDON, DEC 7 (REUTERS)