what they re looking for at the moment is some sort of accommodation, relying on taliban help, to keep this airlift going smoothly, but the g7 is the critical moment to watch. damian grammaticas. tom tugendhat chairs the foreign affairs committe and served in afghanistan he s spoken this morning about a friend travelling with his family to try to escape from the taliban. last night i was speaking to a guy that used to work with me over ten years ago, as an interpreter. he told me that he was going to risk a drive at night with his wife and his five children. i ve got two kids and i can tell you that driving with kids isn t easy, but at night on a war zone, on potholed roads, you wouldn t do that unless you are desperate. he is doing that because he is
the american presidentjoe biden is under pressure not to withdraw his troops from kabul airport on the 31st of august as planned. downing street said borisjohnson and mr biden agreed in a call last night to continue working together to enable people to leave, including after the first phase of the evacuation. it didn t say if moving the date had been discussed. but the prime minister is expected to ask him for more time to allow more people to get out. the government has already said british troops will have to leave when the us does. the white house has so far not said whether it will extend the deadline or not. we are in talks with the taliban on a daily basis through both political and security channels. we believe that we have time between now and the 31st to get out any american who wants to get out. the g7 won tjust cover the situation at the airport. borisjohnson is expected to ask the other countries to match the uk s promises on sending aid and resettling refugees. the uk has
british soldiers. in fact, i m told, that since then the taliban have set “p that since then the taliban have set up some kind of filtration system aimed at preventing those who do not have the right paperwork from being in the crowd and, kind of comic getting in the way of others who do have the correct permissions. we have the correct permissions. we have had reports in times of the taliban stopping or preventing or harassing some of those afghans who do have the right paperwork because they worked with international forces of foreign troops and preventing them from getting through to the airport but that does not seem to be the predominant issue from what i have seen. it s more just the sheer number of people who were there and, in many places, the lack of any real filtration system which we are those who are eligible and who aren t. it s just a kind of freefall. free for all.
speaking before an emergency session on afghanistan, un rights chief michelle bachelet urged the taliban to honour commitments to respect the rights of women and girls, and ethnic and religious minorities, and refrain from reprisals. the taliban has pledged to protect and respect human rights. taliban spokes people have made specific commitments to protect women s right to work and will girls rights to attend school within the taliban s interpretation of islamic law. they have also said they will respect the rights of ethnic and religious minorities and refrain from reprisals against those who work with the government or international community. the onus is now fully on the taliban to translate this committment into reality, in having effective control of much of the country they must ensure in those areas ongoing respect for international human rights and ongoing and indeed heightened provision of essential public services without discrimination to all. international human rights law
though this is something which previously the foreign secretary dominic bao had said in interviews that the uk may be considering. dominic raab. at the moment it looks like dermot, street aren t currently considering they may be using any sanctions on at the taliban. the reason this all matters is because the taliban said they want to share and the 31st we have to think not just as i had deadline but actually the fact that evacuations in the ukmy perspective need to start mapping before then because it is not like we can just get to the 31st of august and suddenly anyone remaining will be ale to get out so time is the defence secretary has stressed is really looking like matters of hours and days rather than weeks but i think our lives are going to be in the g7 summit this afternoon to confirm what a progress has been made in extending that deadline. we are expecting to hear from the present as was the finest after that to him a little bit more about what was concluded. with me now