The Government has promised to resettle more than 37 Afghan nationals who claim to have worked with New Zealand forces, and a C130 Hercules transport plane will soon head to Afghanistan to assist with the evacuation of foreign citizens.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday said that Cabinet had made the decision to deploy the Air Force asset to aid the international evacuation effort, and an “in principle” decision to provide residence to Afghan allies who have been lobbying the Government for help.

There were also 53 New Zealand citizens in Afghanistan, some of whom had sought help to leave.

"The international community is calling on the Taliban to demonstrate a willingness to allow people to leave, and that includes foreign nationals,” Ardern said.

“We're in a period here with the whole world is watching, the Taliban is making claims about the kind of administration they wish to be. Here, we would implore them, allow people to leave safely.”

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan on Sunday, bringing to an end a two-decade effort by the United States and a consortium of allies, including New Zealand, to build a prosperous democratic nation.

Afghanistan’s embattled president, Ashraf Ghani, had fled the country, and Afghan citizens and foreigners have crowded the international airport in Kabul.

“There simply was not an expectation that we would see the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorate as quickly as it has,” Ardern said on Monday.

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The Government has been under pressure in recent days to make a decision on the plight of Afghan nationals who were claiming a connection to New Zealand, and fearing reprimand from the Taliban.

The pleas from a group of 37 who were employed as tractor drivers, labourers, cleaners, and cooks by the Defence Force had grown as the Taliban swept through Afghanistan, culminating in their Kabul arrival Sunday.

Ardern said the Government would look to resettle the group, as well as a small number of Afghans that assisted New Zealand with development programmes and the Operation Burnham inquiry.

“It is not an easy endeavour, but we believe we have a responsibility to that small number of people who supported us, to support them,” Ardern said.

Their “nuclear” families, partners and dependents, would also be resettled, but elderly parents or grandparents would be excluded.

Entry to New Zealand would be conditional on their welfare being at risk for their association with New Zealand, and on whether “no other partner of the government would bear greater responsibility for their welfare”.

Ardern would not speculate on how many people in total this might be, and the resettlement could take weeks. The Afghans would likely fill rooms in the managed isolation system the Government had set aside for emergencies.

“There will be an element of processing and the involvement of third countries. That will enable us some time to work through the wider logistical arrangements around managed isolation,” she said.

There would be no such urgency for the “hundreds and hundreds” of family members of Afghans in New Zealand that have applied for, or been granted, a reunification visa, but couldn’t travel to New Zealand due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“We are prioritising those who have the greatest security concerns, based on the fact that they have supported New Zealand efforts, and have a security risk attached to them as a result.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) was also deciding how New Zealand might provide humanitarian support to Afghans affected by the conflict, possibly supporting the International Committee of the Red Cross or the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Chief of Defence Air Marshall Kevin Short said the C130 Hercules with about 40 staff would be deployed, working alongside Australia from bases outside Afghanistan he would not name for security reasons.

“We're planning to deploy for a month, but we don't know whether the security situation will allow us to operate for that long,” Short said.

“We're not going to state where they're going to operate because out of Afghanistan they will go to a number of countries – this is the refugees, those wishing to get out – where they'll be managed.”

The plane would ferry people from Kabul’s international airport to a location, that was yet to be determined, where the immigration applications of Afghan nationals would be processed.

There would be soldiers on the plane for its security, and whether the Special Air Service (SAS) was deployed for this job was still being considered.