Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 5
5
When engaging in fragile environments, the Government should keep better records— securely held—on locally-employed staff...
Recommendation
When engaging in fragile environments, the Government should keep better records— securely held—on locally-employed staff to ensure that any evacuation can be carried out more effectively. It should devise a policy, based on clear and fair principles, about the assistance that will be offered to local partners in the event of a security deterioration, and report to us when it has done so. In its response to this report, the FCDO should explain why its Lessons Learned review only covers the period from April 2021 onwards, and why it does not cover intelligence matters. We ask the Government to share with this Committee the results of its internal investigation into the failure to destroy sensitive documents at the Kabul Embassy. The FCDO should review its procedures for evacuating embassies and destroying sensitive documents and data, and report back to the Committee on the steps it will take to avoid a similar failure happening again. (Paragraph 16) The evacuation
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government agrees with the Committee on the need to keep accurate, up-to- date records, securely held, on locally employed staff. The Government’s response to the question of whether it should offer resettlement to local partners not directly employed, in the event of a security deterioration, is set out in the answers to the Committee’s recommendations 3 and 8, above and below. The main tool the Government has to assist partners in making informed judgements about the safety and security of their staff is FCDO Travel Advice. The Government recognised the likely heightened risks to British nationals in Afghanistan arising from the withdrawal of NATO troops, and strengthened FCDO Travel Advice accordingly. Before 21 April 2021, FCDO Travel Advice was to avoid all travel to Kabul and the rest of Afghanistan, with the exception of the Enhanced Security Zone in Kabul, the international airport, the city of Bamyan, and Panjshir province (to these latter places we advised against all but essential travel). On 21 April, FCDO Travel Advice was changed to advise against all travel to anywhere in Afghanistan, and to advise British Nationals to consider leaving the country by commercial means. The British Embassy in Kabul contacted British NGOs, security companies, and others with an expatriate presence, to ensure they were aware of this advice, and to encourage them to act on it. The FCDO further strengthened Travel