The government must evacuate more LGBT+ people from Afghanistan as Taliban violence escalates, campaigners have warned.
It follows the publication of a Human Rights Watch report last year which found the lives of LGBT+ Afghans had become ‘dramatically worse’ since the militant group seized power in August 2021.
According to Freedom of Information data obtained from the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, just 97 LGBT+ Afghans have been resettled to the UK out of the 21,450 refugees relocated since the fall of Kabul in August 2021.
Brighton MP Caroline Lucas told TLE the government was “standing idly by”, with its failure to act quickly in the processing of LGBT+ asylum cases prolonging the suffering of those still trapped in Afghanistan.
She said: “The failure to resettle even a hundred LGBT+ Afghans merely forms part of a wider picture, in which this government treats with utter disregard those fleeing persecution on the basis of sexual or gender identity.
“LGBT+ people in Rwanda, for example, have been arbitrarily detained, harassed and beaten – yet the Government is willing to send refugees there who may have been fleeing that very persecution in the first place.
“This failure is down to inadequate Tory leadership, with former foreign secretary Dominic Raab on holiday when Kabul fell; far too few staff working on the scheme; and as a consequence, a failure to deliver safe and legal routes for Afghan refugees to resettle here in the UK.
Last year, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee condemned the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, describing the UK’s evacuation as a “betrayal” to allies that cost lives and resulted in a number of Afghans being left behind.
In a damning report, MPs criticised the military’s evacuation of British nationals, known as Operation Pitting, attributing Taliban persecution of those stranded to a “lack of seriousness in achieving coordination.”
Nasrat, a trans woman whose name has been changed to protect their identity, served as an interpreter for British forces during the Afghanistan War and was almost killed by Taliban militants when detained in May last year.
Forced to take drastic measures to hide their gender identity, including dressing up in men’s clothes and staying indoors, the former operative was captured at a checkpoint just outside of Kabul.
“Frankly, it’s a miracle I’m still alive and I’m counting down the days until I’m caught again, and if they do, I know they’ll kill me.
“I hoped that I would be accepted by the UK because of the interpretation I offered British troops, but because I couldn’t get my supervisor’s email, my case was rejected.”
They added: “I’ve lost all hope of being helped and now I’m completely stuck here, in fear of my life and with no one to help me.”
The threat to LGBT+ Afghans was brought into sharp focus during a Bild interview with a senior Taliban judge who confirmed that men found to engage in homosexual acts would be executed by having walls toppled on them.
A 2009 Justice Department report noted that “no death sentences were reported to have been dispensed with after the end of the Taliban rule, but this is still technically possible under criminal law.”
Chief executive of Roshaniya, Nemat Sadat, who has organised the evacuations of more than 200 LGBT+ Afghans told TLE more than 800 cases of human rights violations have been committed by the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
He said: “Our researchers have documented accounts of a gay man taken to a dimly-lit jail cell where prison guards beat him nonstop with wooden paddle. A transgender woman was taken hostage and gang raped and electrocuted for allegedly being a western spy.
“The chances of survival for LGBT+ Afghans is getting slimmer with each passing day. We are asking for international stakeholders to support our work by helping us to relocate the remaining 2000 LGBT+ Afghan asylum-seekers who yearn for a chance to live and be free.
He added: “I call upon the UK to demonstrate its global leadership by accepting a few hundred LGBT+ Afghans and persuading its western allies to do the same.”
The Foreign Office said: “The UK is committed to upholding LGBT+ rights in the UK and internationally, and was one of the first countries to facilitate a safe relocation route for a specific group of at-risk LGBT+ Afghans after the fall of Kabul. Many are in the UK, while some have been relocated to other safe countries.”
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