The UK’s Afghan refugee offer exposes how short-sighted the government’s immigration policy is

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Afghans crammed into a US Air Force transport plane fleeing Kabul (AFP/Getty)

It’s very comforting to read that No 10 believes that offering 5,000 places in the UK for fleeing Afghans is considered adequate because it is "very rare" for people to want to leave their country. I might have been concerned without this reassurance.

The images of desperate people falling from the wheels of departing military transport planes and thousands of hopefuls queuing at Kabul airbase to leave Afghanistan must have, thus, not been representative of wider fears of Taliban repression and reported desire to flee.

That this government’s immigration policy is farcical, tragic and especially so frighteningly short-sighted, has never been as starkly exposed.

The concept of “caring Tories” now seems even more oxymoronic.

Alistair Vincent

Barnet

Pot calling kettle black?

The House of Commons is a place where people who are prepared to take away the fundamental democratic rights of the people of the UK by voting for the Tory’s police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, and who are prepared to deny the human rights of asylum-seekers and refugees by voting for the Conservative Party’s Nationality and Borders Bill, earnestly debate how the UK should react to the situation in Afghanistan where the newly ascendant Taliban deny their people democratic and human rights.

Sasha Simic

London

Little to show

Never in the field of human conflict has so little been achieved by so many for so long as by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.

David H Lewis

Queensland, Australia

Brexit back to the future

Would the EU welcome the UK back? I have my doubts, and maybe this is the new elephant in the room.

Undoubtedly Brexit has been a disaster despite the best efforts of the government to smother bad news. There are empty shelves; there are adverts on every building site looking for skilled workers; the population of the UK has dropped significantly with overseas workers leaving; NHS staff shortages; Sajid Javid looking to recruit from Kenya and other countries with skilled staff leaving the UK. Then there is the fishing industry – crushed; the Northern Ireland debacle; farming damaged; new trade deals not in place and exports down. Let’s face it – it isn’t due to Covid.

If we hark back to how the EU sees us, they don’t think we have ever taken it seriously. Case in point being Ukip MEPs’ behaviour in the European Parliament and the British press’s coverage – from fears about bananas to Turkey.

Put yourself in their shoes: would you want Britain, with its blinkered vision, back?

This is distressing at a time when we realise that our “special relationship” with the USA is a joke .and that there is no sign of a trade deal.

Paul Dickson

Peebles, Scotland

No more intervention

The door to our intervening militarily in Afghanistan has slammed shut with the folding of its recognised government and its army which, with appropriate support, would have probably borne the brunt of the fighting and the casualties. Bizarrely or conveniently, this moment has been chosen for MPs to discuss the matter, but what options are left for them to debate?

There is the question of humanitarian aid. We weren’t prepared to help you keep your freedom, but here, have some food parcels. The welfare of the Afghan people is now the responsibility of the Taliban and their friends. Let them meet the country’s needs or pay the price in civil unrest.

MPs can consider the impending migrant crisis. But accommodating a mass exodus would then serve to prepare the ground for another Taliban style takeover.

No amount of good works will alter what this is: an enduring disgrace. Those who regard democracy with contempt have made their case. No party currently holding seats in parliament will again deserve our votes within my lifetime.

John Riseley

Harrogate

Neglected victims

Among the neglected victims of the fall of Afghanistan is the Afghan National Army whose honour has been ungallantly and selfishly smeared by those responsible for the debacle.

The ANA was a fledgling fighting force hurled into battle against a seasoned and ruthless armed group with total disregard for civilian safety and civilised norms of modern warfare. The young Afghan soldiers, tens of thousands of whom fell in defence of the recently gained freedom of their nation, were not lacking in courage or the will to fight. They still relied on the remaining Nato advisors and a handful of their aircraft for overall operational guidance and air cover.

Abandoned to their fate, they simply lost direction.

Hamid Elyassi

London

Ignoble Britain

Johnson’s breaches of trust include: misleading the Queen, deceiving parliament, ignoring ministerial codes, Covid U-turns, reneging on the UK-EU withdrawal agreement, cutting overseas aid and now continuing to abandon the Afghan people.

Not so much “Global Britain” as “Ignoble Britain”.

Roger Hinds

Surrey