Colchester soldiers praised one year on from the Kabul evacuation

In a video to mark the first anniversary of Operation Pitting yesterday, Ms Patel described the UK effort as “seismic” and a demonstration of the country’s “bond of trust” with those Afghans who had helped UK forces.

Colchester troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade played a key role in helping to get 15,000 people to safety as Kabul fell exactly a year ago.

During their two-week deployment, 750 soldiers who are based at Colchester Garrison provided security and logistic support.

But Ms Patel’s praise came despite a scathing report earlier this year by MPs, which described the chaotic efforts to get the UK nationals and the personnel who worked with them out of the country as a “disaster”.

The cross-party Commons Foreign Affairs Committee criticised the then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office for not returning from their holidays to take charge as the Afghan government crumbled in the face of the Taliban advance.

It said that British soldiers and civil servants who worked hard to get as many people out as they could had been “utterly let down” by the “deep failures of leadership” within government.

None of that was reflected in the Witham MP’s statement, however. In a video released yesterday, she said: “Op Pitting was the largest evacuation we’d been involved in since the Second World War. It was seismic.

“The United Kingdom should feel proud of what it’s done to support people in Afghanistan.

Handout photo issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of 16 Air Assault Brigade arriving in Kabul as part of a 600-strong UK-force sent to assist with Operation PITTING to rescue British nationals in Afghanistan amidst the worsening security situation

“That absolutely shows our commitment to humanity and doing the right thing for people fleeing oppression and persecution.”

Ms Patel said that 21,000 people had been brought to the UK from Afghanistan, including 15,000 evacuated directly through Operation Pitting, and a further 5,000 arriving subsequently.

About 2,000 locally employed Afghan staff and their families were taken out of the country before Operation Pitting under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap), which launched in April 2021.

So far, 10,000 people have been brought to the UK under Arap.

An up-to-date total was not provided for the number of Afghan refugees who have arrived in the UK under the separate Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), which was launched in January 2022.

File photo dated 17/05/22 of Home Secretary Priti Patel who has signed an order to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the US to face espionage charges. Issue date: Friday June 17, 2022. PA Photo. See PA story LEGAL Assange. Photo credit should

As of that date, the Government said about 6,500 people brought to safety during and after Operation Pitting who were eligible under the scheme had received leave to remain.

The Government has pledged to resettle more than 5,000 people under ACRS in the first year of the scheme and up to 20,000 over the coming years.

However, almost 10,000 Afghan refugees still remain in hotels, waiting to move into permanent accommodation.

Amnesty International UK said the “patchwork of figures” provided is a “reminder of the chaos and delay of the UK’s response to the Taliban a year ago”.

Refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said: “The Government has tried to present its response on Afghanistan as a success, but the Home Office has dumped thousands of Afghan families in unsuitable hotels for months on end and has still failed to reunite families separated during the emergency evacuation.”

Andy Hewett, head of advocacy at the Refugee Council, said: “For Afghans here in the UK, a pressing concern is the safety of their family members who are currently trapped in Afghanistan and not able to apply to reunite with them here.

“The Government recognised the need for families to be together when supporting people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine – they must show the same compassion and recognise that Afghans who suffered so much already have the right to be with their families, the people who make them feel safe.”

A Government spokeswoman said: “The UK will welcome up to 20,000 people in need through the ACRS.

“Already we are proud this country has provided homes for more than 7,000 Afghan evacuees, but there is a shortage of housing accommodation for all.

“It has always been the case that immediate family members, including spouse or partner and children under 18, of those eligible under either our ACRS or Arap schemes, are also eligible for resettlement in the UK.”