UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has confirmed the need for Syria-style resettlement for people fleeing the Taliban and said humanitarian aid to Afghanistan should be increased.
UK armed forces continued to fly embassy staff and dual citizens from Kabul’s international airport on Tuesday, days after the city fell to advancing Taliban fighters.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today radio programme, Mr Raab said the government planned to resettle refugees in the UK through the normal asylum process, as well as “bespoke” initiatives that would be established owing to the crisis.
He would not be drawn on the exact number of migrants expected to enter the UK in the coming weeks and months.
Canada has pledged to take in 20,000 Afghan refugees, while the US is expected to accept 30,000.
After the start of the civil war in Syria and the rise of ISIS, Britain took in about 20,000 vulnerable Iraqis and Syrians fleeing conflict.
Reports suggest the latest concept could be similar, with women with children, people with serious medical conditions and survivors of torture prioritised.
“We’ve always been a big-hearted nation,” Mr Raab said. “We’ve got a model for that, previously used in Syria. So we’re not new to this, but let us work the details through properly and then set it out.”
The priority for now was to secure evacuation for as many British and dual citizens as possible, he said.
At least 150 people made it back to the UK on Sunday and 289 Afghans who served with UK authorities have been flown back on rescue missions in recent days.
Britain would continue to send aid to Afghanistan to “alleviate humanitarian suffering”, but efforts were being made to ensure it did not fall into the Taliban’s hands, Mr Raab said.
“I expect that we will increase our aid budget for development and humanitarian purposes, probably by 10 per cent is what I had in mind," he said.
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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.
Mr Raab said the government would engage with the Taliban leadership but would hold it to commitments made in the Doha agreement, under which the militants pledged to prevent Al Qaeda from operating in areas under its control.
Sanctions imposed in conjunction with partners at the UN could be used as “levers” that would hold the Taliban to account if they breached human rights, he said.
“I think it is always important, at least through direct or indirect means, to be able to engage," he said.
"But we will hold the Taliban to the commitments they made in the Doha agreement, commitments never to use their territory, Afghanistan, as a base for terrorism. To have a more inclusive regime going forward.
“They made a range of commitments. Frankly, I can’t tell you that I trust them to follow through on them.”
On Tuesday, a Royal Navy commander overseeing rescue efforts in Kabul said the evacuation was "operating at full pace".
Vice Admiral Sir Ben Key said British forces were working to move between 6,000 and 7,000 people out of Afghanistan.
The security situation was now "much calmer", but he said the evolving political climate meant military teams "can't afford to pause and wait".
"I'm very confident that we now have a stable airfield in which we can get on with the business, alongside all of our allies and partners, that we need to do," he said.
"We will go for as long as it takes us to either meet the demand or when the security situation means that we're no longer operating with consent."
On Monday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the government was processing Afghan asylum claims "as fast as we can" and suggested rules around passports could be relaxed to speed up the process.
The Home Office has said the UK has already admitted more than 3,300 Afghan interpreters, staff and their families for resettlement.
Labour shadow foreign secretary Stephen Kinnock accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of a “dereliction of duty” and said Britain had a moral obligation to help those in need.
Conservative MP Damian Green said on Twitter that Britain should take in any refugee who could make a case for asylum.
The UK Parliament will be recalled on Wednesday to debate the crisis.
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