An estimated 375 people were left behind in Afghanistan when the Government stopped evacuation flights, and a “second phase” of the evacuation effort is far from beginning.

The evacuation effort to airlift New Zealand citizens, visa holders, and Afghan allies ended on Friday after a deadly terror attack outside Kabul’s international airport. The hastily arranged operation came after the militant Taliban seized control of Afghanistan more than two weeks ago.

The United States Department of Defence announced on Tuesday that all remaining troops had withdrawn from Kabul, ending two-decades of an international military presence in Afghanistan. There has since been gunfire in Kabul, reportedly in celebration of the departure.

Discussion of the fraught withdrawal in Parliament on Tuesday confirmed that New Zealand’s Special Air Service (SAS) were on the ground in Kabul, and that New Zealanders and visa holders were effectively stranded in the country for the foreseeable future.

Officials had also been entirely blindsided by the swift Taliban takeover, and had not made any plans to repatriate at-risk Afghans due to their connections to New Zealand, or planned to evacuate New Zealand citizens prior to the Taliban takeover

Officials had also been entirely blindsided by the swift Taliban takeover, and had not made any plans to repatriate at-risk Afghans due to their connections to New Zealand, or planned to evacuate New Zealand citizens prior to the Taliban takeover.

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Defence Minister Peeni Henare, speaking to the Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Trade Select Committee on Tuesday morning, said he commended the bravery of the special forces personnel, including a “female engagement team”, who were part of the evacuation effort.

The army’s special forces unit is the SAS, and the female engagement team is a unit of women soldiers attached to the SAS for situations where it is “culturally unacceptable” for male soldiers to speak to women.

The Defence Force issued a statement on Tuesday which said special forces troops and the female team moved beyond the boundaries of Kabul’s airport into a security area around it, to locate New Zealand evacuees.

This included helping a wheel-chair bound woman and her son, and helping people though “sewage ditches, over barbed wire fences," despite the risk of a terror attack.

“This team made contact with approved evacuees and guided them through the crowds to points on the perimeter where they could be brought into the airport,” Henare said.

“I am saddened to hear of media reports indicating that we have been unable to evacuate all those who we had sought to.”

Secretary of Foreign Affairs Chris Seed confirmed to the select committee that, as of Tuesday morning, an estimated 375 people, including 51 New Zealand citizens and 52 permanent residents, remained in Afghanistan.

“Of course the fact that people will put themselves on our list, our consular list, doesn't also necessarily mean that they are looking to leave, I would make that point as well.”

About 372 New Zealanders, their families, and visa holders had escaped Afghanistan in the evacuation effort, but the number was not yet entirely certain.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the “second phase” of the response to the Afghanistan crisis would occur alongside partner nations. Cabinet was yet to take advice on this.

“We're not at the point yet to be able to articulate what that is, as information is still being compiled to be able to present Cabinet with the second stage of a response,” she said.

She said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) had received 8000 enquiries from Afghan nationals seeking resettlement under the Government’s promise to take on Afghans who were at risk due to working with New Zealand’s Defence Force, police, aid programmes, or the Operation Burnham inquiry.

MFAT continued to process these applications.

At the select committee hearing, Defence Chief Kevin Short said the Defence Force was receiving daily intelligence reports from the Five Eyes partners – the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

He said the last piece of intelligence he saw, on August 8, more than a week before the Taliban claimed Kabul, claimed "the country wouldn't collapse if all things went the wrong way, for another 60 to 90 days”.

Neither Henare nor Short directly answered questions from opposition MPs on whether there were existing plans for an evacuation of people from Afghanistan, prior to Cabinet’s decision after Kabul fell.

“New Zealand ... worked with the best intelligence we had at the time decisions were made. We have responded to this unfolding humanitarian crisis as quickly as we could,” Henare said, in the House on Tuesday afternoon.