UK Grants Afghan Asylum Seekers Permission To Flee Taliban To UK Without Passport

The UK has announced it will allow Afghan asylum seekers to enter without passports, as thousands attempt to flee the Taliban.

UK defence secretary Ben Wallace confirmed today that the country would relax border rules for Afghans who had already completed security checks with the UK, allowing them to board planes evacuating the country without a passport.

The rule change will affect Afghans who have worked with Western forces and were promised entry to the UK, but were unable to complete the process prior to the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul at the weekend.

We are processing as fast as we can, and where there are rules that we need to change, we are changing those rules…

If they’ve already been through our checks, we know who they are, we need to see if we can make sure that we adapt the rules to get those people out as soon as we can.

We will do everything we can to bring as many people out as possible.

The decision comes amid chaotic scenes at Kabul airport – the only part of Afghanistan not currently under Taliban control – where US and British forces are scrambling to airlift thousands of personnel by the end of the month.

Afghans who are able to be evacuated under the relaxed rules are expected to be flown to another country in the region before being processed for arrival in the UK.