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The UK plans to fly up to 1,500 people out of Kabul a day after the Taliban advance on the city sparked desperate scenes at the airport as Afghans who worked with Nato or the government tried to leave.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK government was processing applications “as fast as we can” to help move hundreds of desperate Afghans, including translators and other embassy support staff, to safety.
“Right up until the day before yesterday, the Afghans wouldn’t let Afghans leave without their passport. If they’ve already been through our checks, we know who they are,” he told Sky News on Monday.
France and Germany have both begun evacuation missions.
“We need to see if we can adapt the rules to get those people out as soon as we can and we will cycle them out from Afghanistan to a Middle East country and then back to United Kingdom, so we can keep the flow of aeroplanes in and out," Mr Wallace said.
“Our target is at least 1,200 to 1,500 exits per day using the capacity of our aeroplanes, and we’ll keep that flowing. We’ve secured a place within the airport where we can process people securely and then marshal them on to the plane.”
Mr Wallace said he was surprised by the speed at which the security situation deteriorated in Afghanistan.
He said he had hoped that years of investment in the country’s military would have allowed for a more “transitional process” as foreign forces withdrew.
About 700 British troops, including paratroopers from 16 Air Assault Brigade, remained in the country to oversee the departure of administrative staff and other embassy workers, he said.
Mr Wallace had previously indicated they could be there until the end of the month, but given the speed of the collapse that now appears unlikely.
“The reason our soldiers are there right now is purely to process both the Afghans that we have obligations to, and indeed to other UK passport holders, people who are aid workers or people who have worked with journalists, so that’s why we will carry on that as long as we can,” he told the BBC.
Since April, the British authorities have managed to fly more than 2,000 Afghans out of the country and they are now safely in the UK with their families.
About 4,000 UK citizens and Afghans eligible to move to the UK are believed to still be in Afghanistan.
Mr Wallace appeared emotional as he told LBC that “some people will not get back”.
There were chaotic scenes at Kabul airport on Monday as hundreds of people gathered on the runway as they tried to secure a flight out of the country.
There were reports that US troops fired several warning shots to keep some civilians away from American aircraft.
The Pentagon confirmed it was preparing to help up to 22,000 special immigrant visa (SIV) applicants get to the US over the next week or so.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said they would initially be accommodated at two US bases, in addition to Fort Lee in Virginia.
He added that the US was prepared to offer medical assistance to thousands more Afghans outside of the US.
"A battalion-sized unit already in the Central Command area of responsibility is prepared to also assist with processing and medical care for up to 8,000 at-risk individuals there," Mr Kirby said.
The US has already relocated about 2,000 SIV-holding Afghans through Operation Allies Refuge.
"We know that there are other vulnerable Afghans, some for the work they have done, some for the things they have said, some for nothing more than their gender and we are also working and planning to bring as many as we can to safety," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.
An additional 1,600 individuals had been airlifted out of the country in the last few days, he added.
France has launched Operation Apagan by sending two planes this week.
“We are doing everything we can to facilitate the arrival in France of those who are willing and able to reach Kabul airport,” French defence minister Florence Parly said.
A German military transport plane set off for Kabul on Monday.
Berlin’s Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, said the security of the Germans in Afghanistan and local partners “is paramount”.
But last week, the German Parliament rejected a motion recommending translators and “local Afghan staff were welcomed generously” into the country.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to take in 20,000 refugees as well as hundreds of Afghans who worked with the Canadian military and embassy over the years.
However, the Canadian government announced it had suspended its "diplomatic mission" in Kabul. Canada's Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and National Defence released a joint statement late Sunday.
“The Government of Canada, including the Canadian Armed Forces, is working closely with allies, including the United States, to ensure processing capacity for the ongoing Special Immigration Measures programme," the Ministers said.
But some in Canada say the government is not doing enough.
"This is a humanitarian crisis right now," said Retired Major-General David Fraser who led Nato's efforts in Afghanistan's south in 2006.
"You've just announced that you're going to bring 20,000 people in, what's the plan? We don't need to know the details for each file. But what's the plan for getting them out?"
Australia has similarly committed to bring Afghans who worked with the country's military and at its embassy to safety. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government was working to bring 130 Australians working in Afghanistan home.
On Sunday, it was reported that the UK’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, was in a secure area of Kabul airport with other international diplomats.
