The UK evacuated 3 Afghan families after a journalist found their contact details lying around the Taliban-occupied British embassy in Kabul

The British Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images

• A reporter found papers bearing the names of 7 Afghans inside the Taliban-occupied British embassy.
• Anthony Loyd informed UK authorities, who then evacuated the families of three of those Afghans.
• The UK has been scrambling to evacuate citizens as well as some Afghans fleeing the Taliban.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

The UK evacuated three Afghan families from Kabul after a journalist found papers identifying them lying in the Taliban-occupied British embassy.

Anthony Loyd, of The Times of London, discovered the papers in the remnants of a barbecue fire in the embassy compound during a Taliban-supervised tour on Tuesday.

The papers identified seven Afghans who had either worked for the UK or applied for jobs at the embassy, Loyd wrote.

The embassy's evacuation protocols required that all data relating to local Afghan staff was to be destroyed, he reported.

"In the pell-mell rush from the embassy, British staff had risked the lives of Afghan staff, failing to destroy sensitive data records despite established and well-practiced protocols," Loyd wrote.

After British authorities located at Kabul airport were informed about the people listed on the papers, the families of three of those Afghans were evacuated, Loyd wrote. The location of two Afghans whose identifies were revealed in the papers remain unknown, he said.

A spokesperson for the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told Insider: "We have worked tirelessly to secure the safety of those who worked for us including getting three families to safety."

"During the drawdown of our Embassy every effort was made to destroy sensitive material."

A FCDO source told Insider: "We are grateful to The Times for sharing the information retrieved with us and working with us to enable us to get these three families to safety."

The parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee is launching an inquiry into the discarded paperwork, Sky News reported Friday.

After the Taliban took control of Kabul - and subsequently the Afghan presidential palace - on August 15, thousands of Afghans who worked for western militaries began fearing for their safety.

The UK has been scrambling to evacuate its citizens as well as some Afghans fleeing the Taliban, and has said that it would wrap up evacuations on Friday.

As of Friday, 7,975 Afghans have been evacuated as part of a UK government scheme created to help Afghans who had worked for or with the British military, the Ministry of Defense tweeted.

In late July, dozens of former British military commanders asked the UK government to increase the number of Afghan staff it would take in following the Taliban resurgence.

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