‘505 people with links to this city are still trapped in Afghanistan’

MP WANTS CLEAR ADVICE FROM THE GOVERNMENT FOR BRITONS TRYING TO LEAVE

A LEICESTER MP has revealed more than 500 people with links to Leicester are still trapped in Afghanistan - and has written to the government to demand “immediate guidance and practical support”.

Liz Kendall, below, MP for Leicester West, has been contacted by 88 residents about the crisis and she has counted 505 of her constituents or their families who are unable to leave the Middle Eastern country and fear for their lives.

She said: “During the past fortnight, my team and I have made urgent inquiries to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Home Office on behalf of 88 constituents who have contacted my office, desperately worried for relatives in Afghanistan, urgently seeking guidance and, above all, reassurance that they and their families have not been abandoned by the British government.

“In total, 505 constituents or their relatives are stuck in Afghanistan, fearing for their lives, many having received threats from the Taliban.

“However, none of these urgent inquiries have yet received a full response. “This includes three British citizens, still now stranded in Kabul with their partners and young children, having frantically tried in vain to join an evacuation flight.” Ms Kendall also criticised the government’s failure to provide the full details of the resettlement scheme for Afghans.

She said: “The Afghan Citizen’s Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) is yet to be fully announced by the Home Office and therefore offers no chance of immediate assistance to my constituents, and the offer to resettle 5,000 Afghans in the first year through the ACRS does not seem to meet the scale of this crisis.”

Ms Kendall is demanding the government provides clear advice for Britons trapped in Afghanistan and information for those travelling over land or without travel documents.

She also wants the government to set out how it will work to ensure the human rights of those who will remain in the country will be protected.

■ Are you one of the people with links to people who are trapped in Afghanistan?

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