In the days that have followed the Taliban toppling Kabul, most people around the world have looked to Afghanistan and its citizens with humanity and compassion.
Horrifying scenes of crowds and chaos at Kabul’s airport with civilians desperately trying to flee, reports of women being shot dead on the streets for failing to wear burqas, images of children with terror imprinted on their innocent faces, and bodies falling off the sides of planes have disturbed and haunted us all.
Where once we could separate ourselves from the true nature of these atrocities, social media and a continuous and accessible news cycle has changed that. The psychological protection of thinking in “us” and “them” terms no longer applies.
It’s made the majority of us more aware, more understanding, more empathetic and more motivated to help. It’s made the majority of us less racist.
But, of course, there will always be certain individuals who seek to capitalise on ugly impulses for political or powerful gain.
Donald Trump is unsurprisingly leading the charge here, alluding to thousands of desperate Afghans as “terrorists” this morning.
Ever the walking contradiction, Trump originally supported bringing Afghans to the US, slamming his successor Joe Biden for failing to evacuate them before the Taliban seized control.
“Can anyone even imagine taking out our military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our country and how should be allowed to seek refuge?” he asked, adding that “all civilians” would have been removed if he were still president.
But Trump adopted a new line two days later, taking issue at images of 640 refugees packed onto a single US C-17 aircraft.
“This plane should have been full of Americans. America first!” he said.
“Biden surrendered Afghanistan to terrorists and left thousands of Americans for dead by pulling out the military before our citizens. Now we are learning that out of the 26,000 people who have been evacuated, only 4000 are Americans,” the former President added today.
“You can be sure the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didn’t allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights. Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighbourhoods around the world.”
“What a terrible failure. NO VETTING. How many terrorists will Joe Biden bring to America? We don’t know!”
Trump’s baseless fear-mongering has naturally been adopted by others in the US including J.D Vance, an Ohio candidate for the US Senate who suggests that refugees brought in remain “unvetted” and US citizens are being abandoned in the process.
But while Donald Trump et al are extremists, this tactic is one employed more covertly (and in some way more sinisterly) by members of Australia’s Parliament too– including our own Prime Minister.
Scott Morrison stood up to a press conference last week, announcing Australia would not repeat the scenes of an overcrowded US evacuation and would only resettle Afghans through “official channels”.
“I have a clear message – we will only be resettling people through our official humanitarian program going through official channels,” he said.
“We will not be offering a pathway to permanent residency or citizenship. We will not be allowing people to enter Australia illegally, even at this time. Our policy has not changed.”
He also confirmed that only 3000 refugees would be resettled in Australia– part of our original humanitarian intake –while countries like Canada upped their efforts to accepting 20,000 displaced Afghans and a republic as small as Kosovo agreed to take 10,000.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton quickly turned his comms efforts to one of risk minimisation in the assessment process.
He told the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas: “You and many other journalists would be screaming down the line at me if one person was brought in that committed an atrocity in our country”.
Let’s be clear: These lines aren’t said with the intent of protecting Australians and seeking to do what’s in the best interest of the country. They’re said for political gain. Refusing to evacuate more desperate Afghans has little to do with Australia’s means, and everything to do with building a message of fear; attempting to make Australians feel like they need to be protected and that the Coalition is the government for the job.
But where fear-mongering was once the most effective strategy for re-election, Australian society has evolved. We see things, understand things and empathise with things in a different way.
COVID has shown us how fragile humanity truly is, and where we can, we want to help. Can our politicians get the message?