On 31 August, the nearly 20-year NATO combat mission in Afghanistan ended in failure. Two weeks earlier, the Taliban had marched unopposed into Afghan capital Kabul, leaving the US and its allies, including the UK, scrambling to evacuate both their citizens and the Afghan nationals who had assisted them during the war.
Last week, a whistle-blower from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) who worked on the evacuation desk made a series of claims that painted the UK’s efforts on behalf of its Afghan allies as incompetent. Giving evidence to the Commons foreign affairs select committee, Raphael Marshall, a former desk officer at the FCDO, said that not only was the Afghanistan desk short-staffed and senior staff unwilling to work overtime but that orders from ministers were slow to arrive and showed little understanding of the dynamic situation on the ground. He claimed that Boris Johnson had even ordered dogs being rescued by a UK charity be given priority for evacuation, diverting resources that could have been used to protect vulnerable Afghan allies.
While the exact numbers of those left behind may never be known, Marshall claimed that between 75,000 to 150,000 people had applied to be evacuated from Afghanistan based on their or their families’ service to the UK. Only around 5% received the necessary assistance from the UK. Now, those left behind live in fear that their ties to the UK could leave them open to retribution by the Taliban, who now have full control of the country.
