Thousands of Afghans who helped British forces ‘remain stranded by UK’

People gather near a US Air Force transport plane in Kabul in August 2021. Eligible Afghans were not helped by British resettlement schemes, the MoD said. Photograph: Shekib Rahmani/AP

Several thousand Afghans who helped British forces before the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 remain stranded and at risk from the Taliban because of failures of the government’s settlement schemes, according to a damning report by MPs.

The defence select committee’s report urged the government to set out what action it is taking to ensure safe passage to the UK for at least 4,600 Afghans, including interpreters and contractors, who worked for UK forces.