We must help Afghans in the UK, by moving them out of hotels and into homes
Last August, in a special Parliamentary session taking place just days after the Taliban retook Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul, Boris Johnson made three clear pledges by which the UK Government should be judged.
First, that the Government would “be doing everything [it could] to support those who have helped the UK mission in Afghanistan” including setting up a bespoke resettlement scheme “focusing on the most vulnerable, particularly women and children. Second, to do “everything that we [could] to avert a humanitarian crisis”. And finally, to give to “our all to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a breeding ground for terrorism”.
But a year on, those promises to Afghans and to the British public, lie in tatters. We will not let those commitments be forgotten.
The first promise – helping those who are particularly vulnerable in Afghanistan – has been a source of shame for the Conservative Government. What seemed like pitiful ambition at the time (a commitment to resettling 5,000 Afghans in the first year, and up to 20,000 in the long-term), has unravelled even further.
Though the Government says 21,000 Afghan refugees have been resettled in the UK. However, according to reports many of the initial places were granted to people who were already in the UK. Women and girls in Afghanistan, who were meant to be a priority, were left without a specific route to apply to the Scheme. And then in July this year, the Foreign Office’s officials admitted that many of those who helped the UK will not be resettled in the UK.
The UK Government promised that our doors would be open to Afghans at risk – including women, LGBTQ+ people and minority groups – but it has shut them as soon as they thought nobody was looking.
What about those who did make it to the UK? Their plight has been well documented. Ten thousand Afghans remain stuck in hotels up and down the country. Most of them have been there for a year now. A significant proportion of these people put their lives on the line to help UK forces during the war, and were promised the chance to start a new life here in the UK. Instead, they’ve been left in limbo by the Conservative Government.
Sadly, the second promise – averting a humanitarian crisis – was always going to be hard to achieve. And right now, nearly 20 million people face “potentially life-threatening” hunger, according to a US development agency. But Ministers have shown neither sufficient personal interest nor the necessary financial support.
Our aid spending in the country last year was less than we spent in 2019 – and was only increased following significant pressure from the Liberal Democrats. Now, with the international development budget coming under yet more pressure, it is unclear whether the Foreign Office will deliver the promised allocation this year. I hope it is beyond even this Conservative Government to cut aid to Afghanistan in the midst of this crisis.
Finally, there is security. We should be working with our allies now – hosting a global security summit in London to discuss the potential threat. But unfortunately this seems to be off Johnson’s agenda (if he even has one), and not on the radar of Truss or Sunak.
I have sat in Parliament and watched Johnson make countless broken promises. But the ones he made a year ago on Afghanistan make me perhaps the most angry. This is a shameful record which must be put right.
That means standing by his word, and opening up safe and legal routes so that those in the country who are at risk can come to the UK. That means working constructively with local authorities, so that Afghans in this country can finally start their new lives properly – in a home, rather than a hotel room. Restoring the international development budget so the UK can help those in the country. And leading on the world stage by hosting a security summit with our allies, to ensure terrorism doesn’t flourish in Afghanistan once more. By taking these steps, we can finally uphold our obligations to Afghans.
Layla Moran is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Development