Defence Secretary admits “some people won’t get back” from Afghanistan : CityAM

The race to get British citizens out of Afghanistan is underway with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace admitting “some people won’t get back.”

Over the weekend 600 UK troops arrived in Afghanistan in a bid to support the extraction of some 4,000 British citizens and eligible Afghans from the country.

Their arrival came not a moment too soon – the capital city of Kabul has fallen to the Taliban, giving them effective control of the country, as the withdrawal of Western troops continues.

This morning, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who served in the Scots guard, gave an emotional interview to LBC and spoke of his regret that “some people won’t get back”.

He said: “It’s a really deep part of regret for me … look, some people won’t get back. Some people won’t get back and we will have to do our best in third countries to process those people.”

In comments to BBC Breakfast, Wallace said that 300 British passport holders had left Afghanistan with the government aiming to get 1,500 more people out over the next 24 to 36 hours.

“If we manage to keep it in the way we’re planning to, we should have capacity for over 1,000 people a day to exit to the United Kingdom,” he said.

“Currently, this is not about capacity on planes, it’s about processing speeds, so that’s why I’m trying to fix that.”

Mr Wallace said the government “will try our very best” to get all those eligible out of Afghanistan by 31 August or sooner when the withdrawal of US troops is due to conclude.

While Kabul airport is not under attack as of yet, the situation is expected to evolve quickly with Taliban insurgents in control of the capital.

Read more: The fall of Afghanistan: Western governments got bored and Taliban rule has been resurrected