Former Afghan soldier, who was on Taliban’s “kill list”, has criticised the UK for handling the evacuation of Kabul.
The father, who is in his 30s and lived in the capital before he was smuggled out, branded Sir Philip Barton a ‘disaster’ after it emerged he stayed on holiday.
He attacked ministers and civil officials for treating war-torn countries as “far from humanity” by calling them “far from humanity”.
He claimed that the lengthy wait to be evacuated had caused psychological scarring and some people were afraid for their lives in hiding.
These harsh remarks were made by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss as she acknowledged there were many lessons to be learned in handling the evacuation.
He praised the “heroic effort” to fly 15,000 Afghans to safety after Kabul fell to Taliban control in August.
She was forced to intervene after 25-year-old whistleblower Raphael Marshall exposed the chaotic scenes in Whitehall as the crisis unfolded.
He is in his 30s, and had lived in Kabul before being smuggled out. Yesterday: Afghanistan
He attacked British ministers who left civilians psychologically scarred and claimed that some people were still afraid for their lives hiding in war-torn countries. Yesterday’s picture: Dominic Raab, former Foreign Secretary
The Afghan soldier, who was being hunted by the Taliban before he made a daring escape, slammed the UK’s Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.
He told MailOnline: ‘For me as an Afghan it is very painful and those who called themselves our friends and we considered them our friends, but in the worst of circumstances, that main reason was their own political mistakes, which caused a great tragedy in our country.
‘They treat us very indifferently and far from humanity. This is a real shame for those who consider themselves human rights defenders.
‘This is a question do they know us as human or not. Sir Philip Barton is a disaster for British human society.
He also said the evacuation scheme was chaotic and took up to five months to be accepted on.
He went on: ‘There is a lot of irregularity in the transfers. Many of those who were really eligible to leave are still in Afghanistan and their lives are in danger because there is no specific address for these people in Kabul to go there.
‘They live in despair and in hiding. Document review is very slow even for those people that transferred from Afghanistan to a third country.
‘It takes four to five months for each person, and the prolongation of this process has caused psychological problems for these people.
‘And it causes more delays in the transfer of the remaining people and they are in a bad economic and psychological condition because their lives are really in danger.
‘And the biggest problem is slowness in review of documents. they living hidden and they are hopeless of their lives.’
He said he and his family had escaped to a nearby country and they were working on getting citizenship for a third nation.
He added: ‘We are under a lots of stress and the prolongation of this process has made us very tired.’
Afghans wait in queues for hours to receive food aid provided by international humanitarian organisations in Kabul yesterday
After being pursued by Taliban, the Afghan soldier slammed Britain’s Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy. Photo: Kabul Today
TOPSHOT-A child sits at the Panjsad Family Cemetery in Kabul.
Foreign Secretary Ms Truss today stated that it was clear that there are many lessons from Afghanistan’s evacuation.
On Tuesday Ms Truss gave evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. She admitted that processes in her department required to change.
On Tuesday, MPs criticized the “lack of leadership” during Afghanistan’s evacuation. The Foreign Office’s highest civil servant acknowledged that he regrets continuing to holiday when Kabul fell.
Sir Philip Barton, Permanent-Under Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, (FCDO) told the Commons Committee that he wishes he’d ‘come home from my leave sooner’.
Following a lightning advance, the Taliban captured Kabul and the senior mandarin left on his August 9 holiday.
He stated that “I have thought a lot” and that, had I been given my time again, I would have returned to my leave much sooner than I did.
Foreign Secretary Ms Truss stated today (pictured), that it was clear that there were ‘lessons learned’ by the Foreign Office in regards to the Afghan evacuation.
Later, during the hearing, he stated that while he regrets not coming back to support my colleagues, he doesn’t think that his decision affected the outcome of the evacuation.
He was however subject to heavy criticism, including Conservative Alicia Kearns who said he ‘couldn’t bother’.
After awkward questions had been asked of the Prime Minister, Dominic Raab and his deputy by the whistleblower testimony, the comments were made.
Ex-official Mr Marshall worked as an agent for the Foreign Office during evacuation efforts. He claimed that only 5 percent of Afghan nationals were granted assistance under one scheme by the UK because of the “dysfunctional” and “chaotic” handling of the situation.
Marshall stated to MPs that many of the people who had hoped to flee were killed after they left Kabul.
The BBC Newsnight program was also informed by a second whistleblower that Kabul’s officials were more concerned with “political fallout” than emergency management when the country evacuated.
Raphael Marshall, a junior civil servant claimed that he dealt with thousands of emails sent by those trying to flee from the Taliban.
Taliban fighters pose in a photo taken in Kabul (Afghanistan) on August 19, earlier this year.
Speaking at the Chatham House policy institute on Wednesday, Ms Truss said: ‘Clearly there are lessons to be learned.
