I wonder if someone can explain just who is being airlifted out.
As I understand it, the UK presence in Afghanistan at the start of this was just a couple of thousand uniformed troops. There must have been a plan, as anywhere, to lift these out in very short order if necessary.
Then, separately, there would be civilian contractors from the UK, I don't know the numbers, but likely not more than the troop numbers.
However the photos coming out show the vast majority in crowds, or inside the aircraft, to be apparently Afghans. Who are these ? The only media mention is of "interpreters". I really can't see that many interpreters being needed, or even those number of bilingual speakers in the country. Whatever checks are being made, or even able to be made, on who is boarding the aircraft ? There are accounts of arrivals in the UK "just with the clothes they stand up in", so any formal documentation check is presumably non-existent. Are they all fluent in English ? If one has been an interpreter this would seem to be a pretty basic start. But how can there have been so many interpreters ? Or is it just open season to get to Europe/USA ?