‘My heart is breaking’: Governments must relinquish visa requirements for people fleeing Afghanistan, letter warns

Exclusive: ‘Asking for papers to get on emergency evacuation planes is the equivalent of asking people on a sinking Titanic to provide papers in order to board lifeboats,’ signatories say

Families board a US flight at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul (via REUTERS)

Governments around the world must abandon visa requirements for people fleeing Afghanistan, women’s rights activists in hiding in the country have urged.

An open letter, also signed by more than 150 Afghan and international citizens, including ex-members of the Afghan parliament and civil society leaders around the world, warned that government heads must take a “rescue now, process later” stance to evacuating Afghanistan.

The letter said overhauling existing immigration policies would ultimately save the lives of people trapped in Afghanistan as the country grapples with an “extreme and unprecedented crisis” impacting millions.

“Asking for papers to get on emergency evacuation planes is the equivalent of asking people on a sinking Titanic to provide papers in order to board lifeboats,” the letter states. “It is completely wrong.”

It comes after Boris Johnson called for the Taliban to ensure safe passage for individuals keen to leave the country, while US president Joe Biden refused to bow to pressure at a virtual G7 summit to lengthen the deadline for American troops withdrawing from Afghanistan beyond 31 August.

The signatories said: “The simplest way to speed up the system is to remove people now, and process later, and right now commit with urgency to taking full planes full of people out of the airport and any other evacuation routes as quickly and as often as possible.

“On 31 August, it is likely that this evacuation process will stop. We have a matter of days to get as many Afghan citizens to safety as possible. This policy change will save lives.”

A Taliban spokesman has said the militant Islamist group will take “a different stance” if foreign troops stay in Afghanistan longer than the end of the month.

The letter, signed by Peter Tatchell and Dr Nilofar Ibrahimi, an MP for the Afghan parliament, along with politicians, doctors, lawyers, academics and members of the military, urges world leaders to process visa applications once individuals stranded in Afghanistan are in a “safe place”.

Some 38 million people are currently in Afghanistan – with several million of them living in “desperate danger”, warn the letter’s signatories.

“Kabul airport is hosting a maximum of a few thousand people at a time,” the organisers behind the letter added. “The numbers being evacuated every day are a drop in the ocean of the full number who desperately need to leave.”

Issuing a statement on behalf of those who signed the letter, Rahela Sidiqi, chief executive of the Global Governance Reform Advisory, said: “My heart is breaking. My people are vulnerable, and we are helpless.

“I am speaking to people every day who are in tears and desperate for their lives. They are trying to leave and every route is blocked.”

Ms Sidiqi, who is also deputy chair of the Afghan Diaspora Unity Council, warned current systems in place to issue travel documents are not properly working.

“Within the signatories of this letter, we have friends who, having been granted permission to travel, endured multiple Taliban checkpoints and a deeply traumatic ordeal at the airport, only to be turned away on arrival at the country’s desk,” the letter adds.

“This was due to an administrative error within one government’s processing system. They witnessed and experienced almost indescribable violence and tragedy, alongside their young children. The failure to accept them onto a plane due to not having the right piece of paper for that desk in that moment may have terrible consequences for this family.”

Signatories noted world leaders may be fearful of changing visa processes due to anxiety about extremists arriving, but suggested transferring Afghan citizens to secure locations after their evacuation.

“Those people could be identified and dealt with through due criminal processes at their destination,” the letter goes on to say. “It cannot be right to jeopardise the safety of ordinary, desperate Afghan citizens, including children, people with disabilities and elderly Afghans, on this basis.”

Reports have surfaced of Afghan women being forced to marry Taliban fighters, leave their workplaces and remain at home, as well as enduring public flogging.

Nora Mulready, chief executive of Irish Elderly Advice Network in London, said: “Those working to process applications are overwhelmed and the terrible truth is that most applications have no hope of being processed by 31 August.

“The system has completely broken down and is now actively stopping people being rescued. Despite fleeing for their lives, often with young children, people can be turned away at the airport for not having the right papers. Governments must try another way.”

The Independent has backed calls for ministers to be more ambitious in their plan to resettle Afghans. Our Refugees Welcome campaign is calling for the government to offer sanctuary to as many people as possible.

Female Afghan journalists and healthcare workers have been killed in a slew of attacks since peace negotiations started between the Taliban and the American-backed Afghan government last year.

While the Taliban denies perpetrating these attacks, government ministers hold them responsible.

The Taliban imposed a brutal fundamentalist rule in Afghanistan before it was overthrown in 2001. During that time, women were blocked from working, girls were barred from going to school, and women had to be chaperoned by a male relative if they wanted to leave the house.

Experts have voiced grave fears that the hard-fought rights Afghan women have won since then could be rolled back.