Defence secretary Ben Wallace has admitted up to 1,000 eligible vulnerable Afghans could be left behind as the British evacuation effort enters its “final hours”.
Mr Wallace warned that the threat from terror groups will only “grow the closer we get to leaving” following the devastating bombings carried out by ISIS-K yesterday.
Despite airlifting nearly 14,000 people out of Afghanistan in the past two weeks, Mr Wallace said “the sad fact is not every single one will get out”.
He added: “We will process the people that we’ve brought with us, the 1,000 people approximately in the airfield now, and we will seek a way to continue to find a few people in the crowds where we can, but overall the main processing is now closed and we have a matter of hours.”
Mr Wallace said the RAF has rescued “double” the number of Afghan nationals who supported the British effort in Afghanistan compared to what had been predicted.
The number of vulnerable people taken in by the British under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) is expected to hit 10,000 today.
But hundreds will be left behind.
“We think there will be circa between 800 and 1,100 Arap that didn’t make it,” Mr Wallace told LBC radio.