By Sima Kotecha
UK Editor, BBC Newsnight
Image caption, An unnamed worker says he used to be beaten by the Taliban for working at the embassy
Greater than 100 males who labored at the British embassy in Afghanistan dwell in the country, with some telling the BBC they had been beaten and tortured.
The males labored for the realm safety firm, GardaWorld, and hundreds had been in submit for bigger than a decade.
Several shared photos of injuries they dispute had been resulted in by the Taliban.
The UK government says it has evacuated bigger than 15,000 folks since final three hundred and sixty five days and is working to raise extra to the UK.
A spreadsheet itemizing the names of bigger than 150 males who labored at the embassy and restful are living in the country has been viewed and verified by BBC Two’s Newsnight.
One man, who can now not be named to give protection to his identity, acknowledged he used to be now not too long in the past beaten by the Taliban due to of his outdated job as a guard at the embassy.
“I was sitting initiating air when gunmen approached me, one of [them] attacked me,” he acknowledged.
“They acknowledged you had been working for the British embassy. They started beating me and so they threw me on the ground. They attacked me but again and but again but again.”
Image caption, “They attacked me but again and but again but again,” one man acknowledged
Yet any other ragged guard acknowledged a militant hit him over the head with the butt of a rifle. He says he used to be most effective launched after the Taliban used to be happy he now now not labored for the British.
This week, the UK government acknowledged the males would be ready to put collectively to realize help to the UK from 20 June as segment of its Afghan voters resettlement scheme (ACRS), which is basically centered at folks that assisted the UK efforts in Afghanistan.
It used to be officially launched in January but software program requests can most effective be submitted from subsequent week. Critics dispute that is simply too diminutive, too leisurely.
A separate government scheme, the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Coverage (ARAP), aimed to relocate folks that had been employed straight by the British government, including interpreters who helped British forces.
One Afghan who came to the UK earlier this three hundred and sixty five days below ARAP acknowledged reasonably a couple of his ragged colleagues from the embassy had been being threatened on a day after day basis. He is now not being named to give protection to his family who dwell in Afghanistan.
“I devour like the British had been disloyal,” he acknowledged. “They made a promise – these males labored exhausting for them and now their lives are at possibility.
“I’m able to now not sleep or be pleased without pondering of what they’re going via. They message me constantly inquiring for back.”.
This week military minister James Heappey told the Commons 9,500 Afghans maintain already been successfully relocated to the UK below the ARAP scheme.
However he acknowledged thousands extra restful remained in Afghanistan. “We mediate we have bought concerning the much like pass in relation to the choice of folks that are eligible,” he acknowledged.
Image supply, Getty Images
Image caption, The British Embassy in Kabul has suspended operations there since the Taliban takeover
The human rights charity, Azadi, works to toughen and evacuate centered Afghans. Sarah Magill, the charity’s director, acknowledged there had been no the clarification why it had taken see you later to originate up the following process.
“By their inaction the federal government has resulted in incalculable trauma,” she acknowledged. “It is miles a deeply inhumane manner to treat a body of group entrusted to take care of British ministers and civil servants safe.”
The government has confronted fierce criticism of its handling of the evacuation in Afghanistan final summer season, with one neighborhood of MPs announcing there had been a “total absence of a thought for evacuating Afghans who supported the UK mission”.
At the height of the Taliban takeover the federal government issued a assertion, announcing: “We can back all these Afghan safety guards diminished in dimension via GardaWorld to give protection to the embassy.
“They could possibly even be granted the beautiful to enter the UK and we in the meantime are working via the harsh logistics of getting them out of Kabul.”
A UK government spokesperson acknowledged: “Our group labored tirelessly to evacuate over 15,000 folks to safety from Afghanistan inside a fortnight in the largest and fastest emergency in most modern historical previous. We’re restful working exhausting to back the folks of Afghanistan, having already helped over 4,600 folks to pass away the country since the discontinuance of the militia evacuation.
“Now we maintain opened the Afghanistan Citizen Resettlement Blueprint, one of essentially the most ambitious resettlement programmes in the arena and the first bespoke scheme in Europe to originate up resettling evacuees and folks.”
GardaWorld added: “For the reason that closure of the British Embassy in Kabul, we have been working tirelessly with the UK government to be sure essentially the most steal-up for our Afghan group on the UK resettlement schemes.”