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Live Afghanistan latest news: Dominic Raab faces grilling from MPs on 'what he's done in last four months' to help
2021-09-01 00:00:00.0     每日电讯报-英国新闻     原网页

       Dominic Raab is facing a grilling from MPs of the foreign affairs committee this afternoon, as they look to understand "what he's done in last four months" to help Afghanistan.

       The Foreign Secretary will appear during an extraordinary session from 2pm today, although Tom Tugendhat, the committee chairman, bemoaned the fact that he has "sadly only granted us an hour, which I don't think is particularly long, given the scale of the crisis".

       Mr Tugendhat, the Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling, told ITV's Good Morning Britain, praised the work of other foreign ministers such as Germany's Heiko Maas, who has been building alliances with counterparts in central Asia to ensure safe passages remain, and as part of a longer-term geopolitical strategy.

       "I am looking forward to hearing from our own foreign secretary about what he has done in the last four months," he added.

       Mr Raab has hit out at criticism for remaining on a beach holiday with his family as Kabul fell. It has been reported that he considered Afghanistan "yesterday's war" and was more focused on Brexit.

       This morning the shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, told Sky News he was "the weakest link in a very, very weak chain".

       ??Follow the latest updates below.

       UK embassy officials told Afghans to go to the Abbey Gate entrance of Kabul airport hours before Thursday's deadly suicide bombing at the site, the BBC has revealed.

       The British embassy instructed people to "use the Abbey Gate [near] to the Baron Hotel", even though an attack at the airport was deemed imminent by the US and UK.

       However, on Wednesday night, the day before the explosion, Britons were told to leave Kabul airport because of the "ongoing and high threat" of a terror attack.

       Read more on that story here.

       Another MP on the foreign affairs committee has set out key questions that he has for Dominic Raab today, ahead of his appearance from 2pm.

       "As well as accounting for his own role in the Foreign Office’s mismanagement of the situation in Afghanistan, we need to understand why they are lacking in the institutional resilience needed for a crisis of this magnitude," said SNP's Stewart McDonald.

       "Many MPs have experience of emails going unanswered, poor information and a total lack of urgency," he added.

       "Afghanistan 2021 does indeed represent a humbling fork in the road."

       Here's a taste of the level of hostility the Foreign Secretary can expect today.

       Neil Coyle is one of the Labour members of the foreign affairs committee grilling Dominic Raab today - and he is not holding back.

       The number of people left behind is "shameful; but shameless Ministers refuse to take responsibility for their abysmal failure," he says.

       Dominic Raab should "immediately" fly to central Asia to ensure remaining British nationals and Afghans can cross the border safely, the Liberal Democrats have said.

       Layla Moran, spokesperson for foreign affairs, said: "It is time for the Foreign Secretary to take the job seriously and sort out this mess. If he can travel for a holiday, then surely he can travel to save lives during an international crisis.

       "After months of failure and sitting on his hands, urgent action from him is needed," she added. "We need the Foreign Secretary to show he is up to the job. So far he has been wilfully ignorant and always two steps behind.

       "Raab must fly to the region as soon as possible and meet with his foreign minister counterparts to ensure British nationals and Afghan refugees can reach safety from the Taliban.

       "If the German foreign minister [Heiko Maas] can do it, then why can't he?"?

       Dominic Raab is "simply not present" in his role as Foreign Secretary, his Labour counterpart has claimed.

       Lisa Nandy told Sky News Mr Raab must explain why he had left Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary "fielding enquiries" for him.

       "He has been missing in action for 18 months while we were supposed to be preparing for evacuation, he was on holiday while Kabul fell and didn't return.

       "Why has none of that preparation work been done? How has he been allowed it to get the situation where the UK is in a weakened position, reliant on the Taliban, China, Russia, and others in order to safeguard essential British interests and prevent terrorist attacks.

       "If he can't answer that he isn't fit for office and ought to resign."

       Labour's Lisa Nandy has said it is "almost unbelievable" that the Government is having to rely on assurances from the Taliban for safe passage.

       Her comments come after The Telegraph exclusively revealed that senior British intelligence officials held secret talks with the Taliban, with Richard Moore, the chief of MI6, flying to the region for separate, urgent talks with the head of the army in Pakistan.

       Sir Simon Gass, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, is in talks with Taliban officials in Doha.

       Ms Nandy told Sky News that dialogue was "essential if we are going to get thousands of people out of Afghanistan."

       They are "running out of options as the Taliban hunts them from street to street", she added.

       "It's almost unbelievable we are in a situation where we are reliant on the Taliban for safe passage. But that is the reality we face. We need the Foreign Secretary to step up now."

       Any Afghans seeking asylum through illegal routes will be rejected, a minister has said today.

       "We won't put up with illegal immigration, please use safe and legal routes," Victoria Atkins told Sky News.

       "We want to help people who should come to this country, who come legally and safely, as we did with the Syrian resettlement scheme."

       The Afghan resettlement minister said the Government was "absolutely determined to crack down on the illegal people trafficking gangs we see exploiting people for profit", saying: "We have got to send a very clear message out to people traffickers that if they do this, if they are caught they will be dealt with in our justice system."

