Former Royal Marine Pen Farthing to leave Afghanistan with his animals

Pen Farthing
PA Media

Former Royal Marine Pen Farthing has been given fresh hope that he can evacuate Afghanistan with his staff and rescue animals.

The charity director, who founded Nowzad shelter in Kabul, was told officials “will seek a slot for his plane” if he arrives at the airport with his 200 cats and dogs after weeks of campaigning.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace appeared to give the go-ahead on Wednesday amid a public debate on Twitter.

“At that stage, if he arrives with his animals we will seek a slot for his plane. If he does not have his animals with him he and his staff can board an RAF flight,” Mr Wallace said in a tweet.

He also insisted he has “been consistent all along” to ensure those most at risk are processed first and that “no one has the right in this humanitarian crisis to jump the queue.”

Mr Farthing, who served with the British Army in Afghanistan in the mid-2000s, has campaigned to have both his employees and animals evacuated in a plan dubbed Operation Ark.

He announced on Monday that the UK government had granted visas for all his staff and their dependants, totalling 68 people, but the evacuation of the shelter’s animals has remained a sticking point.

Nowzad supporters confirmed that a privately chartered Airbus A330 has been funded to take the charity workers and rescue animals out of the country.

However, problems remained with Mr Wallace advising that the plane would “block the airfield” and “sit there empty” as the processing of thousands of people trying to flee Kabul would be prioritised over airlifting animals.

Pressure continued to mount after Mr Wallace said Tuesday that he is unable to guarantee the group’s return to safety before the Taliban’s August 31 deadline.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has stood by Mr Wallace’s comments and said the government is doing all it can.

He told LBC: “We’re trying to do all we can for the staff but in terms of the animals and the question of whether they can be prioritised ahead of the other people that are trying to get out, I don’t have anything more to add to what the Defence Secretary, I think, rightly said in the last 24 hours.”

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