BORIS Johnson and Dominic Raab are both facing accusations of having misled parliament in their handling of the Afghanistan crisis.
The Prime Minister promised the House of Commons on Monday September 6 that “every single one” of the emails sent by MPs raising the cases of constituents affected by the Taliban's takeover of the country would be answered “by close of play today”.
Later that same day, Raab told the chamber: “As the Prime Minister made clear, we will have replied to all MPs’ emails received by 30 August asking for an update by today [September 6].
“That will signpost them to the specific advice relevant to the particular case that they are raising.”
However, the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesperson Alyn Smith has, in a letter sent to the Foreign Secretary, outlined the cases of hundreds of Afghans which are still unanswered by the UK Government.
Flagged by his SNP colleagues, many cases of Afghans looking for aid have received nothing but automated responses or redirects to other government departments.
Carol Monaghan, the MP for Glasgow North West, sent emails about the cases of 63 individuals, and has received only receipts of acknowledgement in reply.
Steven Bonnar MP flagged 40 individuals’ cases and has received only one reply asking for more information, and Chris Stephens MP has so far received no response to 35 separate cases.
Smith said that his colleagues and other MPs have been “stonewalled” by the UK Government and accused Johnson of having “misled Parliament”.
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In the letter sent to the Foreign Secretary, he goes on: “We search for guidance but find nothing. We email your department and receive an auto-response. We want to help but your leadership of your departments ensures we cannot.
“Innocent people are being tortured, punished and killed because of this Government’s failure to plan and prepare. It is simply not good enough.”
He adds: “The farce that the public helpline initially went to a washing machine repairs company only goes to show the ineptitude of the response.”
Smith also raises concerns around the proposed Nationalities and Borders Bill, which is due to be scrutinised by Westminster’s human rights committee on Wednesday afternoon.
He said: “The crisis in Afghanistan demonstrates the need for the proposed legislation to be seriously reviewed if not binned altogether.
“Scotland is willing to play its part in helping Afghan refugees; rejecting this abhorrent bill would go some way towards repairing the UK’s poor commitment to humanitarianism and refugees.”
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said they were “urgently working through the correspondence” from MPs on individual cases.
They added: "Our priority has rightly been getting UK nationals and those Afghans who worked for us onto evacuation flights out of Afghanistan. In addition, we brought out hundreds of individuals who we identified as special cases due to the particular risk they faced through ties to the UK.”
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