UK successfully rescues Afghan allies after leaving their contact details on embassy floor

The UK has rescued three Afghan families whose contact details had been left behind at its embassy in Kabul and was seized by the Taliban, Washington Post reported. In the aftermath of the fall of Kabul, the Islamist insurgents are leaving no stone unturned to hunt down Afghans who aided foreign troops in the past. Amidst exacerbating conflict and chaos, UK embassy officials mistakenly jeopardized the lives of at least seven Afghan natives by leaving their contract documents and applications behind. But, on Friday, Downing Street confirmed that they were rescued in time.

What documents were left behind?

As embassy officials rushed to leave the war-ravaged nation, they accidentally left behind crucial documents revealing the details of at least seven Afghans who worked on British Diplomatic missions, according to The Times of London. As Taliban patrolled the compound, they found the documents which contained details of a senior embassy staffer, details of other employees along with resumes of people who had applied to be interpreters at the embassy, scattered on the floor. This directly put under threat the lives of the seven natives and their families, who Taliban had declared to be “traitors”. Later the British daily revealed that some of them had already been resettled in Britain.

On Friday, a representative for the UK Foreign Office said that they have worked “tirelessly to secure the safety of those who worked for us in Afghanistan” and continue to do so. While an investigation was launched into the incident, the official further reckoned that British officials have made “every effort to destroy sensitive material.” “The drawdown of our embassy was done at pace as the situation in Kabul deteriorated,” he explained.

This comes the same day as British Defence Minister Ben Wallace said that UK’s evacuation mission in Afghanistan has a ‘matter of hours' left and no more people will be called forward. While many NATO countries including France, Germany and Sweden announced an end to their repatriation process on August 27, Downing Street reiterated that it will stick to the August 31 deadline. However, speaking to Sky News, Wallace revealed that the main processing centre at the Baron Hotel in Kabul had closed adding that the airlift operation was in its “final hours”. 

Representative Image: AP