UK's evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan comes to an end

UK's evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan comes to an end
August 28, 2021, 11:46 am

Afghanistan struggle

The BBC reported, the head of the armed forces has said that the UK's evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan will end on Saturday.

Gen Sir Nick Carter said there were still some civilian flights leaving Kabul for the UK, but "very few now".

He added it was "heartbreaking" they had not been able to rescue everybody, with hundreds of Afghans eligible to come to the UK still in Afghanistan.

According to the BBC, Sir Nick, chief of the defence staff, told Radio 4's Today programme: "We're reaching the end of the evacuation, which will take place during the course of today, and then of course it'll be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft.

"It's gone as well as it could do in the circumstances... but we haven't been able to bring everybody out and that has been heartbreaking, and there have been some very challenging judgements that have had to be made on the ground."

The BBC added, the British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, who had been helping with the evacuations, tweeted that it was "time to close this phase of the operation now".

He added: "But we haven't forgotten the people who still need to leave. We'll continue to do everything we can to help them."

Sir Nick said the number of Afghans who were eligible to come to the UK but remained in Afghanistan was in the "high hundreds".

He suggested some would not have wanted to take the risk of travelling to the airport - or been unable to - rather than it being down to "processing" issues.

But he added: "We are forever receiving messages and texts from our Afghan friends that are very distressing. So we're all living this in the most painful way."

He also said that people who hadn't been able to leave via evacuation flights but were able to get out another way "will always be welcome in Britain".

Chairman of the foreign affairs select committee Tom Tugendhat, who served in the military in Afghanistan, told BBC Breakfast it left him "extremely sad" so many of his friends had been left behind - but he was continuing to work to get people out of the country.

However, he said people should "forget" about trying to get to Kabul airport, due to the numerous dangerous checkpoints that have been installed along the motorways.

He said: "We're looking at different networks to get people into second countries, and then connecting them to high commissions and ambassadors of the United Kingdom, to get them to the UK safely."

Source: BBC

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