‘Big-Hearted' Britain To Take 20,000 Refugees

Britain is ready to welcome more than 20,000 Afghan refugees desperate to escape the Taliban.

- Macer Hall

Women and girls will be given priority under the plans announced by the Government last night.

Downing Street officials said thousands at risk following the extremist takeover of their country will come over the next year.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years.

“Many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help. I am proud that the UK has been able to put in place this route to help them and their families live safely in the UK.”

Surprise

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “We’re working very carefully. We are obviously a bighearted nation. We’ve got the criteria for asylum, that’s set in law, we work with the UN on that.

“We’re working very carefully on what kind of further commitment we might make.”

Mr Raab also admitted the Government had been taken by surprise by the lightning takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban as US and other allied troops with drew. The Foreign Secretary said “no one” saw the situation in Afghanistan coming and that the UK “would have taken action if we had”.

He added: “The truth is, across the world, people were caught by surprise.