UK Embassy In Tashkent Denies Citizens Help To Enter Uzbekistan From Afghanistan - Reports

Umer Jamshaid Published September 04, 2021 | 09:10 PM

The UK embassy in Tashkent refused to help UK nationals cross the Afghan-Uzbek border, The Times newspaper reported on Saturday citing a recording of the call between a UK national and an embassy worker

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2021) The UK embassy in Tashkent refused to help UK nationals cross the Afghan-Uzbek border, The Times newspaper reported on Saturday citing a recording of the call between a UK national and an embassy worker.

Three UK citizens were not allowed to enter Uzbekistan from Afghanistan, while others with German, Turkish, and Afghan passports were let through the border. After the incident, one of the Britons phoned the UK embassy in Tashkent on Wednesday, and was advised to contact the UK embassy in Kabul, which at the time had already been evacuated.

"If you already registered your contacts with the British embassy in Afghanistan, maybe you could try to contact them again? And see if there is any update?" the embassy staffer said, as quoted by the media.

The embassy employee also failed to answer the question on how the UK could help its citizens in such a situation, and said that she would check what options there were and call back later if she could.

No response came later. Since the call was made, the Britons were also turned back at the border with Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, the media added.

The phone number on the official website of the UK embassy in Kabul is for "only limited consular assistance remotely," according to The Times, but the calls go unanswered and get redirected to London.

The number of British citizens remaining in Afghanistan is in the "low hundreds," the media said, citing UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. At the same time, the outlet estimates that there are more than 1,000 Afghans entitled to be evacuated. How they can leave the country after the evacuation operation ended is unclear.

This past Sunday, the UK completed the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan. A total of nearly 15,000 people have been evacuated from the country by the British forces so far.