Afghan airlifts too late for some

Australia is far from being the only Western nation rushing to extract its citizens and humanitarian-visa holders, including interpreters, from the chaos of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. Scott Morrison conceded on Tuesday that the government would not be able to evacuate all locally engaged staff and their families.

Even gaining access to the airport is dangerous for those trying to flee, making the task facing the Australian Defence Force team difficult. Had the government acted earlier to evacuate those who loyally served our country’s interests, many of the problems could have been avoided. The decision in May to close our embassy in Kabul – we were the first Western ally to do so – showed little confidence in the former Kabul government’s ability to withstand a Taliban takeover. As Greg Sheridan wrote at the time, the move was “one of the most depressing and telling signs of the utter, abject failure of 20 years of Australian, and Western, policy in Afghanistan”.

Yet that did not prompt the government to expedite issuing visas to scores of Afghan interpreters who, across 20 years, served our forces and aid agencies well. Without a functioning embassy, processing applications was even more difficult. Reports that many of those who served our war effort were effectively trapped following the Taliban’s takeover of Tarin Kowt, the former Australian operations base, and the city of Kandahar suggest their prospects of reaching Kabul are remote.

The Prime Minister says the ADF taskforce sent to Kabul on RAAF aircraft is aiming to evacuate more than 130 Australians and Afghan support staff and their families. The Department of Home Affairs says it has processed more than 640 humanitarian visas for locally engaged employees and has fewer than 30 applications still to go. But former Australian Army officers estimate that about 200 Afghan interpreters, and their family members, who worked with the ADF have yet to have their applications processed or want to appeal rejected applications. A further 196 contracted security guards and a dozen former aid workers also are seeking to come to Australia with their families but so far have been barred because they were not direct Australian government employees.

Amid the tumult of the unexpectedly swift Taliban takeover, the government must not give up on trying to do the right thing by those who served us. Reports of Taliban fighters killing those accused of working with the former Afghan government underline the danger faced by those who served Australia and allied countries.