A damning account alleged there was “a direct trade-off” between transporting animals and evacuating British nationals and Afghanistan natives.
Boris Johnson tries to deny prioritizing animals during Afghanistan evacuation
The British government left U.K. nationals and Afghan allies at the mercy of the Taliban during the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, and in one case at least prioritized evacuation of animals over people, a whistleblower has alleged.
Raphael Marshall, a former employee of the U.K. Foreign Office, said in written evidence to the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee that the way the U.K. prioritized evacuations was “arbitrary and dysfunctional.”
Marshall also said the Foreign Office “received an instruction” from Prime Minister Boris Johnson to use “considerable capacity” to help evacuate animals from charity Nowzad, run by former British Royal Marine Paul “Pen” Farthing.
There were also severe delays in processing emails from people requesting help, with thousands left unread at any given moment at the peak of the withdrawal between Aug. 21 and 25, Marshall said in evidence published Tuesday.
Chaos outside Kabul airport with Afghanistan evacuations ongoing
He estimated between 75,000 and 150,000 people applied to be evacuated, but fewer than 5 percent received assistance.
“It is clear that some of those left behind have since been murdered by the Taliban,” he wrote.
In one of the most striking allegations, Marshall said the government transported Nowzad’s animals that were not at risk of harm “at the direct expense” of evacuating British nationals and people at risk of imminent murder, including interpreters who had served with the British Army.
Kabul airport saw chaotic scenes for several weeks before the United States and its allies completed their withdrawal at the end of August, with thousands, including many who had worked for Western governments, desperately trying to leave in fear of what the Taliban regime might bring.
Marshall alleged that with a limited number British soldiers on the ground at Kabul airport to deal with evacuees, some were tasked with escorting Nowzad charity’s animals, but would have otherwise been deployed to support the evacuation of British nationals or Afghans prioritised for evacuation.
“There was a direct trade-off between transporting Nowzad’s animals and evacuating British nationals and Afghans evacuees, including Afghans who had served with British soldiers,” he said.
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Marshall added that he believed British soldiers were put at risk in order to bring Nowzad’s animals into the airport, as the security situation around it disintegrated amid terror threats.
Johnson denied that he prioritized evacuations of animals over people amid a frantic effort to get British citizens and vulnerable Afghans out of the country. He called the allegations “complete nonsense.”
