Foreign Office 'ignored' emails frantically pleading to help Afghans: Report

Thousands of emails sent to the UK Foreign Office mailbox by government ministers, MPs and charities, detailing emergency cases of Afghans trying to flee Kabul have not been read throughout the week, the Observer newspaper says.

Amid growing criticism of the UK government's inaction on the evacuation efforts in Afghanistan after the Taliban's takeover, the Observer revealed on Sunday that an official email address which was used to regularly collate potential Afghan cases from MPs and others, contained 5,000 unread emails in its inbox which were not even opened throughout the week.

An email from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, could be seen in the inbox which was remaining unread for three days. There were also unread messages from the offices of Victoria Atkins, the newly appointed minister for Afghan resettlement, the Home Secretary Priti Patel, and the Tory chair of the defense select committee, Tobias Ellwood.

The ministers said the number of Afghans left behind would be around one thousand in total.

UK left hundreds of Afghans behind as last civilian flight departed from Kabul

Britain says its civilian evacuation efforts have come to an end in Afghanistan.

An official source with access to the Foreign Office email accounts in question, said most cases detailed the situation of more than one person, meaning ministers could have no clear idea of the real numbers left behind.

The source, who wanted to remain anonymous said, “They cannot possibly know [how many people have been left behind] because they haven’t even read the emails. Even among those who’ve been registered, many have been left behind. But there’s also a much, much larger group of people who just haven’t been dealt with at all.”

“It’s not that they are the emails which haven’t been actioned. It’s not even that they are emails which haven’t been processed and put into a spreadsheet. It’s that no one has actually opened the email,” the source added.

Meanwhile, Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour party, said in scathing comments that “complacency and incompetence of this government has been exposed yet again and with tragic consequences.”

Ironically targeting the Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb, who was on holiday when the Afghanistan crisis began, Starmer said, “The fact that so many emails have simply gone unopened is not the fault of civil servants but of government ministers who have been missing in action during this whole crisis.”

The UK’s Afghanistan evacuation concluded on Saturday night with the last military flight leaving Kabul and bringing a sudden end to the 20-year deployment. UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office claims that the British soldiers have helped to evacuate more than 15,000 people from Kabul airport.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under fire over his handling of the Afghan crisis, including from his ruling Conservative party, amid mounting criticism that Britain has been far too ineffectual during the mayhem.

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