More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A family from Kent stuck in Kabul have said they've lost all hope after not being evacuated by British troops.
The family contacted the British government on August 15, the day the Taliban entered the capital, and had to wait two weeks before being given instructions on how to get out of Afghanistan.
Speaking to Sky, the man, who has a wife and children, but who has not been identified, said: "The crowd was huge and there was a thousand people there. It wasn't possible to see the British troops at all.
"When they left I though, that's it. I lost all hope.
"I was shocked and worried. I hugged my wife and said that's it. They're gone and there's no one to help us now.
"My wife started to cry and so did my kids because the crowd was so big. We just lost hope."
The British Citizen is staying with his wife's family and they have not left the home since they returned from the hotel on August 23.
He said: "I've kept trying the number on the government's website and they keep telling me not to go to the airport at the moment.
"It's not safe. We're so worried. I don't know what's going to happen.
"There's a lot of Taliban around here and they know I'm from Britain. I'm scared if I go out a gunman is going to come and kill us.
When asked what he would say to the British government he said: "We don't want to be in this situation. Please, please, please I beg you rescue us from here. We don't want to stay here anymore. It's worrying for us. There's no one here to defend us."
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the number of British national still in the country is "now down at a very low level" after 5,000 were brought home since April this year, adding it was in the low hundreds.
It's not clear how many Afghan citizens who worked for the British government are stranded after the withdrawal of all Western forces.
Downing Street confirmed Sir Simon Gass, the Prime Minister’s special representative for Afghan transition, has travelled to Qatar and is 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 are being deployed to Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to assist British diplomats in their work to allow people to escape Afghanistan over land borders and reach the UK.
The officials are 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.
Today, MP Tom Tugendhat said the Taliban are running a "slick PR operation masking a vicious death cult", as he tore down claims from a group spokesman that Britons stuck in Afghanistan will be allowed to leave safely.
