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Then foreign minister, now justice minister and deputy prime minister: Dominic Raab
Photo: ANDY RAIN/EPA
In the summer of 2021, the radical Islamic Taliban recaptured the Afghan capital Kabul after years of NATO combat operations.
The West withdrew its troops, and thousands of Afghans seeking shelter were evacuated in chaotic conditions.
Now the current British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab - then Foreign Secretary - is confronted with the accusation of having caused the deaths of refugees through negligent handling of files.
This is reported by the British "Guardian", citing sources in the British Ministry of Justice.
Raab has been under pressure for days.
He is said to have bullied the employees in his houses and spread a "culture of fear".
Raab was once Brexit Minister.
Under Boris Johnson, he first worked as foreign secretary, later becoming justice secretary and deputy prime minister.
The new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the 48-year-old back to these posts.
Sunak is now having Raab's behavior checked - the accusations in dealing with the Kabul evacuations were made loud.
Accordingly, "people died" because Raab refused to read important documents in file formats that he did not like.
Specifically, it was about lists of Afghan employees who were entitled to an excursion.
Raab only reacted hours later and rejected a spreadsheet format in which the names were listed.
The Guardian quotes an employee who suspects that this delay meant that some Afghans did not make it to the evacuation flight in time.
Sunak confidant under pressure
The former foreign minister's role in the evacuation had previously been criticized.
So Raab was on holiday in Crete during the critical days and is said to have only reacted to the crisis situation with a delay.
Raab is seen as a close ally of Prime Minister Sunak.
It is now up to Downing Street to decide how to deal with the scandals.
Prime Minister Sunak commissioned the lawyer Adam Tolley to examine the allegations of bullying - the order could also be extended to the evacuation allegations.
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