Student who says he ‘went on holiday’ to Afghanistan and ‘got stuck in Kabul’ claims he’s been evacuated to Dubai

A British student who apparently decided to go on holiday to Afghanistan and claimed he got stuck in Kabul as people try to leave the country to escape Taliban rule has now said he has been evacuated to Dubai.

Writing on Facebook, Miles Routledge, who says he is a Loughborough University student, claimed he had been evacuated from a safe house this morning.

Upon his alleged arrival, he posted a video that appears to show him in an airport and said he was “all safe”.

Routledge had claimed he had been abandoned by the British embassy, who he said had not responded to any of his phone calls or emails.

“No more flights in Kabul, I’m stuck in Afghanistan. Bit of a pickle,” he wrote yesterday, before he claimed he was evacuated.

Routledge claims he travelled to the country last week, believing it would not be dangerous. “I was under the impression that the country wouldn’t fall for another month, so I thought it was going to be fine,” he said in an interview with The Spectator, apparently from the United Nation safe house. “I’d seen videos on YouTube of people going. I thought maybe the worst case would be food poisoning.”

indy100 has not been able to verify whether Routledge has been in Afghanistan, as he claims.

Yesterday, the Sun Online reported that his mother was too distraught to speak about her son’s situation. The publication said she was urgently waiting for a call from the Foreign Office to find out whether he will be kept safe.

Meanwhile, in an interview with The Times, Routledge admitted he is attracted to risky situations.

“I hate lying around on a beach so I wanted to do something a little bit different. After graduating I’ll have a full-time job and maybe a family so won’t have the opportunity to do things like this again. I thought [Afghanistan] looked quite nice, the food seemed amazing and it was dirt cheap,” he said.

Routledge has kept people updated through his social media accounts, including video streaming platform Twitch, Facebook and 4chan.

After apparently arriving in Afghanistan, he wrote to friends: “I’ve bitten off more than I can chew and something has not gone to plan resulting in this situation.”

And speaking to his followers on Twitch on Sunday, Routledge said the situation had worsened.

“I was fully prepared for death, I accepted it,” he said. “This trip has been a test of God. I’m very religious so I believe I’ll be looked after.

“Before I left I wrote a letter to my friends saying that if I died, not to feel guilty, that I would die happy and religious and proud.”

Yesterday, he continued to give friends and followers regular updates about his alleged situation. “I’m all safe in this safe house, the people are great,” he said.

Then, this morning, he claimed he was on a flight to Dubai with 100 other British citizens.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed UK military flights had been carried out from Kabul to Dubai around that time, but was not able to verify whether the footage was filmed on board one of them.

A spokesperson from the foreign office said: “We are aware of this case and are attempting to reach the individual to offer assistance. We are working hard to contact all the British nationals we are aware of who remain in Afghanistan, to help them leave the country.

“The safety of British nationals is our top priority which is why we have been urging British nationals to leave Afghanistan by commercial means since 21 April. On 6 August we updated our advice to urge British nationals to leave immediately and to update us on their plans for departure.”