With the disturbing news that the window for evacuations from Afghanistan is closing (UK evacuation from Kabul to end within ‘24 to 36 hours’, defence sources say, 24 August), all governments should ask themselves: what is the moral response to this deepening crisis?
We urge the British government to go further in helping at-risk Afghans, human rights defenders and women activists, and create safe passages so that people can find sanctuary without resorting to dangerous journeys. We have seen in our parishes the warm response to refugees from Afghanistan and other parts of the world. As a nation, we should not be led by a quota, but by the need and pain before us.
Our aid budget is essential to assist those still in Afghanistan, as well as the vast majority of refugees who are still in the region. At the same time, extending our welcome to those seeking sanctuary must be part of the UK’s response.
This is a challenging and difficult situation, but we must put the most vulnerable people at the heart of our thinking and actions.
Bishop Paul McAleenan Lead bishop for migrants and refugees, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Rt Rev Dr John Perumbalath Bishop of Bradwell, Rt Rev Christopher Chessun Bishop of Southwark, Rt Rev Paul Butler Bishop of Durham
• While sharing the anguish at recent developments in Afghanistan, it’s sad that the nation-building objective is being lazily subsumed into the military collapse. Casual reference to the invasion by Nato forces as a western colonialist enterprise risks trashing many highly principled development interventions carried out by numerous government and non-government agencies over the past 20 years, trying to nudge the country along a more progressive path.
I spent 2004 as an adviser to the Afghan government, working alongside Afghan professionals and other international specialists, trying to create an efficient and responsive government administration to address issues of housing and urban development. I resent the implicit suggestion that our efforts, and those of many others in parallel projects, were either pointlessly futile or no more than gloss added to a grand imperialist project.
Regardless of what was actually achieved – success was always going to be elusive, given the problematic social and political territory – it was surely right to try to lay the foundations for progressive governance, as a modest contribution to true and lasting nation-building.
Tom Carter
London
• George Monbiot (Who’s to blame for the Afghanistan chaos? Remember the war’s cheerleaders, 25 August) adds a further strand to the many criticisms of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan that you have published recently.
It’s impossible to disagree with the thrust of the arguments – the intervention has been disastrous, and sits alongside similar catastrophes. But another perspective is worth noting. There are examples where the west has sat idly by or done too little, too late (eg Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, East Timor, against the Assad regime), with the results being murder, rape and other inhumanities on a horrific scale. I don’t know what should or shouldn’t be done under such circumstances, but I wish there was an acknowledgment that the sins of omission can be as great as those of commission.
Miles Maxwell
Ickleford, Hertfordshire
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.
