UK's evacuation from Afghanistan a 'humiliation': Conservative lawmaker
Aug 30, 2021
London [UK], August 30 (ANI/Sputnik): UK Conservative lawmaker Tobias Ellwood has called the evacuation of personnel and Afghans who worked for the British troops during the 20-year-long presence of the US-led coalition in the country a "humiliation."
"After 20 years, we are now out, and we have very little to show for it. We lacked the strategy, the statecraft, the patience to see it through. This manner of our departure is a humiliation," Ellwood, who chairs the parliament's Defense Select Committee, told Sky News on Sunday evening, as the last plane with people evacuated from the Central Asian country was about to land at the Royal Air Force base in Oxfordshire, England.
The lawmaker and former soldier said that there is a "litany of concerns" about Operation Pitting, as the mission to get UK citizens and eligible Afghans out of Afghanistan following the Taliban (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) takeover was code-named.
The British government is facing strong criticism for reportedly leaving behind hundreds of Afghans who were eligible for relocation in the UK behind.
According to the opposition Labour Party, thousands of letters and emails relating to Afghan refugees were not opened by Foreign Office officials dealing with the operation.
Junior Foreign Minister James Cleverly on Monday admitted receiving a "huge influx of correspondence" from charities, individuals and members of parliament, but said that the government's priority was to evacuate those who had received approval and had been called forward.
"Obviously, the priority was for the people who were at the airport, who had the right documentation, to actually get on the airplanes when we still had control of the airport", Cleverly told Sky News.
According to the UK Ministry of Defense, nearly 15,000 British nationals, Afghan staff and their families, and others at risk were evacuated from Kabul since Operation Pitting began on August 13. (ANI/Sputnik)
