This fact seems to have been lost in the debate following the revelation of the story. Instead, we’re lost in the usual buck-passing and name-calling. Defence secretary John Healey is trying to place as much blame as possible on his Conservative predecessors. Former defence secretary Ben Wallace is defending the government’s use of a super-injunction. Reform deputy leader Richard Tice is criticising both parties. People’s responses are defined by whatever is most useful to them.
Hardly anyone seems to care about this element. It barely features in the mountain of coverage over the last 24 hours. But it is the core moral component of our national responsibility.
There has been an attempt to plaster over the egregious nature of this action in the coverage, which simply will not wash. That breach is indicative of the lackadaisical and amateur way Britain treated those trying to flee the Taliban.
square TIM COLLINS Rishi Sunak's great betrayal of the Afghans who helped the UK will not be forgotten
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In August 2023, an Afghan who was sent the list threatened to disclose it. At that point there seems to have been a dispute about how to handle the situation. Government sources speaking to the Times suggest a split between Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence officials.
This is the core of the issue. Regardless of what happened up to this point, Britain now had a responsibility to the people on that list. It has exposed them to Taliban reprisals because of its administrative incompetence. How would it respond?
Defence secretary John Healey said he was “deeply concerned” about the lack of transparency about the leak of Afghan’s data by the MoD. (Photo: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire)
The initial error was egregious in the extreme, but the response was, at least, morally clear-sighted and practical. In fact, it was the incoming Labour government that changed the approach.
Healey took that as his cue and closed the ARR scheme. He has also closed the original Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). The safe routes to the UK from Afghanistan have now been shuttered. The attempt to help those let down by the UK has ended. “To all those whose information was compromised, I offer a sincere apology today on behalf of the British government,” Healey said yesterday. Evidently that apology does not go so far as to actually help them.
This is the kind of political debate we have now. You can see it very clearly in the assumption about people from Afghanistan. Are they terrorists and sex offenders? Or are they people to whom we owe a moral obligation, both as a military power which operated in their country and as a recipient of their applications for sanctuary?
The latter view is the only moral position you can adopt, the only truly patriotic priority you can pursue. The Conservative government, which handled the retreat from Afghanistan with such utter ineptitude, deserves credit for having recognised that, at least. The fact that hardly anyone seems to be offering shows how ugly our debate on asylum has become.
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