Australia Must Not Abandon Its Responsibility Towards Afghanistan
Afghans around the world are in disaster mode. We know what to expect from the Taliban, and it's a nightmare scenario.
As the American and allied forces withdraw from their 20-year military occupation of Afghanistan, Afghans around the world are in disaster mode. We know what to expect from the Taliban. It’s a nightmare scenario.
The Taliban were in power from 1996 until the US invasion after 9/11, and in those five long years they led a cruel and authoritarian regime.
People were stoned in soccer stadiums for thin allegations of adultery. Amputations and beheadings were common for minor crimes. LGBTIQ people were executed. Playing music and dancing were outlawed, despite their central place in Afghan culture. Hazaras and other ethnic groups faced inequality and cruel treatment. Women weren’t allowed in public without a burqa and male accompaniment, and the Taliban forced girls to end their schooling at year three.
This militant ideology is not demonstrative of Afghanistan, and it is not wanted by the vast majority of Afghans. In the last 20 years, Afghan society advanced significantly. Women occupied major seats of power, were visible on the nightly news, and readily pursued university education. In the catastrophic days since the Taliban returned to power and ousted the democratically elected President Ashraf Ghani, this is already changing.
Desperate Times And Equally Desperate Measures
Australia has a moral responsibility to support those under threat of persecution by these new self-imposed militants. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are currently fleeing their homes, praying for humanitarian evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul without adequate food, water, or shelter. Many are afraid to leave the compound because Taliban checkpoints line the roads into and out of the airport. The panic is immense.
No one abandons their home unless the threat of staying is greater than the many dangers and uncertainties posed by fleeing.
Videos circulating last week showed bodies falling from the sky after people desperately clung to a US Air Force plane that disembarked from the runway. A pregnant Afghan woman gave birth mid-flight. Whole families have been stationed at the airport for days awaiting flights.
No one abandons their home unless the threat of staying is greater than the many dangers and uncertainties posed by fleeing. For those who lived under the repressive era of Taliban rule at the turn of the century, a return to their hardline militancy is apocalyptic. Afghans who vocally criticised the Taliban and its countless suicide bombings and targeted assassinations of women over the years, or who worked with the US or the UN in any professional capacity during the twenty year intervention, now have a target on their back. They are counting down the days.
Following The Path Of Past Leaders
Not only does Australia have the capacity to help, it also has a historical precedent to follow. The Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser famously opened Australia’s borders to over 100,000 Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon. Over a decade later, ALP Prime Minister Bob Hawke offered asylum to some 42,000 Chinese students following the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. Both men dismissed racist concerns from within and across party lines and acted unequivocally to settle those in need. Even Tony Abbott bowed to public pressure and welcomed 12,000 Syrian refugees in 2015 in the wake of their civil crisis.
The worst case scenario is now upon us: extremist militants are in charge of Afghanistan again and this time they are equipped with the abandoned military stock of foreign powers.
This is yet another defining moment for Scott Morrison. So far, he has only agreed to resettle a meagre 3,000 Afghans and even this amount is drawn from Australia’s existing annual humanitarian intake. He isn’t making an exception for Afghans. Given the context of former political emergencies and the economic capacity of Australia, 3,000 is a dismally low number. Canada and the UK have separately agreed to accept 20,000 Afghans each, and the US has committed to 30,000. Moreover, as Amnesty International Australia notes, this does not include any additional humanitarian visas or security for those currently in Australia on temporary visas.
Australia was one of the first countries to join the US-led intervention in Afghanistan that removed the Taliban. Since that moment, successive prime ministers have justified Australia’s continued military presence in Afghanistan under the guise of rebuilding the country and securing the human rights of women, LGBT people, and other minorities. That directive failed.
The worst case scenario is now upon us: extremist militants are in charge of Afghanistan again and this time they are equipped with the abandoned military stock of foreign powers.
Australia Has A Moral Duty
What makes this humanitarian emergency unique is that Australia has a particular debt that it owes to the Afghan people. In November 2020, the bombshell findings of the Brereton Report revealed that at least 39 Afghans had been slaughtered in cold blood by Australian Defence Force soldiers while they were deployed to Afghanistan. None of the Afghans killed were combatants or killed in the heat of battle, and the report suggests there was an air of competitiveness to the wanton slaughter of Afghans among Australian soldiers.
This is the least Australia can do. It is our moral responsibility and our duty.
The cheap words of an apology don’t amount to much. Afghans demand justice. Right now, the best way for Australia to display some degree of remorse for its documented war crimes in Afghanistan is to accept the six recommendations of Action for Afghanistan. This means committing to an additional humanitarian intake of 20,000 Afghan refugees, prioritising the most vulnerable, such as women journalists and activists, artists and critics, and Hazaras and LGBT people. A humane policy shift from Morrison would also expedite the resettlement of Afghan interpreters, grant permanent protection visas to Hazaras on temporary protection visas in Australia, and grant immediate amnesty to all Afghan nationals currently in Australia who rightfully fear having to return to a very different Afghanistan.
This is the least Australia can do. It is our moral responsibility and our duty.
Sign the petition, contact your parliamentary representative, and, wherever possible, agitate in your circles for Scott Morrison to adopt an empathetic policy towards Afghans in need.
Bobuq Sayed is the queer child of Afghan refugees. They are an interdisciplinary artist, editor, educator, and writer. They tweet @bobuqsayed.