This week’s revelations about the UK’s dangerously cavalier treatment of Afghans who worked with British forces are shocking, but not surprising.
The carelessness with which the UK went to war in Afghanistan was matched by the carelessness with which it left the country and its people to Taliban rule two decades later.
The US and its allies in 2001 dressed up a war of revenge for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a moral mission to protect women’s rights and build democracy, turning down a Taliban offer to surrender out of a conviction that they could remake Afghanistan as they wished.
Illustration: Mountain People
In the summer of 2021, with the full withdrawal of US forces looming, it was clear the Afghan government they had propped up for years was fragile. Many of the Afghans who backed it, worked for it or believed in broader Western promises of long-term support for democracy and human rights were at risk.
Despite Taliban promises of moderation that year, there was no room for complacency. The militants marked their previous capture of Kabul in 1996 by killing a former president and hanging his mutilated body from a lamp post. They assassinated officials, activists, journalists and others throughout the war.
Yet, at most, Western embassies’ plans for immediate evacuations focused only on international staff. The UK timeline for processing asylum requests of Afghans who remained, and who had worked for or fought with British diplomats and troops was measured in months.
As the Taliban marched toward Kabul, then-British secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs Dominic Raab’s decision to manage the situation from a beach holiday in Crete summed up the UK government’s lack of urgency.
With Afghan lives at immediate risk and the UK’s long-term credibility on the line, Raab clarified that although he was not available to take a call with the Afghan minister of foreign affairs, “no one was paddle-boarding” at the beach.
It was an attitude that might have been bolstered by a similar approach in other European capitals. After Kabul fell, Afghan employees turned up for work at one embassy to find international diplomats had been evacuated overnight, while they had not even been warned to stay at home.
Desperate crowds gathered around the airport as Western governments tried to set up mass evacuation operations on the fly. Nearly 200 people were killed by an Islamic State suicide attack on people waiting hours for a chance to leave.
In the UK, civil servants were pulled in from their normal jobs to work around the clock processing in hours asylum that would normally have needed weeks. It was exhausting, stressful work, and many of them felt personal responsibility for ensuring vulnerable people could reach safety.
They did not feel that burden was shared by everyone in government.
Whistle-blowers said that then-British prime minister Boris Johnson ordered Whitehall to prioritize the evacuation of staff and pets from an animal rescue charity, not a historical Taliban target. He denies this, but hundreds of e-mails about the issue clogged up official inboxes.
Those whose asylum requests were being considered by UK authorities, because of work at the embassy or with British forces, at least had hope of a route out.
Neither the US nor its allies appeared to have given serious thought to the safety of Afghans whose work on issues such as democracy and women’s rights had been key to the Western mission — but who had no obvious route for asylum, because they were not directly employed by foreign governments.
Desperate social media messages went around seeking refuge for prominent lawmakers, athletes and activists whose work and lives made them obvious targets.
In less than two weeks, the airlift ended. Some of those who did not make it to the airport went into hiding to try to escape the revenge attacks that began almost immediately. Hundreds of killings have been documented by human rights groups.
Others fled to Iran or Pakistan, where Afghans struggle to get refugee status. The UK system returned to its usual lethargic timelines after the media spotlight moved on, so families waited in terrified limbo for asylum bids to be processed, fearing expulsion back to Afghanistan and Taliban agents operating abroad.
Now, thousands of people inside Afghanistan and beyond it must grapple with another layer of fear and uncertainty about what the Taliban know of their work with foreign forces, their family networks and their desire to escape.
Not all those Afghans who sought resettlement in the UK were eligible, but applying for asylum should not have put them at greater risk. The damage of the leak has been compounded by the decision to leave people affected in the dark for years, so they could not even make informed decisions about managing their security.
As it has done again and again, the UK has let down Afghans who made the mistake of believing the basic principles it claims for itself and promised for Afghanistan.
In South Korea, the medical cosmetic industry is fiercely competitive and prices are low, attracting beauty enthusiasts from Taiwan. However, basic medical risks are often overlooked. While sharing a meal with friends recently, I heard one mention that his daughter would be going to South Korea for a cosmetic skincare procedure. I felt a twinge of unease at the time, but seeing as it was just a casual conversation among friends, I simply reminded him to prioritize safety. I never thought that, not long after, I would actually encounter a patient in my clinic with a similar situation. She had
Chinese actor Alan Yu (于朦朧) died after allegedly falling from a building in Beijing on Sept. 11. The actor’s mysterious death was tightly censored on Chinese social media, with discussions and doubts about the incident quickly erased. Even Hong Kong artist Daniel Chan’s (陳曉東) post questioning the truth about the case was automatically deleted, sparking concern among overseas Chinese-speaking communities about the dark culture and severe censorship in China’s entertainment industry. Yu had been under house arrest for days, and forced to drink with the rich and powerful before he died, reports said. He lost his life in this vicious
A recent trio of opinion articles in this newspaper reflects the growing anxiety surrounding Washington’s reported request for Taiwan to shift up to 50 percent of its semiconductor production abroad — a process likely to take 10 years, even under the most serious and coordinated effort. Simon H. Tang (湯先鈍) issued a sharp warning (“US trade threatens silicon shield,” Oct. 4, page 8), calling the move a threat to Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” which he argues deters aggression by making Taiwan indispensable. On the same day, Hsiao Hsi-huei (蕭錫惠) (“Responding to US semiconductor policy shift,” Oct. 4, page 8) focused on
The election campaign for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair is heating up, with only 10 days left before party members cast their ballots on Oct. 18. The campaign has revealed potential strengths for the party going into important elections next year and in 2028, particularly the desire among leading candidates to deepen cooperation with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). However, it has also exposed the party’s persistent weaknesses, especially in formulating a policy on cross-strait relations that can appeal to the majority of Taiwanese. Six candidates are registered: former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), 73; former legislator Cheng Li-wun
RSS