UK's response to help starving Afghans 'excruciatingly slow', MPs claim

The International Development Committee said Downing Street pledged £286m after US-led forces withdrew last summer and the Taliban regained control, but “the release of that aid to the people who so desperately need it has been excruciatingly slow”.

The committee said this raises questions about whether the UK will "act swiftly enough" to provide aid to Ukraine and support refugees.

It also found the Government has not been working with other countries to revise UN-imposed sanctions on Afghanistan, even though the “meltdown” of the banking system is “strangling the remaining life out of the country” and making it extremely difficult for Afghans and aid agencies to access funding.

The evacuation operation for aid workers who attempted to leave the country last summer was “neither apparent nor scaled adequately” and Afghans who worked with British aid agencies now feel “abandoned” by the UK Government, the MPs added.

Operation Pitting, was the military evacuation which focused on British citizens and Afghans who lived in the UK or were eligible under one of the Government’s two relocation schemes.

However, Afghan aid workers involved in UK-funded projects were excluded from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and they are not officially recognised by the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.

In a report, the committee wrote: “Some Afghans who worked on projects funded by the UK Government are now reporting that their lives are at risk of reprisals from the Taliban.

“Afghan aid workers who advocated for, with UK Government encouragement, freedoms for women and minority groups are now at risk of reprisals from the Taliban authorities.

“The UK Government’s schemes do not adequately support those aid workers seeking safe passage to the UK.”

The committee has made a number of recommendations, calling on the Government to release the aid it pledged more swiftly and work with international counterparts to address the banking crisis.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The UK is taking a leading role in the humanitarian response in Afghanistan and Ukraine and will continue to do so.

"In Afghanistan, we have distributed £261 million in aid this financial year through partners who are providing lifesaving support to more than 6m people. We have already announced £220 million in aid for Ukraine.

“We have a long and proud history of supporting people in their time of need, and will continue to be as generous as we can to the people of Ukraine and Afghanistan.

"We evacuated more than 15,000 people from Afghanistan within a fortnight and have already announced an immigration programme for Ukrainians to come to the UK.”