**The UK Government has faced criticism for its new settlement scheme for Afghan refugees fleeing Taliban rule.** • In the [Spring of 2021](https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-afghanistan), Western forces began to withdraw their forces from Afghanistan. The Taliban rapidly began to take an offensive, controlling more and more urban areas and establishing their presence. • On 15 August, the Taliban captured the capital city of Kabul, causing hundreds of thousands of Afghan civilians to attempt to flee the country. • Recently, the UK Government has committed to a [settlement scheme](https://news.sky.com/story/afghanistan-20-000-refugees-to-resettle-in-the-uk-under-pms-plan-but-critics-say-its-not-enough-12384055) which would see 5,000 vulnerable Afghans brought to the UK in the first year of the programme, and 20,000 more in the coming years. • The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has claimed that the UK cannot accommodate 20,000 Afghans “in one go”. Despite this, the scheme has faced [heavy criticism](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/22/britains-offer-to-afghan-refugees-is-not-generous-but-blindly-inhumane) by opposition parties, human rights activists and the Government’s own backbench MPs for not being generous enough.

**The UK has contributed to the instability in Afghanistan for centuries. The Government’s claim that we cannot take in 20,000 refugees “in one go” demonstrates a complete disregard for their moral responsibility to ensure the welfare of these innocent civilians.** • In 2001, the UK sent troops into Afghanistan as a fulfilment of its NATO duties after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US. • However, UK involvement in Afghanistan spans centuries, beginning in the [19th century](https://www.thoughtco.com/what-was-the-great-game-195341) when they took military action in the country on multiple occasions in order to create a buffer between British India and the expanding Russian Empire, and continuing into the 20th century for a period of time where Afghanistan was a protectorate under the British Empire. • During the Cold War, the British aided the [Mujahideen](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/asia-jan-june11-timeline-afghanistan) in their anti-Soviet military campaigns in Afghanistan, using the civil war as a **proxy war** for the wider ideological conflict between capitalism and communism. Over the years, this group would split into factions, [one of them being the Taliban](https://www.britannica.com/topic/mujahideen-Afghani-rebels). When this group eventually focused their efforts towards fighting the West, the UK would participate in 20 years of military campaigns which would ravage the country upheave the lives of civilians. • Now that the Taliban has re-established control over the country, the UK Government are refusing to be more accommodating in their settlement scheme, especially when [past evidence](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58283177) highlights the fact that the UK is already one of the least generous countries in the West to take in Afghanistan refugees in recent years. • If anything, the years of involvement that the UK has had in Afghanistan places upon them a responsibility to help more innocent victims than it is currently prepared to do.

Oh my god, I don't care. I really don't care. Please stop sending people from the third world into first world countries, where they never integrate, commit crimes, and then never be deported for them. UK belongs to the English, Welsh, and Scottish, and Ireland belongs to the Irish. There's nothing about accepting so many people into our country that makes sense. Let them fend for themselves. If they want to flee, flee to neighbouring countries. There is no need at all for them to flee so far. If Britain suddenly erupted in violent civil war, refugees would be laughed at if they tried to flee as far as Brazil. Absolute nonsense and REEKS of the "white mans burden"