You may have seen the hopeful pictures the other day of a group of female medical students newly arrived in Scotland from Afghanistan. You may have heard them talking excitedly about the chance to complete their studies here. You may also have heard one of the students describe their efforts to get to Scotland as a “thousand days of suffering”. Now, at least, there’s hope the suffering will end.

The reason the students have come to Scotland is the grim reality of Afghanistan under the Taliban and the regime’s ongoing clampdown on women’s rights and education. One of the students, Zahra Hussaini, said she used to think the Taliban might change in the 21st century. But no. Since they returned to power three years ago, it’s been as bad as ever, with women banned from studying at university.

There was a time, not so long ago, when there were some positive signs in the country, which I saw for myself when I was in Afghanistan prior to the Taliban’s return. I visited a college in Kabul and talked to some amazing young women who were studying to be engineers. They told me of their hope that things were starting to change after the hard years under the Taliban. But they also told me they were anxious about how fragile their new rights to go to college and study might be. Turned out: very fragile.

The fact that 19 young women have now been able to escape the regime and come to Scotland to complete their studies is thanks mostly to the Linda Norgrove Foundation, which was set up in memory of the Scottish aid worker who was killed in Afghanistan. I was at Linda’s funeral on Lewis in 2010 and remember one of her friends saying her spirit would live on wherever people were helped no matter how far they lived from Scotland. The project to assist the students from Afghanistan is surely an expression of that spirit.

What the foundation in Linda’s name has done now, as well as highlighting the women’s plight in the first place, is raise £60,000 to cover the costs of getting them to the UK and accommodating them in Scotland. The project has also been made possible by the UK and Scottish governments cooperating (see: it can be done) and working around the usual regulations, which means the women will be treated as home students and are entitled to free tuition.

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It’s undoubtedly a great outcome for the students concerned, and it was moving to hear them talk about their desire not only to become doctors but to serve their country or any country. But it’s hard also not to see what’s happening to them as an exception in an otherwise bleak story. The compassion and support that’s been shown for the students is welcome, but it’s not enough.

What I mean by that is there are many more like the students who’ve just arrived in Scotland who are suffering under the Taliban but have been failed and let down. When I was in Afghanistan, I spoke to some of the local people who supported and worked for the Coalition troops during the US-led operation from 2001, often as interpreters. But we know that hundreds of them who were promised sanctuary in the UK thanks to that work are still stuck in Afghanistan.

We also know the main reason for the situation don’t we? Despite making a promise to thousands of Afghans, the Conservative UK Government dragged its heels, latterly because of Rishi Sunak’s pledge to clamp down on migration. It’s meant that in recent months, more Afghans have been reaching the UK on the small boats across the Channel than through the official resettlement scheme.

The hope must be, I guess, that the new government will be better – and in a small way the fact it was willing to work with the Scottish Government to get the medical students into Scotland is a good sign. But this is also the week when the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a “major surge in immigration enforcement” and new plans to deport around 14,500 people deemed to be illegal migrants. The danger is that, legitimate though it is to deport illegal migrants, the new culture makes life harder for those who have the right to come here and who the UK has a duty to help.

Taliban fighters carry rocket launchers as they celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan

It also feels like we’re not really facing the grim reality that lies beneath the more positive story of the medical students. Happily, they now have the chance to finish their studies, but at the same time the diplomats from around the world who’ve been talking to the Taliban have made no headway on the problem that forced the students to Scotland in the first place. The West is hinting to the Taliban at better relations with foreign governments but in exchange they expect a commitment from the regime to improve women’s and girls' rights. It’s a commitment that hasn’t been forthcoming.

Where does that leave us? Realistically, to keep on talking to the Taliban despite everything, and to keep on chipping away at them in the hope of change (we’ve tried the more violent alternative). More positively, there are now 19 young women from Afghanistan who are about to start their studies in Scotland and in years to come will graduate as doctors. One of them said her stay in Scotland could be eight or nine years and in that time she thought change would come to Afghanistan. “I am hopeful the situation won’t remain the same,” she said. We must, despite everything, share her hope.