Afghanistan: UK Speeds Up Kabul Evacuation Mission

Officials are working to speed up the operation to evacuate the remaining UK nationals and their local allies out of Afghanistan, Britain's ambassador to Kabul has said.

Nine-hundred British troops, plus RAF aircraft and a small number of Home Office staff, are working on the evacuation from Kabul under Operation Pitting with flights landing at RAF Brize Norton.

Sir Laurie Bristow said officials are putting "everything [they] can into getting British nationals and Afghans who worked with us in the past out of Afghanistan to safety".

"Yesterday we got about 700 people out," he said in a video posted on Twitter. "We are trying to scale up the speed and pace over the next couple of days.

"We will put everything we can on this for the next few days and try to get out everyone who we need to get to safety as soon as we can."

Sir Laurie has relocated from the embassy in Kabul to an emergency handling centre set up in the capital's airport to process the applications of those looking to leave for the UK.

Earlier, Boris Johnson told MPs the Government had so far secured the safe return of 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghans.

He added a further 2,000 Afghan applications had been completed, with many more being processed.

While the Taliban were allowing the evacuation to continue, he said it was unclear how long that would remain the case.

"The situation has stabilised since the weekend but it remains precarious, and the UK officials on the ground are doing everything that they can to expedite the movement of people," he said

"The most important thing is that we get this done in as expeditious a fashion as we can and that is what we are doing."

Watch: Afghanistan – UK 'collaborating' with Taliban in Kabul evacuation, Chief Of Defence Staff says.

On Wednesday morning, the head of the UK Armed Forces, General Sir Nick Carter, said the UK was "collaborating" with the Taliban to ensure people could leave the country.

He also said he expected seven aircraft to head to Kabul, enabling another 1,000 people to leave on Wednesday.

It comes as military veterans and former Afghan interpreters demonstrated outside Parliament, calling for support and protection for interpreters and their families still in Afghanistan.

If you or someone you know needs support at this time, you can find more information by visiting the British Army website and the Government's website.

Further details about support available can be found on our website.

Cover image: People evacuated from Kabul disembark from an RAF Voyager at RAF Brize Norton on Tuesday night (Picture: MOD).