The UK has a moral duty to help refugees from Afghanistan – time to make your voice heard

Editorial: The Independent has launched a petition calling on the government to do more – it needs your support

Desperate Afghans must now look abroad for help, and there is little practical assistance on offer (AP)

The central fact about the plight of refugees in Afghanistan is that they are entirely dependent on powers who may not, for various reasons, have their best interests at heart.

Despite the spin doctors of the Taliban regime making airy promises of amnesties and safety, there are disturbing stories emerging from Afghanistan. This version of the Taliban will likely be brutal towards its perceived enemies.

In other words, it will continue to wage a vicious, merciless war on its own people, even as the economy collapses. It is not only those associated with western forces who are at risk, and the known dissidents, but virtually anyone – and particularly women – who displays disrespect to the Taliban, or objects to having their human rights crushed. Desperate Afghans, therefore, must now look abroad for help, and there is little practical assistance on offer. The flow of refugees is bound to rise.

That is why The Independent is launching a petition that calls on the UK’s authorities – in national and local government – to assist as many Afghans as possible as part of our Refugees Welcome campaign. It is a moral duty, as simple as that. Despite the hurried airlifts, far too many were left behind.

It will not be easy. Regional powers such as Pakistan, Russia, Iran, China, Turkey and India have their own reasons for using the refugee crisis for political purposes. For the west, the response by governments has been slow and hesitant.

In his woeful testimony to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Dominic Raab revealed little apart from his own ignorance. He has little idea of the numbers left behind and made some ominous remarks about how the families of those entitled to come to Britain might not qualify for asylum, in potential violation of the basic premises of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

He and his hosts in the region are talking about international coordination. It’s a start, but not enough – and, as ever, there seems to be little planning for the dispersion and resettlement of refugees if they ever get out.

So what is their fate when they make it past the Taliban, hostile border guards, people traffickers and Foreign Office bureaucracy? Only a third of local authorities in the UK have put themselves forward as safe havens, and there are disturbing reasons for that. Many feel nervous – because of the evidence on the ground – that the Treasury won’t release the funds already promised to alleviate the pressure on local services. More sinister, of course, is that years of anti-immigrant populist politics have created a hostile environment in some sections of the population and the political classes.

There are already those peddling the notion that undocumented refugees from Afghanistan are to be treated as potential terrorists – even though they are escaping terror, and carrying certain papers in Afghanistan is tantamount to a death sentence.

Still, there are many in Britain who hold to traditional values and whose humanitarian instincts are strong. The British, like all vanquished powers, have to try to rescue some shreds of honour from their ignominious defeat. At the moment it feels very much like Britain is set on extending its record of dishonour.

The past, whoever is to blame, was a failure; the future can be more of a moral success at least. We thank you for your support.

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