Britain to accept thousands of Afghan refugees fleeing terror of Taliban in new scheme

THOUSANDS of Afghan refugees who flee the bloodthirsty Taliban will be given sanctuary in Britain under an emergency new scheme.

Boris Johnson is scrambling to come up with the plan to save fleeing women and children amid shocking reports of girls as young as 12 being forcibly married to Taliban soldiers.

The PM is facing fury from his MPs and a Cabinet civil war over Britain’s panicked and humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Boris cancelled his summer holiday plans to return to Downing Street to draw up the emergency plans.

The scheme will mirror David Cameron’s Syrian resettlement programme which gave a home to 20,000 of the most vulnerable directly from nearby refugee camps over four years.

Ministers have not decided how many Afghans will be eligible, but Canada has pledged to take 20,000 after announcing their own scheme.

The PM is also planning to host a virtual meeting of G7 leaders in the coming days as he embarks on a diplomatic blitz to stave off a total humanitarian catastrophe.

He is working closely with French President Emmanuel Macron on getting the UN Security Council to pass a resolution on the Afghanistan crisis.

The Taliban’s lightning-quick seizure of power has left the government and country reeling and sparked a bitter Cabinet civil war.

Amid scenes of chaos and carnage, British forces have airlifted over 300 people out of Kabul to safety.

But nearly 3,000 more Brits and at least another 1,000 Afghans are desperately trying to flee the murderous Taliban for the UK.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace choked back tears yesterday as he admitted “some people won’t get back” from Afghanistan.

His voice cracking with emotion, he added: “It is sad the West has done what it has done.”

He branded the Afghan disaster a “failure of the international community”, adding: “It’s not something you just rock in and rock out and expect something to be fixed.”

The Sun understands Mr Wallace is “livid” with the Foreign Office for evacuating most of its diplomats and leaving 18-year-old squaddies to process the visas of those desperately trying to flee the country for Britain.

He is said to have told colleagues: “There will be a reckoning for the Foreign Office over this one day”.

Embattled Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab finally cut short his family holiday in Cyprus yesterday to return to Westminster for an emergency Cobra meeting on the crisis.

CHAOS AND CARNAGE

Raab tonight vowed Britain will go all-out to ensure the past two decades of fighting in Afghanistan weren’t in vain.

The Foreign Secretary emerged from the latest COBRA meeting with a pledge to protect the gains made by Western troops from the Taliban.

He said: “We need to consolidate and try and stabilise the gains which we’ve made with so much blood, sweat, tears and loss of life over 20 years.”

He added the UK will “use every means at our disposal” to rally international allies to help “rein in” the Taliban’s worst atrocities.

Aid could be slashed and sanctions imposed if the Taliban harbour terrorists or go back on their promise to uphold human rights, he warned.

But open-mouthed Tory MPs branded his comments a “joke” and suggested he should be sacked.

Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the powerful Defence Select Committee, said the Taliban will not be “flustered by the threat of a reduction in aid”.

Laying into the panicked retreat: “It is a humiliating strategic defeat and embarrassment that will lead to another dark day for Afghanistan.”

He said Britain must “have the balls to do the right thing” and lead a new military Coalition to challenge the Taliban takeover.

Fellow Tory big hitter Tom Tugendhat, boss of the foreign affairs select committee, said: “The Prime Minister is looking for staff to watch his back and maybe he will choose somebody who isn’t on holiday.”

A Downing Street spokesman said: “The UK team in Afghanistan is working around the clock in incredibly difficult circumstances to help British nationals and as many others as we can get to safety as soon as possible.

“At the same time, we are bringing together the international community to prevent a humanitarian crisis emerging in Afghanistan – it’s in everyone’s interest not to let Afghanistan fail.

“That means providing whatever support we can to the Afghan people who have worked so hard to make the country a better place over the last twenty years and who are now in need of our help.”