Nearly 300 Aussies and permanent residents were left behind in Afghanistan

Nearly 300 Australian citizens and permanent residents are trapped in Afghanistan after failing to escape.

Nearly 300 Australian citizens and permanent residents are trapped in Afghanistan after failing to make it out of the country during the frantic Kabul airlift.

Government officials told a Senate hearing on Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan that 129 Australian citizens and 157 permanent residents were left behind, with some refusing to leave family members who had been unable to secure Australian visas.

But they were unable to say how many Afghans who were issued Australian humanitarian visas were unable to get on to rescue flights.

Defence and Foreign Affairs officials said they also had “no confirmed information” on the whereabouts of the rogue Afghan army soldier, Hekmatullah, who murdered three Australian soldiers in 2012.

Defence official Hugh Jeffrey said the Australian government became aware Hekmatullah had been released from house arrest in Qatar – as revealed by The Australian on Monday – after receiving “highly sensitive intelligence which the government is not able to comment on directly”.

Foreign Affairs assistant secretary Geoff Tooth said his department was also in the dark on Hekmatullah’s location, and was unable to say whether Australian diplomats had asked Qatari officials whether the killer had been put on a plane back to Afghanistan.

Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell said Australia and its coalition partners had achieved their mission to deny terrorists the opportunity to use Afghanistan as a base for their operations.

But he said it was now an “open question” as to whether the country would be used as a terrorist hub in the future.

The committee hearing on Monday heard Australia evacuated 4100 people on 32 flights during the Kabul airlift, in “one of the biggest humanitarian airlifts in Australia’s history”.

More than 3500 of those evacuees, including 44 unaccompanied Afghan minors, are now in Australia.

“This represents great success within the circumstances,” Home Affairs deputy secretary Cheryl-Anne Moy said.

Home Affairs is now processing 26,000 refugee visa applications from Afghans received in the past seven weeks.

Officials conceded they had not anticipated a surge in visa applications that occurred after the closure of Australia’s embassy in May, as the Taliban accelerated its takeover of Afghanistan’s provinces.

Monthly visa approvals for Afghans under the program jumped from 72 in April, to 202 in July and 338 in August.

Labor senator Penny Wong said: “I am asking if anyone made an assessment of the likely number of applicants of (Locally Engaged Employee visa applications) as of April/May?”

General Campbell replied: “I gather from the response of colleagues, the answer is no.”

But General Campbell said the number of LEE visa applications had been declining before the embassy closed, so the subsequent spike would not have been anticipated.

Mr Jeffrey said the “great majority” who had worked with the ADF had already left the country by that time.

“So when we got towards the latter end of this year, most of the candidates we were looking at were on the marginal side – the claims that were much more difficult to verify,” he said.

Mr Jeffrey said Defence had eased the requirements of its LEE visa assessment process as the security situation deteriorated, assuming all applicants were now at risk.

Foreign Affairs defended its decision to block contracted embassy security guards from applying for LEE visas, saying they had formed the “outer ring” of the post’s security.

“They were not fully integrated with the embassy and the operation of the embassy,” he said.