No plane sent for evacuating Britons and Afghans has left empty from Kabul Airport – UK Secretary of State for Defence
Countering the reports that planes are returning empty from Kabul, the United Kingdom (U.K.) Secretary of State for Defence – Ben Wallace said that no plane sent for evacuating Britons and Afghans has left empty from Kabul Airport.
Wallace said that 7-10 RAF planes are taking off every day. He also said that Taliban is allowing its people to board the flight and blocking Afghans without travel documents. The U.K. will continue to stay in Afghanistan as long as United States (U.S.) is controlling the Kabul Airport.
The latest U.K. flight from Afghanistan landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire early hours today. It carried 115 people and their families. As of now, U.K. has rescued British Government personnel, British citizens, media and human rights staff and Afghans who had worked for U.K.
Speaking on the occasion, Ben Wallace said, “None of our planes are leaving empty… our planes never leave empty. If we have spaces on them, we offer them up to other nations.”
He further said, “We have a full programme today of many more people coming out – trying to reach our… capability towards the end of the month. And that is so far on track…. we are doing it as fast as we can.”
U.K. would also be deploying additional troops in Afghanistan to help manage public order on the ground at Kabul airport.
The U.K. has also announced a new “Afghan Citizen’s Resettlement Scheme” to resettle upto 20,000 Afghan refugees in the U.K. The new scheme will see upto 5,000 Afghans resettling in U.K. in the first year. Apart from this, U.K. is also running another relocation programme for Afghans, ‘Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy’ (ARAP). Under this, about 2,000 Afghan former staff and their families have already come to the U.K.
Taking it to twitter, the Ministry of Defence of U.K. tweeted,
This weekend Embassy Staff and Afghan civilians departed Kabul on Royal Air Force flights.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 18, 2021
The UK Armed Forces are in Kabul to enable the withdrawal of British Nationals and those eligible under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy. pic.twitter.com/YV2hz3dLB1
Besides, the Prime Minister of U.K. – Boris Johnson told Parliament that U.K. had little choice but to follow the decision taken by the President of U.S. – Joe Biden, who has opted to pull all American troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this month. The decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan was first announced by the Former President of the U.S. – Donald Trump. However, when Biden came to power, he didn’t overturn the decision.
Johnson told the Parliament, “The West could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, without American logistics, without US air power and without American might.”
Meanwhile, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has confirmed that President of Afghanistan – Ashraf Ghani who fled after Taliban took control of Kabul, has arrived there.
