Campaign and petition email responses

Support Afghan Families

Many Afghan citizens answered a call from the UK Government to assist in the rebuilding of their country, at great personal risk to themselves.

They helped the UK’s diplomatic mission in ways such as teaching English and offering education opportunities to their fellow Afghans and did so in the belief that the UK would protect them from harm.

The stories of British embassy workers being tortured by the Taliban because the UK government failed to protect them are truly heart-breaking.

Instead of making the process of finding safe routes simple, the Home Office have made it increasingly lengthy and difficult to navigate and as a result, vulnerable people are suffering.

My SNP colleague Stuart C McDonald MP has been vocal on this topic and spoke in a Westminster Hall debate recently, describing the scheme as totally inadequate: too restrictive, too limited in ambition and too slow in implementation.

The SNP have been clear that the UK Government has not lived up to its obligations to the Afghan people and that a significant improvement is needed in the level of attention and effort being paid to the Afghan Refugee schemes.

Rest assured that my SNP colleagues and I at Westminster will continue to press immigration Minister Robert Jenrick MP on this to ensure the UK Government does not turn their back on vulnerable people in Afghanistan, now at risk from the Taliban.