A UK doctor trapped in conflict-stricken Sudan after visiting family for Eid has been turned away from evacuation flights, saying he feels "totally betrayed" by the British authorities. 

Sudanese-born doctor Abdulrahman Babiker, who has worked for the UK's National Health Service (NHS) for four years, had been due back on shift at the Manchester Royal Infirmary on Tuesday.

However, while he has a UK work permit, the British Foreign Office refused him access to its evacuation flights, saying only those with UK passports were being accepted.

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At least 24 other NHS doctors are in similar positions, BBC Two's Newsnight reported. Britain's Foreign Office has said that those in Babikar's position can enter the UK, but they have to find their own route back to Britain, as UK nationals are being prioritized for evacuation.

Speaking to Newsnight, Babikar said: "To be honest I feel totally betrayed… I worked throughout COVID-19 and I'm so disappointed." 

Since Sudan erupted in fierce fighting almost two weeks ago, tens of thousands of foreign residents have been trying to flee the conflict zone.

Khartoum International Airport has been closed since the standoff between the army and its former allies the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary broke out, with the borders of neighboring countries hundreds of kilometers away from the capital.

UK residents trying to leave Sudan had originally been told by British authorities to find their own way out of the country, but several airlift operations out of northern Khartoum have since been organized. 

Babiker said he had been waiting in line for 16 hours for one of these flights, but when he reached check-in, he was called to one side and asked to leave with little explanation.

"They just showed me the way out," he said. "They didn't say, 'OK you need to wait until there is a vacancy, there are some other priorities.' I would have been happy with that." 

"But to not have any chance to be evacuated in this very risky area… after all these years that I've been working, during COVID, since before COVID. I'm really feeling so disappointed."

Foreign nationals and the UK's health service

Foreign nationals are a key part of the UK's healthcare system. Around 220,000 out of the NHS's 1.4 million staff do not have British nationality, while nearly half of its new GP trainees between 2020 and 2021 were international medical graduates.

Nadia Baasher of the Sudanese Junior Doctor's Association told Newsnight that the treatment of NHS staff like Babiker would cause other foreign nationals to think twice about working for the health service, which is already struggling to recruit new employees.

The UK began a "large-scale" evacuation of its nationals earlier this week, with eight flights airlifting nearly 900 people out of Sudan to Cyprus on Thursday.

Priority has been given to families with children, the elderly and the infirm, while its diplomats and their families were evacuated on Saturday.

The UK government says that there are about 4,000 Britons in Sudan, but many more British residents are believed to be trapped in the east African country. 

Because Sudan is a former British colony, there remain strong ties between the two nations, with around 35,000 Sudanese-born people thought to be living in the UK, 20,000 of whom are Sudanese nationals.

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