By Ben Kerrigan-
A former government employee has claimed the UK effort to evacuate people from Afghanistan was chaotic and understaffed.
Raphael Marshall (pictured)worked as a desk officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) from November 2018 to September 2021 resigned following a week-long stint on the Afghan Special Cases team, which worked to evacuate eligible Afghans and bring them to the UK after the Taliban reclaimed Kabul in August.
Giving evidence to the Commons foreign affairs select committee, Marshall claims emails from desperate Afghans went unread, junior officials with no local knowledge worked on specialist cases, and the prime minister pushed for animals to be rescued at the “direct expense” of humans.
Raphael Marshall said the process of choosing who could get a flight out was arbitrary as thousands of desperate emails with pleas for help went unread.
The then Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, was slow to make decisions, he added.
Dominic Raab, has denied the allegations and said the government did “everything we could” to rescue the vulnerable after the Taliban takeover.
In his evidence, Raphael Marshall claimed that “between 75,000 and 150,000 people”including their dependents applied to be evacuated from Afghanistan after the Taliban claimed victory on 15 August.
Mr Marshall also claimed that at one point, during the height of the evacuation effort, he was “the only person monitoring and processing emails in the Afghan Special Cases inbox”.
Mr Marshall said up to 150,000 Afghans who were at risk because of their links to Britain applied to be evacuated – but fewer than 5% received any assistance.
“It is clear that some of those left behind have since been murdered by the Taliban,” he added.Mr Raab said the two-week evacuation was “the biggest operation in living memory” of its kind and the UK had helped a larger number of people than any nation except the US.
The foreign secretary said the criticism of his decision-making was from a “relatively junior desk officer” but the main challenges were in verifying the identities of applicants on the ground and safely escorting them to the airport in Kabul, not in making decisions from Whitehall.
Marshall said that for a number of reasons “fewer than 5% of these people received any assistance”.
Afghans who had served alongside British troops or diplomatic staff were all eligible for evacuation.
He added that of 95% of applicants left behind “it is clear that some have since been murdered by the Taliban”.
As Afghans tried to flee the new Taliban regime, a former Royal Marine called for the government to help evacuate vulnerable animals too.
Paul “Pen” Farthing founded an animal shelter called Nowzad in Afghanistan after serving there in 2006.
Following the Taliban takeover, he chartered his own private plane to bring all his animals, staff and their families to the UK, but was only able to bring back 170 cats and dogs – and no people.According to Mr Marshall, the Foreign Office “received an instruction from the prime minister” to use “considerable capacity” to help Mr Farthing’s animals leave Afghanistan.
“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.
He added that the fact Mr Farthing was able to use a private plane was irrelevant, as British soldiers were still required to escort the animals at the airport – where there was limited capacity..
He said there was a “deliberate drive by the FCDO to prioritise ‘work-life balance'”.
This resulted in “serious shortages of capacity” and the approach “undermined organisational effectiveness”, he added.
Mr Marshall also claimed that at one point, during the height of the evacuation effort, he was “the only person monitoring and processing emails in the Afghan Special Cases inbox”.