August 2021: “On 28 August 2021 British military personnel left Afghanistan on planes departing from Hamid Karzai International Airport, ending the UK’s evacuation efforts through Operation PITTING and thus bringing to a close almost twenty years of UK military involvement in the country.”
August 2023: “Six Afghans die and two others are missing at sea after small boats packed with UK-bound migrants, including children, sank in the English Channel.”
A twitter correspondent refers to the incident as a “tragedy“, but adds that it’s “6 (sic) more we don’t have to pay for” and a small part of me dies. It’s almost as if some people don’t seem to realise that decisions, such as abandoning Afghanistan to its fate, to be ruled by the lslamist maniacs of the Taliban, won’t have any consequences, at least for us. The trouble is that thanks advances in travel and technology, the world is a much smaller place than it was before and what appears to be a distant problem can turn up on our doorsteps.
Afghanistan is but another failed state and one that will provide, for the unforeseeable future, a steady trickle, if not a tsunami, of refugees fleeing for their lives. That’s what happens when people’s freedoms are stolen. They will go to almost any lengths to escape murderous dictators and some, hearing what a great country Britain is, will try to come here on small boats.
Add more general wars and climate change to the mix and you have a recipe for an even bigger disaster and the movement of many millions of people. Many will, inevitably, gravitate to England. We can do so much to mitigate the effects of natural and, if you will, unnatural disasters and restoring and, I would argue, increasing overseas aid to its previous levels and some would help. It is a matter of fact that people do not seek to leave countries that are safe and successful. If your raison d’être is to stop or at least reduce migration to the UK, even if it’s because you don’t want black and brown people to come here, then not abandoning places like Afghanistan and raising overseas aid are the best ways of achieving that aim.
Almost incredibly, given our recent history, we are still as a friendly, caring, safe and welcoming country, particularly by desperate refugees and in a way we still are. And despite the actions of our so-called leaders, I believe we still are, and that whatever our reservations, not all of us see the deaths of six Afghans as meaning nothing more than “we don’t have to pay for (them)”.
Once people are refugees and asylum seekers are on the move, that’s when the troubles begin and a country as ill-prepared and poorly governed as ours simply can’t cope with the numbers trying to reach our country. In the short term, we need to react and deal with those poor people fleeing whatever it is they are fleeing quickly and fairly but equally important is a medium to long term plan to deal with the vast movement of people in an increasingly chaotic world.
We can actually stop the boats without subjecting people to disease-ridden barges or immediate deportation to unsafe countries like Rwanda, both of which are little more than populist gimmicks. A better system, just like a better world, is possible. We just need a better government to start the process.
