The United Kingdom (UK) officials and the Taliban were in talks over how to secure “safe passage” out of Afghanistan for British nationals and Afghan allies.
Downing Street confirmed Sir Simon Gass, the Prime Minister’s special representative for Afghan transition, has travelled to Qatar and was meeting with “senior Taliban representatives’’ to stress the importance of allowing people to leave Afghanistan.
The news emerged as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced 15 crisis response specialists were being deployed to Pakistan.
It said Uzbekistan and Tajikistan would help to assist British diplomats in their works to allow people escape Afghanistan over land borders and reach the UK.
The officials were expected to arrive within the next 48 hours, with the focus on helping UK nationals, interpreters and other Afghans who were employed by the UK, and those Afghans judged most at risk.
Elsewhere, the Home Office said Afghans who worked with the British Government and military would be able to move to the UK permanently.
Former Afghan staff and their family members eligible for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap), which prioritised relocation to the UK for current or former locally employed staff who have been assessed to be under serious threat to life.
It said these groups would be given immediate indefinite leave to remain as opposed to only five years’ temporary residency as previously permitted.
It was part of the Government’s Operation Warm Welcome, which was designed to help Afghans rebuild their lives in the UK.
More than 8,000 Arap claimants were among the 15,000-plus people evacuated by the UK since Aug. 13.
The number of UK nationals left behind in Afghanistan was in the low hundreds, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Tuesday.
He was unable to give a definitive figure on how many Afghans the UK had failed to airlift to safety after the Taliban seized power as the U.S. withdrew its final troops following a 20-year mission.
But in a further sign of the swift power shift in the region, Downing Street confirmed Sir Simon’s talks with the Taliban.
A No 10 spokesman said: “The Prime Minister’s special representative for Afghan transition, Simon Gass, has travelled to Doha and is meeting with senior Taliban representatives to underline the importance of safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals.
“And for those Afghans who have worked with UK for over the past 20 years.’’
MI6 chief Richard Moore held talks with the Pakistan military on Afghanistan in recent days, according to media reports in Pakistan.
The Daily Telegraph also reported secret discussions have taken place between senior British intelligence officials and the Taliban in Kabul in the past fortnight.
The newspaper said the aim of the talks was to seek assurances that Afghanistan would not be used to launch terrorist attacks on the west.