Boris Johnson Vows He’ll ‘Shift Heaven & Earth’ To Get More Afghans Into Britain

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Boris Johnson

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to “shift heaven and earth” to get more people from Afghanistan to Britain by other means, as the country’s evacuation operation at Kabul airport ends.

He also talked about the integration of the Afghan refugees saying that enough housing to accommodate a whole new town must be found for them.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that the UK had evacuated over 14,500 individuals so far, but that as many as 1,000 Afghans entitled to come to the UK have been left behind.

Sky News reports: Speaking to reporters on Friday, the prime minister shared his “great sense of regret” that more individuals could not be airlifted out of Kabul during what he described as “the first phase” of the evacuation process.

And a statement issued by the MoD later in the evening confirmed the UK’s military evacuation of Afghan and British nationals has so far removed 14,543 people from Kabul since Operation PITTING began on Friday 13 August.

But it warned the current phase of the evacuation effort is coming to an end, with the UK’s ability to process any more evacuations from Afghanistan now “extremely reduced” and focus turning to getting diplomats and service personnel out of Afghanistan.

The MoD said those assisted out of Kabul include embassy staff, British Nationals, those eligible under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) programme and a number of nationals from partner nations.

UK troops have evacuated more than 8,000 Afghan individuals and their families during the August operation, they added.

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