The UK government is confident it can get British nationals out of Afghanistan, with plans for hundreds more to leave in the coming days, the defence secretary has said.
Ben Wallace told the BBC the military part of Kabul’s international airport was open and secure, enabling those eligible to leave for the UK.
The UK is also evacuating Afghans who worked for British forces.
The Taliban has claimed victory after taking over the capital of Kabul.
Fighters have seized the presidential palace and the government has collapsed, with President Ashraf Ghani fleeing abroad.
Commercial flights from the airport have mostly been suspended, leaving hundreds of Afghans who were trying to escape stranded.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC at least two people died on Monday amid chaotic scenes on the civilian side of the airport.
But Mr Wallace said he had received assurances from the Taliban leadership via a Middle East country that the military part of the airport would be allowed to function, enabling UK officials and forces to help people leave.
He told BBC Breakfast 300 British passport holders had left Afghanistan on Sunday, with the government aiming to fly out a further 1,500 people over the next 24 to 36 hours or slightly longer.
“If we manage to keep it in the way we’re planning to, we should have capacity for over 1,000 people a day to exit to the United Kingdom,” he said.
“Currently, this is not about capacity on planes, it’s about processing speeds, so that’s why I’m trying to fix that.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergencies committee later to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
The Foreign Office has advised more than 4,000 British citizens thought to be in Afghanistan to leave.
About 600 British troops have been sent to Afghanistan to help evacuate UK nationals, as well as Afghan interpreters and other staff who worked for the UK, as part of Operation Pitting.
British defence sources insist the military side of Kabul airport is still secure, despite the chaotic scenes on the civilian side.
The RAF are hoping to fly out more people on Monday – British nationals, as well as some of those Afghans who had been working for the UK.
One flight left yesterday and has already landed at RAF Brize Norton. Others are expected to land today.
The RAF currently has about eight military transport aircraft earmarked for the evacuation mission.
The BBC has been told that members of the Afghan Special Forces who were trained by the UK and US are also waiting to be airlifted out.
The operation is now being run from the crises management and communications centre in the bunker of the Ministry of Defence – which is connected to the military operations centre at the Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood.
Mr Wallace said the government “will try our very best” to get all those eligible out of Afghanistan by 31 August or sooner.
“If we can manage to keep the airport running in the way we are putting in place our people to deliver then I’m confident that by the end of the month we could get everyone out and actually hopefully sooner,” he said.
He added that some people would be left behind, for example those not currently in Kabul, but stressed the British evacuation programme was “open-ended” with no time-limit.
Speaking on LBC radio, Mr Wallace, who served in the British army in the 1990s, became emotional as he spoke of his regret that “some people won’t get back”.
Asked why he felt the situation “so personally”, Mr Wallace replied: “Because I’m a soldier… because it’s sad and the West has done what it’s done, we have to do our very best to get people out and stand by our obligations and 20 years of sacrifice is what it is.”
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace breaks down admitting “some people won’t get back” from Afghanistan and “it’s sad that the West has done what’s it’s done.”
@NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/UKMrUAQlDx— LBC (@LBC) August 16, 2021
Labour has called for the urgent expansion of the government’s resettlement scheme for Afghans to ensure those who helped British forces are not “abandoned”.
The party’s leader Sir Keir Starmer said the prime minister needed to “step up to the plate, show some leadership and some urgency”, adding that the evacuation of UK nationals and eligible Afghans had to be the priority.
Tory MPs have also criticised the UK government’s response.
Former Defence Minister Johnny Mercer, who served in Afghanistan, said in a tweet that ministers needed to “take responsibility” and the country “deserved better than the nil response this weekend”.
Another former Defence Minister, Tobias Elwood, described the “chaotic exodus” from Kabul airport as “Saigon 2.0” – a reference to the 1975 evacuations of US personnel when the North Vietnamese army captured the city.
Mr Ellwood, a former British Army captain, said in a tweet: “If this is not Saigon 2.0 I don’t know what is. Is this how we thought we’d depart Afghanistan? I repeat my call for a UK inquiry.”
The Taliban was able to seize control of Afghanistan after most foreign troops pulled out of the country.
President Joe Biden – who has promised to complete the withdrawal of all US troops by 11 September – defended the decision saying he could not justify an “endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict”.