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Afghan women, holding placards, gather to demand the protection of women's rights in front of the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. -
A person holds the flag of Afghanistan during a protest against support for the Taliban, in Berlin, Germany. -
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks at his first news conference in Kabul. -
Taliban fighters stand guard outside the Green Zone where most of the embassies are situated. -
Afghan security forces patrol on humvee vehicle along a road in Bazarak town of Panjshir province. -
Schoolgirls sit in a schoolyard in Herat. -
Afghans wait outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country. -
A Taliban fighter raises their flag on a vehicle as they patrol in Kandahar. -
French citizens and their Afghan colleagues wait to board a French military transport plane at the airport in Kabul after the Taliban's stunning military takeover of the Afghanistan. -
French soldiers at the airport in Kabul as they arrive to help French citizens and their Afghan colleagues to flee after the Taliban takeover. -
A US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft filled with about 640 Afghans fleeing to Qatar from Kabul, Afghanistan. -
Crowds on the tarmac of Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan. Several people were reportedly killed at the airport on August 16 as Afghans tried to hang on to a moving US military plane leaving the airport. -
A satellite photo shows swarms of people on the tarmac at Kabul International Airport, also known as Hamid Karzai International Airport. Afghans rushed on to the tarmac of the capital's airport on Monday as thousands tried to flee the country after the Taliban seized power with stunning speed. -
A traffic jam outside Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan after Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar declared victory and an end to the decades-long war in the country. President Ashraf Ghani fled and conceded that the insurgents had won the 20-year war. -
Qari Muhammad Hanif, centre, director of the Taliban's cultural and Information department, talks to journalists in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. -
Humvee vehicles from the Afghan Security Forces in Panjshir province, Afghanistan. -
Thousands of Afghans rushed to Hamid Karzai International Airport in an attempt to flee the Afghan capital, Kabul. -
Afghans on the tarmac at Kabul airport in Kabul after a swift end to the 20-year war in the country. Thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's rule. -
A US soldier keeps close watch on Afghan passengers at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul. Thousands of people packed the airport trying to flee Taliban rule. -
Passengers sit inside a plane as they wait to leave the runway of Kabul after the stunningly swift end of Afghanistan’s 20-year war. -
People climb on top of a plane in Kabul. -
People try to enter Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. -
People cross the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country after rumours that foreign countries were removing people even without visas. -
Taliban fighters stand guard along a roadside near Zanbaq Square in Kabul. -
A Taliban fighter sits on his motorcycle by a road in Shahr-e Naw, Kabul. -
Talibs patrol the streets of Kabul as the militants take control of Afghanistan. after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. -
Afghans gather on the asphalt at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul. -
Afghans gather by the runway in Kabul as US soldiers stand guard. -
Taliban fighters on a police vehicle outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. -
Baradar Akhund, a senior official of the Taliban, with a group of men, makes a video statement. -
Taliban fighters take control of the presidential palace in Kabul, after Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. -
Passengers from Kabul arrive at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India. -
Families on a motorway trying to flee Kabul. -
Afghan security forces on patrol in Kabul. -
People line up outside Azizi Bank to withdraw cash during a run on deposits. -
Taliban fighters use a captured Afghan security forces vehicle at a checkpoint in Herat. -
Ahmadullah Muttaqi, centre left, the Taliban's director for information and culture, addresses journalists. -
Police officers conduct their duties after the Taliban took control of Kandahar. -
People prepare to cross into Afghanistan, at Pakistan's Chaman border. Pakistani authorities reopened the border with Afghanistan on August 13 after it had been closed for several days. -
Afghans wait in long lines for hours to get visas at the Iranian embassy, in Kabul. -
Taliban fighters patrol after taking control of Jalalabad. -
Smoke rises near the US embassy in Kabul. Taliban fighters reached the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Sunday. -
Anti-missile decoy flares are used by US Black Hawk military helicopters, while a surveillance blimp flies over Kabul. -
An Afghan soldier keeps watch on a street in Kabul. -
Taliban fighters and local people gather in Jalalabad province, east of Kabul. -
Taliban fighters sit on an Afghan Army Humvee in Jalalabad province. -
Taliban fighters travel along a street in Jalalabad province. -
A US Chinook military helicopter flies over the US embassy in Kabul. -
Heavily armed Taliban fighters gather in eastern Laghman province. -
Militants wave a Taliban flag from the back of a pickup truck in Jalalabad. -
Taliban fighters drive through the streets of Laghman province. -
People head to the departures area of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul as the Taliban approach the city. -
A man sells Taliban flags in western province Herat. -
Taliban fighters travel in an Afghan Army vehicle in Herat. -
Taliban forces patrol a street in Herat. -
Taliban militants raise their flag as they gather a day after taking control of key southern city Kandahar. -
Members of the Afghan security forces stand guard along the roadside in Panjshir province. -
Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and acting defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visit a military site in Kabul. -
Internally displaced families from northern provinces take shelter in a public park in Kabul. -
Families that fled their homes because of fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces take shelter in a public park in Kabul. -
Many of those seeking safety in Kabul have been sleeping on the streets. -
Thousands of those internally displaced have been arriving in Kabul. -
Afghans have been waiting for hours in long queues outside the passport office in Kabul, with many people desperate to leave the country.
But plans were being hastily made to move him and other personnel out of the airport, emphasising speed of the collapse.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to recall parliament this week owing to the crisis that Foreign Affairs Select Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat called “the biggest single foreign policy disaster” since the Suez crisis in 1956.
Mr Tugendhat, who served as an army officer in Afghanistan, had said the priority should be to get as many people out before Kabul collapsed.
“This isn’t just about interpreters or guards. This is about those people who we trained in special forces to serve alongside us, those who helped us to understand the territory through our agencies and our diplomats,” he told BBC News on Sunday.
“These are the people who, on our encouragement, set up schools for girls. These people are all at risk now.
“The real danger is that we are going to see every female MP murdered, we are going to see ministers strung up on street lamps.”
