British troops are in a frantic 48-hour dash to rescue thousands of people from Afghanistan as the airlift looks set to end on Friday.
Just hours of UK evacuation flights remain before American soldiers start packing up to quit Kabul by Tuesday's deadline.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today vowed the UK will use "every hour" remaining - and Britain was working "as fast as we can" to maximise the number who can flee.
Yet Britain has already been clear that thousands more Afghans in danger from the Taliban, but not on the ARAP evacuation scheme, will be left behind - with 5,000 refugees expected to come to Britain later this year.
And around 2,000 ARAP qualifiers were yet to be evacuated as of Wednesday morning, according to the Telegraph.
US President Joe Biden last night snubbed Boris Johnson ’s pleas to extend the August 31 troop withdrawal deadline - instead saying “the sooner we can finish, the better”.
While most people who only have British nationality have been evacuated, there are dual nationals still to come - as well as potentially thousands of Afghans who helped the West.
Mr Raab refused to say when the last RAF flight will leave Kabul, amid suggestions the UK airlift will have to end as soon as Friday.
The Mirror understands military planners are still trying to set a date for the final airlift flight, and it could be even earlier than Friday.
Military chiefs are concerned about security on the ground, with deadly crowd surges at the airport gates and fears of a terror attack.
The Mirror has had messages from desperate people trying to secure a flight out, including one former Army interpreter still waiting for paperwork to leave.
Mr Raab today admitted it will be “days not weeks clearly” before the operation ends, and appeared to concede many Afghans will have to flee the country by other routes.
Speaking after G7 leaders urged the Taliban to allow “safe passage” for refugees, he told the BBC: “They’re not going to be able to coercively stop everyone leaving Afghanistan.”
Britain will then take applications from Afghans who have made it from third countries to join a UK relocation programme, which will accept 20,000 people over several years.
Well over 9,000 people have now been airlifted out of Afghanistan by the UK effort, including around 2,000 in the last 24 hours.
But US forces are already drawing down their presence at the airport so they can all be gone, with their military equipment, by Tuesday.
Speaking just after 7am today, former UK Chief of Defence Staff Lord David Richards said: “It depends how much they are prepared to leave there and what they take in with them.
“I would say 48 hours and then in some instances you have added they will sneak others in will arrive along with their own people.”
He admitted that would “almost certainly” mean leaving people behind, adding: “That's the position the West, NATO, have got themselves into.”
Mr Raab said "almost all" single-nationality UK citizens who want to leave Afghanistan have been brought home.
Asked on Sky News if all British nationals are out of the country, the Foreign Secretary said: "Mono-nationals, so single-nationality UK who have got documentation, the lion's share, almost all of them that want to come out have been brought home.
“…What remains are rather complex cases, large family units where one or other may be documented or may be clearly a national, but it's not clear whether the rest of them are."
He declined to state when the last British flight will leave Kabul, amid suggestions that the UK operation will have to end as soon as Friday.
"The military planners are working through the limited time they need to draw down their personnel and equipment and so they will firm up those details," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme when asked about that date.
"We will use every hour and day we've got to maximise that throughput to get as many of those residual cases out.
"We're going to keep going for every day and every hour that we've got left."
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on reports in the Guardian, which cite defence sources, that the evacuation could end within 24 to 36 hours.
The newspaper said that the US military requires two to three days to close its operations in Kabul, and that British troops aim to be at least 24 hours ahead of that, with the Americans providing security at their airport.
Mr Johnson said after the G7 summit that leaders had agreed the "number one condition" up to and after the deadline was that the Taliban must grant "safe passage for those who want to come out".
A joint statement from leaders of the G7 countries - also including Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - reaffirmed their commitment to the people of Afghanistan.
"The legitimacy of any future government depends on the approach it now takes to uphold its international obligations and commitments to ensure a stable Afghanistan," they said.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Secretary was forced to defend remaining on holiday in Crete as the Taliban swept across Afghanistan on their path back to power.
Mr Raab has defied calls to quit over his widely-criticised decision, but said "of course with the benefit of hindsight I wouldn't have gone away".
"The stuff about me being lounging around on the beach all day is just nonsense," he told Sky News.
"The stuff about me paddleboarding, nonsense, the sea was actually closed, it was a red notice."
