Ex-Royal Marine’s wife is SAFE in Kabul after being ‘crushed in stampede to airport’ – but her husband blast UKs for failing to check she is alive after missing her flight
- Paul Farthing, 52, blasted minister after he lost contact with his wife in Kabul
- He said Boris Johnson would be ‘personally responsible’ if anything happened
- The former Marine finally received a message saying she was in a safe location
- Mr Farthing, who served in Helmand Province in 2006, is holed up with 23 staff from his Nowzad charity for stray animals around five miles from the airport
A former Royal Marine has blasted ministers after his wife and the pregnant manager of his dog rescue centre were left trapped outside Kabul airport.
Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing, 52, said Boris Johnson would be ‘personally responsible’ if anyone harmed his Norwegian partner Kaisa after she was reduced to wandering the streets in Afghanistan.
Mr Farthing, who served in Helmand Province in 2006, is holed up with 23 staff from his Nowzad charity for stray animals around five miles away. He will not leave until the Government offers them all safe passage out of the country following the Taliban’s rapid takeover.
Former Royal Marine Commando Pen Farthing works with his Norwegian wife Kaisa Helene (above) and their team in Kabul for an animal chairty. He said yesterday Boris Johnson would be ‘personally responsible’ if anyone harmed his Norwegian partner
Mr Farthing said in a Facebook video yesterday: ‘The Taliban have actually moved next door, but they haven’t come to see us yet’
Mrs Farthing was told to get out along with the dog centre manager, who is 34 weeks pregnant and has a one-year-old.
Despite him meeting British and US troops at the north gate of Kabul’s airport, they refused to come out of their camp to bring them inside the military cordon, Mr Farthing said. ‘There is no security on the outside of Kabul airport. They got caught and crushed in a stampede.
‘As a Royal Marine Commando, I am absolutely furious with these soldiers because they refused to go out of that camp to rescue those people to get them inside the safety of Kabul airfield.
‘If the British military are there and they are not getting outside to rescue some of the people that they have been sent to get out of Kabul safely, then what is the point of them being here?
‘Boris Johnson and all of the senior staff of this Government need to know what a complete cluster they are making of this withdrawal in Afghanistan. People are going to die. Somebody needs to get a grip. This is not acceptable.’
In a desperate tweet at 3pm yesterday, he wrote of the plight of his wife and his manager, adding: ‘Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab – anything happens, I will hold you personally responsible.’
He finally received a message saying they were in two separate safe locations – but miles away – at around 4pm.
Pictured: Paul and Kaisa Farthing at their Afghan ‘wedding’ celebration, thrown in Kabul by their friends. He finally received a message saying his wife and charity manager were in two separate safe locations – but miles away – at around 4pm
The former Royal Marine Commando runs an animal rights charity in Afghanistan and is now trying to evacuate dogs and cats
David Hill, of Nowzad, which wants to evacuate 200 animals at a projected cost of £200,000, told the Mail: ‘They are safe, but they were left wandering the streets of Kabul. They are staying in locations they know are safe, that’s all we know. They were lucky to get out of the stampede.’
Mr Farthing set up his charity, which is backed by Ricky Gervais and Dame Judi Dench, after falling in love with a stray dog in Afghanistan while on tour in 2006. It is the country’s first official animal sanctuary and looks after more than 140 dogs, 60 cats, 24 donkeys and some horses.
He has had to put some of his older and injured dogs down so that he is ready for a quick removal once all his staff are out, but had promised friends he will ‘bolt the door’ and stay to the end if they are not given safe passage. Taliban fighters had moved in next door to him on Monday.
Mr Farthing hit out at the West’s withdrawal, saying: ‘I am getting fed up of the politicians trying to convince the world they have got a handle on this. They do not. This is a masterclass, an absolute masterclass, in how to do everything wrong in a withdrawal from a country that we have completely messed up.
‘We cannot get to Kabul airport. Outside of that perimeter the Taliban now control everything. There are thousands and thousands of desperate Afghans who are trying to get into an airport.’
Mr Farthing said he was ‘beyond furious’, and called on Mr Johnson to ‘control this situation’, adding: ‘This government and Joe Biden have created an absolutely unimaginable horror show of a withdrawal from Afghanistan.
‘By creating this withdrawal the government, the Americans – especially Joe Biden – have created undue panic and stress and nothing is going to be achieved.’