Asylum Seekers to be given sanctuary
The Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace, has announced that Afghan asylum seekers will be permitted to enter the UK without a passport. Wallace said that the government want to make it easier for interpreters and contractors who supported Western forces to seek asylum in the UK.
This comes amid unrest in Afghanistan as the Taliban move to take control of the country city by city. The country’s president Ashraf Ghani has fled the country and the militant group have declared their intention to rename the state the Emirate of Afghanistan.
Despite reports that Priti Patel was apprehensive to relax border control, Mr Wallace said On Monday that he and the Home Secretary were working together to help Afghans escape.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace breaks down admitting "some people won't get back" from Afghanistan and "it's sad that the West has done what's it's done."
@NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/UKMrUAQlDx— LBC (@LBC) August 16, 2021
“We are processing as fast as we can, and where there are rules that we need to change, we are changing those rules,” he told Sky News.
“Today I’ll be speaking to Priti Patel about how we can deal with Afghan passports. 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, we need to see if we can make sure that we adapt the rules to get those people out as soon as we can.”
He continued: “We will cycle them out from Afghanistan to a Middle East country and then back to the United Kingdom, so we can keep the flow of aeroplanes, in and out.”
Major airlifting operations are underway that aim to remove around 1,500 people a day from Kabul’s airport which is still under Western control. However, Wallace has acknowledged that many officials will be left behind unless they can make it to Kabul where the Taliban have reportedly agreed to allow embassy staff to extract.
Defence Secretary appeared to hold back tears as he told LBC: “Some people won’t get back, and we will have to do our best in third countries to process those people.”
Amid the Taliban regaining control is a worry that terrorism will increase.
Lord Sedwill told the BBC: “We have to see whether the Taliban will honour their commitments not to allow Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists and indeed drug traffickers as well.
“I think that’s one of the two or three things we really must do now to in response to this, is work with China, Russia, Afghanistan’s neighbours and others who have – whatever our differences on other issues – a common interest in ensuring that Afghanistan does not become another source of terrorism.”
The UN Security Council will meet on Monday 16 at 3pm to discuss the situation in the country.
Related links
- At least five dead amid Kabul airport chaos as Taliban takes capital
- Taliban enter outskirts of Kabul in move to retake whole of Afghanistan
- Last remaining British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan
