UK Afghanistan Evacuation is Large, But Not Unprecedented
The Claim
The scale of the UK Afghanistan evacuation is unprecedented.
News posted on
Emerging story
Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom Dominic Raab claimed on BBC television that the Afghanistan evacuation is without precedent in the UK.
Misbar’s Analysis
MENA: We discovered that in a one on one interview on BBC on August 31, 2021, the UK Foreign Secretary said when discussing the withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan: “I think history will judge: 17,000 people given safe passage is without precedent.”
However, despite the great effort evacuating people out of Afghanistan, it is not unprecedented in British history. According to Britannica.com, between May 26 and June 4, 1940, about 198,000 troops had been rescued from northern France having been surrounded by German forces.
Another evacuation occurred just days before the Nazis occupied the Channel Islands, with 30,000 islanders evacuated according to the BBC. The evacuees were crammed into anything that could float such as mail boats, coal barges, and cattle boats.
