The United Kingdom is wrapping up evacuations from Afghanistan and limiting refugees to those already inside Kabul’s airport.
Defense Minister Ben Wallace said U.K. forces were beginning the final stages of the process and will be leaving behind approximately 800 to 1,100 Afghan allies who qualified for evacuation, according to Reuters. He also said 100-150 British nationals will remain behind, some of whom are doing so willingly.
“It is with deep regret that not everyone has been able to be evacuated during this process,” Wallace said.
Both Wallace and Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged those eligible for evacuations to get into neighboring countries and pledged that the U.K. will facilitate transportation in those areas.
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“As we come down to the final hours of the operation, there will sadly be people who haven’t got through, people who might qualify,” Johnson said. “What I would say to them is that we will shift heaven and Earth to help them get out — we will do whatever we can in the second phase.”
The U.K. says it has evacuated more than 13,700 British nationals and Afghans so far, and eight or nine planes will come to remove 1,000 other people who remain in the airfield.
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Wallace said the deadly Thursday bombing outside the airport did not prompt a hastier removal of Afghan allies and British nationals, and the government had already intended to end the evacuations and processing on Friday.
More than 170 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in the explosion outside of Kabul’s airport on Thursday, according to an official with Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health. The U.S. military has confirmed 13 U.S. service members died in the blast.
Wallace said two British nationals and the child of a British national also died.
The U.S. is sticking to its Tuesday deadline to complete its own evacuations.
