Author: Ryan Baldry, Communications Manager

Although Afghanistan may not feature as heavily on our television screens recently, we must be under no illusion that the situation on the ground is continuing to deteriorate further with each passing day.

With an increasingly bleak outlook for the people of Afghanistan, we are seeing reports of how human rights are being restricted – especially those of women and the LGBTQ+ community. Food is scarce and the economy is in free-fall. Aid agencies are reporting that 90% of the population are struggling to access food with an estimated 97% of the population expected to live in poverty by the middle of 2022. We are already seeing families speaking openly with media outlets about how they have had to sell possessions and even their own children in order to afford food or shelter.

Around the world, national governments have been withdrawing or reducing aid and freezing assets to severely limit the funds of the Taliban regime in order to not legitimise the regime. Citizens are being arrested without reason and imprisoned without trial.

At the time of writing this article, the United Nations have recently launched a call for $4.4 billion - one of their largest ever donations to a single country. At a recent meeting of the UN Security Council, Secretary-General Guterres stated that the world, and the Security Council had a “moral responsibility” to the people of Afghanistan. At least $9 billion of assets have been frozen by the international community and global banking system which is currently leaving vital systems in Afghanistan completely starved of funds. The UN has also warned that policies being introduced by the Taliban “constitute a collective punishment of women and girls, grounded on gender-based bias and harmful practices”.

The UK’s record of helping to rebuild and stabilise Afghanistan was admirable with successes in providing a safe environment for the education of women and girls, allowing democratic institutions to develop and key national infrastructure to be built. Since the takeover of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the evacuation of UK personnel, the UK Government has continued to push for donations to be channelled through providers on the ground – independent of the Taliban regime. However, this is not proving to be enough and there are now Members of Parliament and military officials are contemplating the idea of officially recognising the new government as a way to release some of the humanitarian pressures currently facing the people of Afghanistan.

The international community has undoubtedly been knocked by the withdrawal from Afghanistan but we cannot allow this to get in the way of helping those who need our help now more than ever. If the UK really wants to lead the global community and demonstrate its continued commitment to being a force for good in the world, then we must look to help those who are most at risk. The UK has already returned aid spending to Afghanistan to original levels before the aid budget was temporarily reduced which is incredibly welcome. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office have also confirmed that the UK will co-host the UN virtual pledging summit to help address the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

The UK and the wider international community have a moral duty to the people of Afghanistan and although we are rightly critical of the current regime, countless lives are being put at risk and this is only getting worse. We must continue to lead a coalition of like-minded states to assist aid agencies on the ground to deliver assistance to those who need it most.