MPs trying to rescue more than 7,000 people trapped in Afghanistan

Figure dwarfs 800 to 1,100 Afghans eligible for resettlement defence secretary said would be left behind

• Afghanistan: live updates

MPs are scrambling to rescue more than 7,000 constituents and family members trapped in Afghanistan, according to figures provided to the Guardian, dwarfing the only estimates provided by the government of the number left behind.

Scores of Labour MPs have been inundated with pleas for help from thousands of constituents whose relatives have been left stranded since the UK's final emergency airlift left Kabul following the country's rapid fall to the Taliban. Among them are children, disabled relatives and people who face persecution due to their work, all with potential eligibility to be resettled in Britain.