UK lawmakers have admitted that thousands of Afghans who had helped British forces were left stranded as the country rushed to evacuate its personnel after the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in August 2021.
The admission was made in a new report prepared by the House of Commons Defence Committee, led by Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, according to theBBC.
Calling the withdrawal “a dark chapter” for the UK, the committee has requested the government to hold an “honest” inquiry into the UK’s departure from Afghanistan, which led to the return of the Taliban to power.
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The report urged the government to explain the actions being taken to ensure safe passage for at least 4,600 Afghans, including interpreters and contractors, who worked for UK forces, according to The Guardian.
“They are at risk of harm as a direct result of assisting the UK mission. We can’t change the events that unfolded in August 2021, but we owe it to those Afghans, who placed their lives in danger to help us, to get them and their families to safety,” The Guardian reported while quoting Mr Ellwood.
The report also questioned the lack of preparedness on part of the UK government to evacuate those who met the eligibility criteria.
“While it was never going to be possible to evacuate everyone who met the eligibility criteria as part of the operation, there was an obvious lack of effective coordination across government, with real and painful human consequences for those who reasonably expected to be evacuated but were not,” the report said.
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Resonding to the report, the UK government said it worked “tirelessly to safely evacuate as many people out of Afghanistan as possible,” according to the BBC.
Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2023