An individual from Afghanistan has been flown into Britain on an evacuation flight despite being on the UK’s no-fly watchlist.

Officials said the person was subsequently deemed not to be a person of interest to the authorities, meaning they will be free to go after completing quarantine.

The Home Office said the person was flagged as part of ‘stringent national security and public safety checks involving the police, security services and others’.

Their status was only identified after on arrival in Birmingham, prompting questions over the rigour of security checks carried out during the evacuation of Kabul.

Officials were urged to clarify whether the individual was wrongly flagged or the list was not being kept up-to-date, which remained unclear on Monday night.

The no-fly list is aimed at keeping people who are considered a security threat out of the UK.

Someone can be added to the list due to serious criminal convictions or terrorist activities.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said the individual was unflagged ‘upon further investigation’, adding: ‘These stringent checks are in place to keep the British people safe.’

Four other people on the watchlist attempted to board evacuation flights but were unsuccessful, according to The Telegraph.

Another individual is said to have been stopped while trying to board a commercial flight from Frankfurt to the UK while his family were allowed to continue.

A 1000-strong Armed Forces deployment is expected to bring around 20,000 Afghan refugees into the country to protect them from persecution by the Taliban, who overthrew the fragile democratic government earlier this month.

It has so far evacuated 7,109 people from the country, the Ministry of Defence said on Monday evening, adding that the process will run as long as the security situation permits.

Meanwhile US President Joe Biden’s administration continued to wrestle with whether to continue evacuations past its August 31 deadline.

The cut-off was drawn up with security concerns in mind but officials have suggested that any unforeseen obstacles could stop the US extricating all its citizens in time.

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