Why We Shouldn’t Throw Open the Doors to Afghan Refugees

As The Australian’s Adam Creighton recently wrote, “the same organs that ritually hyperventilate about the detention of asylum seekers are the loudest voices in advocating imprisoning entire states”. They’re about to do both at the same time.

Without a blush of embarrassment at their blatant double-standards, the left-media have sucked in their breath, preparing to bellow their lungs out that Australia “must” throw open its doors to Afghan refugees. At the same time as they are bleating their ovine support for Covid dictators plunging more than half of the Australian population into rolling lockdowns and keeping us prisoners within our own borders.

World Vision is among groups calling on Australia to create an additional 20,000 humanitarian visas for people fleeing Afghanistan.

More than 300 organisations have signed an open letter saying the government has a moral duty to the Afghan people.

Of course they have. These are the same leftist nosey-nannas and head-tilting, flappy-armed foghorns who hooted and howled for over a decade over the “plight” of illegal immigrants trying to force their way into Australia.

But, it might well be asked, what “moral duty” do we owe? We’ve already spent two decades of blood and treasure trying to drag Afghanistan out of the Stone Age, and faced “local hostility” and “insider attacks” all the way. It was scant few weeks ago that an Afghan accusing Australia’s most highly-decorated serving soldier of “war crimes”, bellowed in court, via video link, that Australian soldiers were “infidels”.

Sure, we need 20,000 of those here.

Australia’s first rescue mission to evacuate citizens, permanent residents and Afghans who helped allied forces during the war lifted 26 people out of Kabul.

But air force and army personnel face a dangerous situation to ramp up efforts in coming days with violence and predicted poor weather sparking chaos[…]

Labor has criticised the government for not doing enough to help Afghan interpreters and other staff leave the country after they had helped Australian troops[…]

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said some visa applications would take time because of the complexity of identity and other checks.

He said he was aware of some Afghans who had worked with Australian officials and switched their allegiance to the Taliban.

MSN

And therein lies the rub.

While it is absolutely true that many Afghans supported Australia and other Coalition forces at great risk, many more remained ambivalent at best about the “infidels” trying to liberate them from the Taliban.

Even the “supporters” were often not what they seemed. “Green-on-blue” attacks were a constant threat. As decorated combat veteran turned political candidate Sean Parnell told Tucker Carlson, his unit worked with an Afghan interpreter for over a year. “He was on every mission with us, he was on every fight with us.” Until, one day, his unit was lured into an ambush — with local villagers gathered to watch. The mastermind behind the ambush? Their interpreter. “Someone who we thought was our friend.”

We also know that, during the days when illegal boats were arriving on Australia’s shores daily, a great many of the “refugees” from Afghanistan were arriving under false pretences.

As a Guardian investigation revealed, people smugglers easily faked up documentation: “‘We can write whatever you need; it depends,’ said one young clerk. ‘For example, we will mention you work in a government department, your job title and salary. It will say, If you don’t leave your job by this date, we will come and kill you or put a bomb in your house’. Or we can say you are working with US forces,’ he added.”

In 2014, an Afghan refugee, Numan Haider, whose family had fled to Australia five years earlier, planned to run away and join ISIS. He was shot and killed after stabbing two counter-terrorism officers.

Clearly, then, an open door Afghan refugee policy will be an invitation to an unconscionable threat that will persist for years.

That’s not to say that no Afghans showed genuine loyalty and consequently deserve our protection. It’s also natural to feel dismayed compassion, seeing the images coming out of Kabul.

But Australia’s first duty is the security of its citizens. Sorting out the refugee wheat from the chaff will not be easy. Just wringing hankies and weeping, “Let them come!” is a recipe for disaster.

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