LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that he would do his utmost to help any people in Afghanistan who are eligible for resettlement but who the British armed forces are unable to evacuate from Kabul airport.
“As we come down to the final hours of the operation, there will also be people who haven’t got through, people who might qualify (for resettlement). What I say to them is that we will shift heaven and earth to help them, we will do whatever we can,” Johnson told reporters.
Johnson said that he believed Taliban authorities understood the need to allow safe passage for Afghans who are eligible for resettlement in Western countries after 20 years of conflict.
“If they want to have engagement with the West, if they want to have a relationship with us, then safe passage for those (people) is absolutely paramount,” he said.
Britain has so far evacuated more than 13,000 Afghan and British nationals via Kabul airport.
Britain’s defence minister said earlier on Friday that Britain would not accept any more people for flights out of Kabul beyond those already inside the airport after it shut its processing centre and entered the final stages of its evacuation from Afghanistan.
Two British nationals and the child of a third British national were among dozens killed in a terror attack on people trying to enter Kabul airport on Thursday.
(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Catherine Evans)
