Poor IT hindered evacuation in Afghanistan, says whistleblower

In thousands of cases, emails were not even read

The UK government's handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan in August was 'chaotic' and 'dysfunctional,' according to a whistleblower, who said poor IT support hindered thousands of Afghan attempts to get help during the fall of the capital Kabul in August.

Raphael Marshall, who worked in the Foreign Office during the Taliban takeover, provided written testimony to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, as part of an inquiry into the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Marshall claimed that multiple technology issues, including email management, lack of tech expertise, a shortfall in PC availability, lack of login for secure IT systems, and collaboration restrictions hindered efforts to rescue Afghans eligible for entry to the UK.

Marshall was a desk officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) until September this year, tasked with handling requests from Afghan soldiers, aid workers, journalists, and other people who were at risk because of their links to the UK or other Western countries.

He estimated that between 75,000 and 150,000 people, including dependents, applied for evacuation, although "fewer than five per cent of those received any assistance" from British officials.

It is clear that "some of those left behind have since been murdered by the Taliban."

"On the evening of Saturday 21st August, the soldiers were issued one FCDO computer for every two soldiers. These did not work because FCDO IT had not issued the passwords to unlock them," Marshall wrote.

"These computers were finally unlocked on the afternoon of Sunday 22nd August. Until this, the soldiers worked with one computer shared between roughly eight people. This obviously considerably reduced their efficiency and speed."

"I printed out A3 spreadsheets for the soldiers, but this was no substitute for a computer. The soldiers clearly needed computers to email travel documents to Afghans selected for evacuation."

Marshall said that at any given point, there were more than 5,000 unread emails in the email inboxes belonging to the Afghan Special Cases team and the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.

"Emails received an automatic response that the request for assistance had been 'logged'," which was "usually false," as "emails were not even read" in thousands of cases.

At times, Marshall said, he was the only Foreign Office staffer monitoring thousands of emailed evacuation requests. Amid staff shortages, some soldiers were tasked to help in prioritising emails requesting evacuation, contacting Afghan evacuees and issuing them with travel documents.

"I deeply respect everyone who serves in the British Army but clearly soldiers' training is not intended to equip them for this type of task. The soldiers were uncomfortable with this task."

When individual evacuation cases were submitted to former UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab - now Deputy Prime Minister - for approval, "it took several hours for the Foreign Secretary to engage."

Sometimes he asked for requests to be reformatted, suggesting that "he did not fully understand the situation."

Marshall's testimony comes just months after the Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, told the House of Commons in September that a Ministry of Defence staff member was suspended for a data breach that saw the email addresses of more than 250 Afghan interpreters (who worked for British forces) exposed by mistake.

The email was sent to interpreters who were either remained in Afghanistan or were able to reach other countries. The breach meant their email addresses were visible to all recipients, showing their names and some associated profile pictures.

Mr Wallace described the breach as "an unacceptable level of service" that let down thousands of members of the British forces and veterans.