       Operation Warm Welcome, the new programme through which Afghans will be permanently resettled and integrated within the UK, continues the "proud history of helping those in needs", Boris Johnson has said.

       The Prime Minister has appointed Victoria Atkins as the Home Office minister in charge of the scheme.

       The Conservative leader of Stoke on Trent city council has questioned why more local authorities are not helping with Afghan evacuees.

       Abi Brown told Radio 4's Today Programme: "How could you not watch those scenes on the television over the last few weeks and put forward over this?

       "But the question I would like to ask the other local authority leaders, 66 per cent who haven't nominated is - why can't they?

       "If I can, with the challenges that we have, one in 250 people in Stoke on Trent are an asylum seeker, and as a result of the pressure around that we have withdrawn from the asylum dispersal system, what's their excuse?"

       The Taliban spokesman who claimed that there was "no hit list" and that women were allowed to return to work while girls could attend university and schools was lying, Tom Tugendhat has said.

       Speaking after an interview with Suhail Shaheen, the foreign affairs committee chairman told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "Your viewers and you have just been lied to.

       "It is absolutely clear that groups who make up the Taliban… have been rounding up people in Lashkagar and Kandahar and... killing them.

       "Information left behind is being used to round up people," he added. "Somebody who I am aware of has disappeared after being stopped at a check point.

       "These [Taliban claims] are dishonest reports. It is simply not true: universities are being closed, women are being denied access to education and female civil servants are being sent home.

       "It is a slick PR operation masking a vicious death cult."

       The Government is yet to decide whether Afghans able to move to the UK under the resettlement scheme will get indefinite leave to remain, a minister has admitted.

       Although those who are currently in the UK under the Arap scheme will be rehoused and encouraged to integrate under "Operation Warm Welcome", Victoria Atkins would not confirm whether it would apply to those seeking resettlement currently from Afghanistan.

       The Afghan resettlement minister told Sky News: "This is a huge scheme, we want to get it right... We are just working on it at the moment.

       "It is a very fast paced, large task... These decisions will be made in due course.

       "But I very much hope from the announcements today British people, but also importantly Afghans who have moved to our country very recently, really get the sense of how warm and welcoming the Government wants to be towards them."

       Former minister Nusrat Ghani has said she does not believe the Taliban have changed.

       The Conservative MP for Wealden, who has spent time in Afghanistan, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Their ideology is the same. They're engaged in a never-ending war against unbelievers and apostates, and their one desire, and their one desire only, is to establish a caliphate that has no room for women and girls."

       Ms Ghani said she is trying to help a number of women and girls, and is currently focused on female MPs and judges. One female parliamentarian has "been told that she will be killed if the Taliban get hold of her," she said, adding that she is in her third safe place and desperately running out of food and money.

       The woman was a university teacher when the Taliban were last there and was already "brutalised" by them once, Ms Ghani said.

       "She survived and went back to Afghanistan and helped rebuild the country, and she's been abandoned, and if women like her are all killed there won't be any women left in Afghanistan to take up the positions that the Taliban is promising them," she said.

       Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told GMB there was a "no hit list" for people seeking to leave. It comes as Sir Simon Gass meest senior members of the group in Doha to ensure safe passage.

       There was "no discrepancy" between the Taliban's promise that women could continue working and a "personal incident" of a female news anchor who was barred from her work place, he added.

       "This policy should be followed and implemented by me up to the foot soldiers," he added. "maybe some personal incident that is happening everywhere - even in the KU you have many incidents, but they don't reflect the policy of the UK. The same applies to Afghanistan." He added it was the "initial days - with the passage of days, everything will be put in its proper framework and I hope we will have Afghanistan develop, prosper and have steps taken further for expanding education both for male and female."

       Dominic Raab is set to blame intelligence errors for the Afghanistan crisis on Wednesday as he faces a grilling from MPs over his decision to fly Foreign Office staff out of the country after the Taliban took Kabul.

       In an hour-long session of the foreign affairs committee, Mr Raab will also face questions about his decision to stay on holiday in Crete until after the Taliban's takeover was complete, and on how many people eligible for resettlement in the UK remain in Afghanistan.

       A Whitehall blame game over failures in the country has already begun, with anonymous defence sources blaming the Foreign Office for withdrawing staff too quickly after the fall of Ashraf Ghani's government a fortnight ago.

       Sources have claimed more refugees could have been evacuated if embassy officials had remained rather than being replaced by Border Force staff from the UK.

       Mr Raab is set to blame Ministry of Defence intelligence failures for a lack of readiness for the Taliban's victory.

       All eyes are on Westminster today, where Dominic Raab is being hauled in front of the foreign affairs committee to face questioning over his work on the Afghan withdrawal.

       The extraordinary session, called during recess, is likely to see the Foreign Secretary come under pressure to explain why he was on holiday as Kabul fell and why more was not done to get all British nationals out of the country, as well as what is happening now to ensure those who remain have safe passage.

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标签:综合
关键词: resettlement     Taliban     Afghanistan     committee     Secretary     Dominic Raab     Kabul     people     Afghans    
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