PRESSURE is building on the British government to offer refuge to Afghan nationals as thousands scramble to flee the country in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover.

Ministers were urged to open safe and legal routes today after the Islamic fundamentalist group seized control of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Sunday.

Labour accused the government of “dragging its feet” over resettling Afghans who have supported the British deployment in the country and said Britain must now support refugees in the humanitarian crisis.

A petition urging the government to replicate Canada’s pledge to offer resettlement to 20,000 Afghan refugees had already garnered thousands of signatures.

The calls came as crowds at Kabul airport were seen clinging on to moving planes, with several confirmed to have fallen to their deaths.

The Afghanistan and Central Asia Association (ACAA), which supports Afghan migrants in Britain, said it has been receiving hundreds of calls and emails per day from people desperate to escape to Canada, the US and Britain. 

The group’s legal and development co-ordinator Sheekeba Nasimi told the Morning Star: “People [are] constantly calling, even people in the UK, saying: ‘How can I get my family out.’ And at the moment, because all the airports are shut, commercial flights are down, it’s just very last minute and it’s like time’s up now.”

She said the scenes from Kabul airport show how desperate people in the country are.

Members of the Afghan diaspora in Britain have been calling in panic, she said, as they fear for the safety of their loved ones.

“I was speaking to a lady today who was crying, saying she hadn’t been able to be in contact with her brother in Afghanistan for two weeks now and she just keeps calling and calling but there’s no answer, so people are just losing hope.”

The ACAA runs projects in Afghanistan that are funded by the British government, but Ms Nasimi said her colleagues there are not eligible to apply for resettlement schemes.

Sheekeba Nasimi, legal and development coordinator at the Afghanistan and Central Asia Association

“Even though they worked for the West and their lives are in danger there is not much we can do because there are no schemes to get people out,” she said.

Ministers have faced calls to expand the fast-track asylum scheme for Afghans – the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy – which only applies to those who worked directly for the British government and army. 

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced that he had been “working hard” to remove bureaucratic barriers in the scheme, including the requirement to have an Afghan passport, but admitted that there “are some people who won’t get back.”

Lawyers and campaigners warned that many barriers remain for those who worked with British forces.

One Afghan interpreter for the British and US army remains stranded in Kabul along with his family, after his wife was refused a spousal visa for having failed an English language test.

This morning the interpreter, his wife and two young children were forced to abandon a flight from Kabul airport to Britain after she was refused entry.

“He didn’t get on it because he didn’t want to leave his wife, so it was a proper Sophie’s choice,” the interpreter’s barrister Allan Briddock told the Morning Star. 

Mr Briddock said that poor decision-making had led to her visa application being wrongly refused, and explained that she should have been given a Covid concession for her English language test.

Authorities are meant to exempt individuals who could not get an English test where English testing centres are closed, which has been the case in Kabul for many months. 

“All they have to do is apply this exemption and give her entry clearance — it’s as simple as that,” he said.

“If anyone at any level of decision-making just looks at it they will be able to overturn it, so it’s a very basic thing that is really putting them all at risk.” 

Mr Briddock warned that his client will be killed if the Taliban find him as he is a British citizen and worked for the British army.

Despite the urgency of the situation, the Home Office and Foreign Office have ignored repeated calls to look at the refused visa application, he said. 

The family now await a decision at Kabul airport. 

“We are hopeful we can get this decision reversed in time but who knows, so far it’s just been brick walls,” Mr Briddock said.

On Sunday, shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds wrote to Home Secretary Priti Patel urging the government to live up to its obligations to the Afghan people, especially those who worked for the British.

“The Taliban’s return is likely to drive many thousands of people from their homes, with women and girls at particular risk,” the letter states. “The UK government must put in place specific safe and legal asylum routes to help provide support.”

Amnesty International UK CEO Sacha Deshmukh said: “The UK government must urgently expand and recast its grossly flawed and utterly inadequate relocation scheme to ensure many more people can get to a place of safety before it’s too late.”

Migrant rights groups said the crisis should serve as a wake-up call to MPs and warned that the government’s new Nationality and Borders Bill will “pull up the drawbridge” to those fleeing persecution and conflict. 

Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants chief executive Satbir Singh said: “If they believe in providing safety to those fleeing danger they must take a stand against this government’s cruel new Borders Bill, which would deny people refugee status based purely on their means of seeking safety. 

“The crisis unfolding in Afghanistan reminds us that there is no queue and people run to safety by every route available — we need an asylum system that acknowledges this.”

Refugee Action chief executive Tim Naor Hilton said: “While the world watches in horror as a tragedy unfolds in Afghanistan, the UK government is pulling up the drawbridge to those seeking safety in the UK.

“Without creating new routes to safety, we know that the crisis in Afghanistan will lead to yet more desperate people resorting to desperate measures to protect themselves and their families. 

“The government must now throw out its extreme and nasty Bill, make a long-term commitment to refugee resettlement and create an asylum system that aims to protect, not punish.”