NICOLA Sturgeon has said Scotland is willing to accept refugees fleeing Afghanistan as the Taliban retakes the country at lightning speed.
The First Minister said her administration was ready to play its “full part”, as it had when it accepted 2000 refugees from the Syrian civil war after 2015.
It is understood the Home Office is already looking for hotel space to provide short-term accommodation for refugees in Glasgow and other Scottish councils.
Writing on Twitter, Ms Sturgeon highlighted the work of the Canadian government, which is helping to resettle 20,000 Afghans threatened by the brutal Islamist group
She said: “I hope UK government does similar and offers as much refuge for vulnerable Afghans as possible.
“As we did with Syrian refugees, @scotgov is willing to play our full part and do all we can to help those in peril as a result of the horrifying situation currently unfolding.”
Boris Johnson is expected to recall parliament from its summer recess on Wednesday to discuss the collapse of the Afghan government and Taliban takeover.
Fighters are on the edge of the capital Kabul, which is expected to fall within days or even hours.
On Friday, Ms Sturgeon said Afghanistan was experiencing a tragedy in which the people had been “shamefully abandoned”, with “horrifying” implications for women and girls.
She said then: “There are no easy answers but the world van’t just turn away and leave them to their fate.”
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford MP added today: “The UK - along with our international partners - have a moral duty to the people and government of Afghanistan.
“There are serious questions over the manner of departure from the country, lack of support for the Afghan government, and the reckless cut to aid support.
“Make no mistake about this - the absence of a proper strategy and meaningful planning makes this a serious failure of leadership and one of the biggest foreign policy disasters of modern times.
“I welcome the recall of Parliament to hold the UK government to account, to discuss next steps to prevent an all out humanitarian crisis, and to ensure the UK discharges its obligations for all those Afghan citizens who have worked with UK forces.”
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