Photo: MOD VIA PA MEDIA / copyright
Dysfunctional and chaotic. This is how a former British official described the handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan after the arrival of the Taliban in the capital, carried out by the UK Foreign Ministry.
Raphael Marshall assured that the process of choosing who could leave on a flight was arbitrary and that thousands of emails from people asking for help were not read.
He also stated that the then British Chancellor, Dominic Raab, was slow to make decisions .
In the two weeks after the Taliban took Kabul, around from 15. 000 people were evacuated from Afghanistan by the British government.
That group included 5. 000 British citizens, 8. 000 Afghans and 2. 000 kids.
In a statement written as evidence and issued to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Marshall revealed that up to 95. 000 Afghans who were in danger due to their ties to the UK requested to be evacuated, but less than 5% received help .
“It is clear that some of those left behind have been killed by the Taliban. ”
Marshall, who worked as a civil servant at the Foreign Ministry until his resignation in September, He pointed out that the agency’s crisis center did not have adequate staff and that there was also a lack of experience and coordination between his office and the Ministry of Defense.
Marshall also said that the British Chancellor was slow hours of responding to emails and “ did not fully understand the situation “.
Raphael Marshall, from 25 years, he worked as an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ensures that thousands of emails from people asking for help were not read. He also said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s order to evacuate the dogs of a charity went against the criteria of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and left many people at risk of being killed behind.
What are the allegations?
The errors pointed out by the former official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs include:
- Only 5% of 95. 000 people who requested help received
- No one in the application team had detailed knowledge of Afghanistan and had not worked there.
- No one spoke any Afghan language, and calls to people who requested help were made in English.
- Decisions on who to rescue were arbitrary and thousands of emails from people asking help were not even read.
- The IT system was dysfunctional. Eight soldiers who were recruited to help shared a computer
- Chancellor Dominic Raab was slow to make decisions in difficult cases and did not fully understand the situation.
- animals Nowzad charity run by a marine exinfante were not in danger and evacuation was made at the expense direct people at risk of death.
“I think we did a good job”
In statements To the BBC, former Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said lessons would be learned from the past in Afghanistan, however he claimed the UK had done a good job compared to other countries.
He recalled that London had managed to evacuate 12. 000 people in two weeks , a number greater than any other nation except the United States.
In addition, he pointed out that the criticism of his decision-making came from a “relatively young desk official.”
The former British Chancellor insisted that his main challenges were to verify the identities of the applicants on the ground and safely escort them to Kabul airport, do not make decisions from London.
“I do not doubt that there were challenges, I do not doubt that there will be lessons to be learned, but if you look at the facts, I think we did a good job according to the recent standards of evacuations and international comparisons,” he said on the BBC Breakfast program.
When the Taliban entered Kabul in August, the British government initiated a plan to evacuate Afghans who had worked directly for the UK and another to identify and assist those at risk due to their ties to the country.
“5.000 unread emails ”
Marshall worked for a team of officials who handled a group known as “Afghan special cases” that included Afghan soldiers, politicians, journalists, civil servants, activists, humanitarian workers, judges and guards who had worked indirectly for the government from United Kingdom through subcontractors.
In the desperate days of late August, when the Taliban were advancing on Kabul, m Many of these people sent e-mails to the Foreign Ministry asking for permission to leave the country.
Marshall indicated that there were “about 5. 000 unread emails in the inbox at any given time ”and“ in thousands of cases the emails were not even read ”, including the cases of MPs.
He highlighted that the process of prioritizing applicants was “ arbitrary and dysfunctional “. The criteria used by the government were useless and ambiguous, causing confusion, he added.
A UK government spokesperson said more than 1. 000 employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs worked tirelessly under difficult circumstances and that decisions on the prioritization had to be taken quickly to help as many people as possible.
He also reported that London was still working to help evacuate other people from Afghanistan and that since the end of the operation they had helped more than 3. 000 people to leave the country.
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