500,000 set to flee Afghanistan this year
Worst-case scenario after U.S. pullout
Half a million refugees could flee Afghanistan by the end of this year, the UN said.
While the humanitarian emergency is currently contained within Afghanistan, the UNHCR refugee agency told reporters it was preparing for a worst-case scenario of “around 500,000 new refugees in the region” after the U.S. withdraws its troops on Aug 31.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Kelly Clements, the deputy high commissioner of the UNHCR, said that while people were not currently flooding across Afghanistan’s borders, this could soon change following the final withdrawal of Western troops.
She added that there was now a need to boost support for neighbouring countries, which are already hosting more than 2.2 million Afghan refugees, with the UN appealing for nearly $400 million to fund its humanitarian response.
“We are appealing to all countries neighbouring Afghanistan to keep their borders open so that those seeking safety can find safety,” Clements said.
In particular Iran and Pakistan, who together host 90 per cent of the Afghan refugees in the region, “will need a lot of support,” she said.
However, while the U.K. is now urging Afghans seeking to escape the Taliban to head to land borders, the dangers involved were made clear yesterday when regional media reported that Pakistani border forces had opened fire on a group seeking to cross into the country.
At least three Afghans are said to have been killed in the incident, which reportedly occurred at the Torkham border crossing that links the northwestern Pakistani region of Khyber with Nangarhar in Afghanistan.
Speaking to The Telegraph last night, a senior officer in the Afghan National Police, who can only be referred to as “S” because of fears for his safety, also warned that many Afghans would not seek to cross through Pakistan due to the risk.
“There are Taliban and other countries also have very extremist groups,” he continued. “Today on the Pakistan border six Afghans have been shot and killed. Going to Pakistan is not very safe for me.”
The U.K. ended its evacuation effort on Friday, with Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, admitting that approximately 1,000 Afghans eligible to come to Britain may not “make it” in time.
Confirming that processing facilities at the Baron Hotel, outside the capital’s airport, had been closed, he added that he felt “deep regret” that not everyone eligible had been evacuated.
While almost 14,000 people have been evacuated through Operation Pitting, the number remaining in Afghanistan is thought to include between 800 and 1,100 Afghans, as well as 100 to 150 Britons.
Speaking afterwards, Boris Johnson described the situation as “extremely horrible” but insisted that the government would “shift heaven and earth” to help Afghans still in the country after the withdrawal.
However, when asked whether the withdrawal was a national humiliation, he appeared to point the finger at Joe Biden, adding: “The timing of this is certainly not the one that this country would have chosen, and I think that everybody understands that.”
Among the Afghans left behind are believed to be a number of interpreters who assisted British forces during the conflict.
Warning that closing the processing centre meant “many will not get out,” MP Tom Tugendhat said he was desperately calling foreign envoys and contacts to try to help friends reach neighbouring countries.
He added that there was now “a possibility we may find ourselves with the biggest hostage crisis the U.K. has ever seen.”
Also left stranded in Kabul is a high-ranking Afghan police commander, who until last week oversaw the security at Western embassies and assisted in evacuating British embassy staff and diplomats two days before the city fell.
Now in hiding and moving from house to house for fear of being hunted down, he has failed to receive responses to his email to the embassy pleading for help and has informed The Daily Telegraph he fears for his family’s safety.
Meanwhile, senior Tory MPS Friday demanded an urgent investigation into reports that British embassy staff had failed to destroy documents identifying several Afghans who had worked or applied for jobs as interpreters.
The papers were discovered by a reporter being escorted around the vacated embassy building by a Taliban patrol. They included names, phone numbers and addresses.
While the majority of the Afghans involved have now been evacuated, the issue will now be scrutinized as part of a Parliamentary inquiry, with Wallace stating that the prime minister “will obviously look for the details of what happened.”
“Clearly, it’s not good enough,” he told Times Radio.