Conservative MP calls UK’s evacuation from Afghanistan a ‘humiliation’
The 20-year presence and now evacuation from Afghanistan of UK’s troops made the MP to state publicly that UK lacked patience, strategy and statecraft
NEW DELHI — Tobias Ellwood, a UK Conservative politician, described the withdrawal of British troops and Afghans who worked for British forces during the US-led coalition’s 20-year stay in Afghanistan a ‘humiliation’.
He commented that UK was finally out from Afghanistan after 20 years, and his country had got very little to show for it. In the end, as per the lawmaker, UK lacked the patience to see it through, let alone the strategy and statecraft.
He described the UK’s evacuation from the war-torn country as a ‘humiliating’ way to return.
The MP Ellwood, who leads the parliament’s Defence Select Committee, was speaking to Sky News on Sunday evening as the last plane carrying refugees from the Central Asian country was ready to land at the Royal Air Force station in Oxfordshire, England.
The Operation Pitting
As per the MP, there are a litany of worries concerning Operation Pitting, as the effort to transfer UK nationals and qualified Afghans out of Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover was codenamed.
For leaving hundreds of Afghans during the evacuation from Afghanistan, who were qualified for resettlement in the UK behind, the British government is under fire.
Thousands of letters and emails pertaining to Afghan refugees were not examined by Foreign Office employees involved with the operation, according to the opposition Labour Party.
UK defends its evacuation procedure
On Monday, Junior Foreign Minister James Cleverly stated on Sky News that the government had received a great inflow of letters from charities, people, and members of parliament for evacuation from Afghanistan, but that the government’s priority was to evacuate those who had obtained authorization and had been recalled.
Cleverly, however, stated it was obvious that when they still had control of the airport, the priority was for the individuals who were at the airport, who had the necessary documents, to actually get on the flights for confirmed evacuation from Afghanistan.
Since the start of Operation Pitting on August 13, almost 15,000 British nationals, Afghan workers and their families, and anyone in danger have been evacuated from Kabul, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.