The scenes at Kabul airport this week have been devastating. Many Afghans fear they are in grave danger under a Taliban government and are desperate to leave.

Calls are mounting for the international community to respond. Canada immediately announced plans to resettle 20,000 Afghan refugees, including women’s leaders, rights workers and LGBTQ people.

In Australia, Scott Morrison said today the government has resettled 430 Afghan nationals who had worked with the government, and their families, since April. More will likely be able to leave in the coming days.

But as Claire Higgins writes, the government has the ability to offer refuge to thousands more if it expands its humanitarian intake for the year. Australia has done this before for refugees from Iraq, Syria and Vietnam.

Not only that, there are 4,000 Afghans already living in Australia under temporary visas. Offering them immediate permanent protection is the humane response to the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan, she argues.

And in another piece, Nemat Bizhan recalls what Afghanistan was like when he lived there under the Taliban in the late 1990s.

“People sold their household belongings on the streets of Kabul and other cities to feed their families or pay travel costs to leave the country. Education for girls above year six was banned. Women were not allowed to work.”

He’s been in contact with many in Afghanistan in recent days, and says there’s a similar sense of hopelessness about an eventual return to life under the Taliban.

But he adds, if the international community acts now, there’s still a chance to preserve some rights for the Afghan people. How the UN responds, in particular, will be key in putting pressure on the Taliban rulers.

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