The betrayal of millions of Afghan people by the withdrawal from Afghanistan has avoided scrutiny by the clever use of emotionalism about taking Afghan refugees.
In Parliament last Wednesday the focus was more about helping refugees than about that appalling letting down of Afghans, the vast majority of whom do not support the minority fundamentalist Taliban.
The use of the refugee issue to sidestep debate on the government’s disgraceful surrender to the Taliban , is manipulation of the worst type.
The reality is that for months now the government has secretly been engaged in planning the settlement of these refugees in the U.K.
Many Councils have told the government that they have no available accommodation for the Afghan refugees and that the government must help.
A number of financial incentives have been offered to local Councils to provide this refugee housing , but the major way of providing housing is to use military family accommodation.
This is staggering because housing Afghan refugees in military accommodation is a huge security risk . Many military families will wake up one morning over the next few days and find they have Afghan refugees living next door.
Whilst this accommodation being used is not the accommodation in gated military bases , there are thousands of units of military family accommodation outside or near to bases which are their own communities.
Some of the officials involved in the resettlement plans feel that the Afghan refugees should be gated areas anyway, away from security risks to others and to themselves .
Some officials are worried that once the resettlement plans become public knowledge that there will be huge public discontent about the preferential treatment given to them over and above homeless ex service personal and even serving service personal .
A lot of military accommodation used by all three Armed Services is outside military bases . Often when they are not needed by military families they are rented out in the private sector for short periods of time.
There are literally thousands of these properties across the U.K.
A huge proportion of these which were up for rent in the private rental market have been withdrawn or prospective renters have been told other applicants have been given preference over the properties. What no one has been told is that these other applicants are for the Afghan refugees.
This deception has been going on for months. It has started to have an effect on the local rental market as the reduction of rentals available due to them being booked for Afghan refugees has resulted in rental prices across the country shooting up together with much less availability.
Those involved with this programme have been demoralised and disgusted with what they have had to do.
They have been instructed to stop making the majority of military housing available to the general public . This decision is likely to affect active service personal too as some will have to be put up in hotels while they wait for the scarce military accommodation to become available.
The properties intended for the Afghan refugees have all been provide with brand new furniture and even down to new cutlery.
The refugees will also be provided with generous financial and other allowances including cars.
This situation appals staff as military personnel often have to put up with low standard accommodation which is allowed to deteriorate as there is such a low budget available .
This is seen as a kick in the teeth for military personnel who have served their country for years and then they see preferential treatment given to refugees.
What is worse is that they are obliged to live next door to them.
The staff involved say that some of the senior military officers who have been campaigning for the refugees to come to live in the U.K. are highly hypocritical because they would not live next door to one of their own other ranks , let alone Afghan refugees.
This appears to be the case with the majority of those advocating that the U.K. takes more and more Afghan refugees- that they never would live next door to them- the refugees are never in the well off areas and such people simply do not practice what they preach.
The government in promoting the taking of thousands of Afghan refugees on top of the many other refugees they let in the country, simply ignores the huge pressures there are on housing the existing population on this already overcrowded U.K. The refugees can always go somewhere but never anywhere near the residences of government Ministers.
The fact that the U.K. faces a serious homeless problem is one that the government ignores . If they cared they would sort it out rather than exacerbate the problem.
The reality is that the majority of Afghan refugees will not be our former interpreters.
There will be many who are not and many who will claim to be. Plenty of examples of missing paperwork.
Of those who are genuine , for each interpreter there are wives, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, Aunts , Uncles and more . This is thousands of people . Even though the government had said they will take about 20,000 Afghan refugees, the reality is that it will be thousands more . This is what people involved in the programme think but have been sworn to secrecy.
Of course there are security concerns. Those reaching Kabul airport have to be approved by the Taliban.
The whole situation is a panicked catastrophe.
Those involved are also appalled that thousands of refugees are being flown into the U.K. without any covid or indeed other health checks . A case of double standards where British subjects have to have stringent covid regulations in order to travel . It makes a mockery of the whole crazy situation.
The Afghan refugee situation is different to the Syrian one in many ways . While there are many similarities, there are some differences.
The Syrian refugees were never put in military homes. That decision is the height of insanity.
With the Syrian refugees at least some Councils debated the issue.
Those in the know say that the MOD is used to getting its way and is not interested in any debate on the subject – hence the secrecy.
It has to be a resignation issue for the whole MOD Ministerial team.
They clearly knew much more than they let Parliament know, as did the Home Secretary.
The Councils involved have told no one in their localities what is going on.
Also, while they say using military accommodation is temporary, no one believes this and instead believe that once the refugees are in that accommodation they will be there forever.
It seems that the sole purpose of the U.K. being in Kabul airport is to bring over to the U.K. as many refugees as possible . This cannot be in the UK’s interests.
What would be in the UK’s interests would be to use the airport as a springboard to help liberate the Afghan people from the minority fundamentalist Taliban . That would help all the people of Afghanistan rather than a chosen few. Already the former Afghanistan Vice President and others plus 10,000 Afghan troops have started the resistance . Should we not help them or is our “deal” with the Taliban more important?
Anthony Webber
Independent Political Commentator
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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