British general says UK should ‘feel deeply ashamed’ over abandoned Afghans
May 5, 2022, 5:08 pm

British general says UK should ‘feel deeply ashamed’ over abandoned Afghans

the Hamid Karzai airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The Arabnews reported, British general who served in Afghanistan has condemned the UK government for abandoning Afghans who worked with NATO in the country, saying the UK should “feel deeply ashamed.”

Hundreds of Afghans who worked with allied forces over the course of the 20-year war, and are eligible to come to the UK, remain in hiding following the reinstatement of Taliban rule after last year’s withdrawal of Western troops.

Gen. John McColl told the BBC he wanted to tell Prime Minister Boris Johnson directly: “We made a commitment to look after these people, you made a commitment.

“You are not delivering on that commitment, so put a system in place that does deliver on it. It is an appalling situation; delays have been going on over nine months as there is no system adequate to deal with the number and complexity of the applications.

Gen. John McColl said to BBC that UK should ‘feel deeply ashamed’ over abandoned Afghans

“These delays are inexcusable and there is absolutely no reason why the government does not have this in place.”

Hundreds of thousands of people fled Afghanistan after the Taliban retook power last year, but with the Home Office having said it would provide up to 20,000 Afghans safe routes to resettle in the UK, the Ministry of Defence said just 9,000 people and their dependents had so far been relocated.

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Gen. McColl urged the Defence Select Committee to investigate the Afghan Relocations and Assistant Policy scheme, sating it is not fit for purpose.

Asked on the BBC’s flagship political “Newsnight” program if it was reasonable to expect delays given the war in Ukraine, the general said there was no excuse, claiming it was clear the resources were available to process these applications. He added: “The government should feel deeply ashamed – as do I"

Source: arabnews

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
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Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
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