Revealed: 1,500 Afghans Airlifted From Pakistan

Refugees who helped British army scrambled to safety in UK

- HOLLY BANCROFT

Defence minister James Heappey has said it is "great at last" to welcome Afghans who worked with the British army "to their new permanent homes", as he lifted the lid on the secretive operation to airlift thousands of refugees out of Pakistan and bring them to safety in Britain.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent at an army base in Leicestershire, Mr Heappey said the UK government “owe these people an enormous debt”, as it was revealed that 1,500 had been scrambled to the UK since the Ministry of Defence operation began in October.

Around 1,100 of these have been brought to MoD Garats Hay – a remote army base in the countryside just outside of Loughborough – since October when Rishi Sunak’s government performed a U-turn and decided that all Afghans eligible for the UK’s flagship resettlement schemes should be brought to Britain from Pakistan immediately.

The airlift came after The Independent revealed the plight of nearly 3,000 Afghans who have been approved for refuge in Britain but were stranded in UK-funded hotels in Islamabad after the UK stopped chartering flights, insisting families must find their own place to live in Britain before relocation.

But the operation is far from over. The government still needs to bring around 1,300 Afghans who are eligible under the MoD’s resettlement scheme from Islamabad to the UK, which it is aiming to do by the end of December. Currently, some 4,000 Afghans who worked with the British forces in the fight against the Taliban, and who have been approved for relocation, are still stranded in Afghanistan and Pakistan.