The British navy who wanted to flee Afghanistan with his “Noah’s ark” was rejected inside the airport

The team of Paul “Pen” Farthing has been working for days in Operation Arche, which aims evacuate the shelter staff as well as their families and the 140 accompanying dogs and 60 cats. Days after the fall of the Afghan capital to the Taliban, Farthing announced that he would not leave the country until an emergency exit was secured for his team and animals.

After the situation was recognized in Britain and members of the government cabinet came out in favor of helping Farthing, Defense Minister Ben Wallace cleared the landing of the plane the activist’s supporters carried out for animals. However, the road to the airport was not without problems. Not only were they delayed by Taliban checks where shots were fired, but later they could not approach the entrance to the airport for more than 10 hours, run the risk of seeing several animals die.

However, Farthing and his entourage managed to enter the airport safely on Thursday afternoon.. But when it all looked like it was close to being resolved and they were going to be able to take off for England, US Army officers rejected their papers and forced them to withdraw. This is how the former sailor described the situation on his Twitter account: “All equipment and dogs / cats were safe 300 meters within the perimeter of the airport. We got kicked out because @JoeBiden @POTUS had changed the paperwork rules just 2 hours ago. We went through hell to get there and were thrown back into the chaos of these devastating explosions. # Operation Arca ”.

When a follower asked him why the papers the British government had given them hadn’t worked, Farthing background: “The US controls the airport (internally) so they prevailed over the UK documents we had”.

The fact is doubly negative for the group which seeks to escape the terror of the Taliban because it meant not only the momentary failure of its operation, but also because it was probably the last chance they were going to have to leave the country. In the last few hours the UK government has confirmed it has entered the final stage of the evacuation and that no other person would be called upon to approach the airport to be evacuated. Added to this is the fact that the claims processing facilities operating at the Baron Hotel, just outside Kabul airport, have been closed for good. Now the outlook for Pen and his group is darkening..

Besides, Defense Minister Wallace lashed out at Farthing in communication with London radio LBC in which he states: “I think my superiors have wasted too much time dealing with this issue when they should be focusing on the humanitarian crisis”. When asked why more had not been done to help him, he replied: “Basically, as we have seen in the media, there are desperate people, very desperate people, and I was not willing to push these people aside for that.”.

It only remains to wait and see how the situation resolves and hope that Farthing and his group, as well as the thousands of people waiting for a place on a plane, can escape the chaos of Kabul to their countries of origin. origin.