Notorious “danger tourist” Miles Routledge, aka Lord Miles, has been released by the Taliban. The 23-year-old YouTuber from Birmingham had previously been evacuated from Afghanistan by the British army in 2021 after the Taliban retook control of the country. At the time, he told reporters that he was “exhausted but relieved” and thankful for the assistance in leaving the country.


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Routledge was released alongside three other British nationals, one of whom was a U.N. aid worker who had been accused of spying. Routledge’s family had previously told the media they had no idea why he was being held.



Routledge was arrested in early March, and according to updates posted by his friends to his Twitter account, he was treated “very well” while in the Taliban’s custody. A tweet by one of Routledge’s friends from July reads, “He’s treated very well, has several servants, loads of movies on his laptop, goes on picnics and has tea with the Taliban cabinet gov. He still loves Afghanistan,” accompanied by a photo of Routledge giving a thumbs up while standing next to an armed member of the Taliban.



Routledge’s friend continued, “He speaks like he’s on holiday. He’s sunbathing, playing TF2, writing his 2nd book, reading T.E. Lawrence, exercising, has chocolates and cake etc. He’s made friends with the Taliban he’s with, he says he’s been invited to some weddings.” The friend added, “When we first made contact with Miles we asked ‘are you okay’ and he replied with ‘lovely to get away from it all.’” Surely there are easier ways of taking a break from the grind?


Twitter users wondered where Lord Miles would go next. With the recent news coming out of Israel and Palestine, several people joked that his next stop would be Gaza.





Honestly, based on his track record, those probably aren’t jokes so much as accurate predictions.