“The Permanent Secretary knows that he ought to have returned earlier from vacation, just like my predecessor.
“And what I have done since I became Foreign Secretary was to ensure that there are processes in place to deal with any future issues.”
Ms. Truss stated that there is now better risk monitoring and an emergency response system. She also said that it was easier to deploy staff quickly in times of crisis.
She said, “I am absolutely certain that we now have these processes in place in case – in unfortunate event – of a similar circumstance.”
“It’s important to note that Afghanistan had the second largest evacuation the UK has ever undertaken. So, I do not underestimate the challenges that the Foreign Office was faced at the time.
Elle said that the work was not done in order to bring eligible Afghans into the UK.
She added: “We must stop Afghanistan from becoming a hub of terrorist activity.” I believe we should be united with the international communities in this endeavor.
On Tuesday, the PM said that decisions sometimes took longer than expected during evacuations, but that it was important to take care of how it is done. It was an amazing feat to have 15,000 people evacuated from Kabul under such difficult circumstances.
Operation Pitting, an airlift that was established after foreign troops left central Asia following a 20-year occupation, is regarded as a’martial military achievement of the last fifty years’. Johnson also stated.
Former ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow testified before MPs that he warned London officials on August 13th about the possibility of Kabul being overrun by Taliban fighters.
Reports claim that Mr Raab (then foreign secretary) did not return to the UK from his vacation on Crete, Greece, until August 16, three days after Sir Laurie said that Afghanistan was falling faster than expected.
As part of the allegations by Mr Marshall, Mr Raab was also criticised. He claimed that Mr Marshall ‘didn’t fully understand’ the situation and was slow in deciding cases.
After handling the crisis, the senior Tory was promoted to the positions of Justice Secretary as well as Deputy Prime Minister. He stated that some of the critics seemed a bit dislocated from what actually happened.
He stated that he believed not enough attention has been paid to the difficulty of his work, as he said to BBC.
The Foreign Office head who is paid £185,000 a year of taxpayers’ money and will enjoy a gold-plated pension but stayed on holiday for 11 days while Kabul fell in biggest foreign policy crisis since Suez
- Sir Philip Barton is paid £185,000-a-year and has a pension worth £1.7million
- In September 2020, became Permanent Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs
- 11 Days on vacation while Kabul fell under Taliban rule amid foreign crises
Sir Philip Barton enjoys a £185,000-a-year taxpayer-funded pay packet – yet stayed on holiday for 11 days while Kabul fell.
Foreign Office’s top diplomat, who will receive a golden-plated pension, admitted today that there are many lessons to learn from the Afghanistan crisis.
Deputies were left to handle the most serious foreign policy problem since 1956, when Suez was Suez.
Sir Philip, 58, who took on the role as Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Affairs in September 2020, is in line for a £1.7million pension pot.
Born August 18, 1963 in London, the British diplomat received his masters degree at London School of Economics.
Sir Philip Barton, who will be able to retire with a pension that is gold-plated and has admitted today there were ‘lessons learned’ in the Afghanistan disaster
The married father-of-two got his first job in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1986, when he was stationed in Caracas, New Delhi, and went on to be showered with awards: including the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1997 Birthday Honours list; and Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2007 Birthdays Honours.
In 2020 he was made Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for his services to British foreign policy.
Following their meeting while Sir Philip was in India, Amanda became his wife. One of his favorite quotes was: “I met Amanda here when I lived and worked there and we called our daughter India – without knowing that one day, I would be High Commissioner.”
Sir Philip disclosed that he was away from home on August 9th and returned to Afghanistan only two weeks later when the Taliban took control.
While he declined to reveal where he was vacationing, he stated it was partly in the UK as well as abroad. This was to downplay the effect of the crisis response and to claim that he had provided cover. He declined to say whether he was in the UK at the time of the evacuation.
Sir Philip and Sir Laurie Bristow greet Sir Philip, British Ambassador in Afghanistan. Sir Philip was evacuated from Kabul on August 29, 2012.
Sir Philip claimed that the spiralling situation was not inevitable at the time he was leaving, and added: ‘If my time had been again, I would have gone back from my leave earlier.
The MPs were furious at him and accused him of making ‘platitudes’. He also asked when the leave was booked and why Dominic Raab allowed him to go off with Dominic Raab. National security advisor Sir Stephen Lovegrove was also present, as well as Matthew Rycroft and David Williams, who were heads of the Ministry of Defence, and Home Office, respectively.
According to the mandarin after the fall of government, Kabul’s evacuation was one of the most challenging and complex crises they’ve faced.
However, he acknowledged that it was not perfect and said he would have liked to see more people get out.
In 2020 Sir Philip became the shortest serving High Commissioner to India when he took up his current position just nine months after accepting the role.