Questions remain over UK's withdrawal from Afghanistan five years after final British military flight left Kabul
Operation Pitting saw over 15,000 people flown to safety within two weeks as the Taliban took control of the country.
Serious questions remain over the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan five years after the final British military flight took off from Kabul Airport.
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New testimonies paint a picture of political chaos in Whitehall and severe, lasting trauma for families forced to leave everything behind.
The evacuation, known as Operation Pitting, saw over 15,000 people flown to safety within two weeks as the Taliban took control of the country.
It marked a sudden end to a 20-year UK military commitment that cost the lives of 457 British service personnel.
However, key figures involved on the ground say the evacuation exposed major structural failures at the top of government.
Alex Ballinger, now the Labour MP for Halesowen, was working as a diplomat at the British Embassy in Islamabad during the fall of Kabul.
A former Royal Marine, he was tasked with coordinating land-border evacuations into Pakistan and told LBC that he explained how government infighting back in London hampered efforts to save lives.
"I think the military put everything they had into the evacuation," Mr Ballinger said.
"The people on Operation Pitting flying people out from Kabul were really brave and doing a great job with the resources they had. But I think the overall operation was a shambles."
He described severe under-resourcing at the Foreign Office and conflicting priorities between government departments.
"My experience was working with ministers in the MOD, the Foreign Office, and the Home Office, and they were all at different priorities," he said.
"Some were making efforts to evacuate those threatened by the Taliban, and others were doing as much as they could to try and block the whole process. It was really dysfunctional."
Reflecting on former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab remaining on holiday during the crisis, he added: "There was a complete lack of grip at the top.
"When you think about what the UK put into Afghanistan - the tens of thousands of British troops who served, the hundreds who didn't come back - to not take that evacuation seriously was really shameful."
Despite the hurdles, Mr Ballinger's team helped thousands cross into Pakistan, including the Afghan National Girls youth football team, who were targeted for playing sports and have since resettled in the UK.
He added: "I had good Marines that lost their lives like Matthew Ford, Jonathan Wigley. I think their families would rightly question what the point of it all was.
"The Taliban are in control. It's not an improvement - certainly not for women's rights.”
For Afghan families fleeing the country, the reality on the ground in August 2021 was sheer terror.
Maryam was forced to flee Kabul alongside her husband, who had worked with British forces, and their young children.
She recalled the violent scenes outside Hamid Karzai International Airport as thousands made desperate attempts to reach safety.
"What I witnessed was beyond anything I could have imagined," Maryam told LBC.
"The Taliban were using violence to keep people away, beating them with guns, shooting, firing at crowds.
Yet people continued to move forward because the fear of what awaited them inside Afghanistan was greater than their fear of the bullets."
Maryam’s family spent two days and a night packed inside the airport waiting for visa clearance. They carried no luggage or spare clothes - only baby formula, biscuits, and water.
"I did not take clothes or personal belongings for myself. We left behind almost everything we owned," she said. "We had nowhere to sleep, no proper blankets, no pillows, and nowhere to rest. Those hours felt endless."
After arriving in Manchester via Dubai, Maryam’s family spent a year and a half living in temporary hotel accommodation alongside thousands of newly arrived refugees.
The fallout continues to strain government resources years later.
The National Audit Office revealed that while ministers closed the main Afghan resettlement schemes in 2025, around 9,000 people who were already accepted into the system are still waiting to be brought to the UK, with arrivals expected to stretch through to 2029.
Despite the initial hardship, Maryam has rebuilt her life. Today, she works for the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA) - the exact organisation that helped her family when they first arrived in the UK without fluent English or work.
"Starting life again from zero was incredibly challenging," Maryam said. "We lost our home, but we found safety. We left everything behind, but we gave our children the possibility of a future."
Five years on, both those who served and those who fled are left processing the legacy of the conflict.
With Afghan women and girls banned from school and work under Taliban rule, many continue to question what two decades of Western intervention left behind.
"My heart is still deeply connected to Afghanistan," Maryam added. "My greatest hope is that one day, Afghan women and girls will also have the freedom to live safely, study, work, dream, and build the future they deserve."
LBC has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.