Australia won’t join US evacuation efforts in Afghanistan, sends all the wrong signals

The clock has almost struck midnight for Australia’s allies in Afghanistan. According to statements from the Taliban, the group now controls some 85 per cent of the country with no sign that their rapid territorial gains will soon slow down.

Indeed, the Taliban is getting bolder and more decisive in its actions, and has begun targeting larger population centres. Recently, it began mounting an attack on the country’s third largest city, Herat.

Over the coming weeks, the US government is executing a daring evacuation plan for up to 20,000 Afghans who supported US forces. Some were translators, other worked in logistics, but all face death in the likely event of a Taliban takeover.

This weekend it was confirmed by NBC News that some 2,500 Afghans who have already received clearance will be evacuated directly to the US, while approximately 10,000 others will be flown overseas for background checks in the meantime.

According to the US State Department, these 10,000 would be evacuated to “a US military base overseas or to third countries, where they will be safely housed until their immigration processing is complete”.

Despite these bold manoeuvres by the US, the Australian government confirmed that it would not partake in the US’ evacuation plans as commercial flights are still operating out of Kabul Airport; a determination that raised concern from many spectators since commercial operators could cease their activities in the event of violence in the capital.

Speaking to SBS News, lawyer Glenn Kolomeitz attacked the decision.

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"Throwaway lines like all they can just get on commercial flights, that's nonsensical, which shows a complete lack of situational awareness and quite frankly a lack of any humanitarian care," Kolomeitz said.

Federal MP Luke Gosling, member for Solomon and a veteran, outlined that there was considerable support among those in the veteran community to assist Australia’s Afghan interpreters, acknowledging the role that they had in keeping Australian soldiers safe.

Speaking to the Northern Territory News, Gosling called on the government to step up and actively support those Afghan interpreters.

“Two things are fair to say. One, the federal government has not done the right thing by the interpreters, they are still stuck there, and we should do the morally right thing and save their lives by bringing them out,” Gosling said.

“In lots of cases they have saved many, many Australian soldiers’ lives, including those from Darwin.

“There is absolutely no doubt these people played a critical role in helping to keep Darwin soldiers alive.”

Indeed, the question of Australia’s Afghan interpreters is weighing heavily in the political arena. Just last week, former prime minister John Howard weighed on the government to do more in the face of this humanitarian crisis.

“It was a moral obligation that we shamefully disregarded many years ago when we pulled out of Vietnam,” Howard told the SBS.

“I do not want to see a repetition of that failure in relation to Afghanistan.”

While the fate of our Afghan partners is one of Australia’s most pressing humanitarian crises, there is a warfighting domain to this issue as well. Simply: the failings of the Australian government to support its Afghan interpreters will hurt Australia’s warfighting capability because fewer and fewer interpreters and skilled locals will want to work with us.

Unless you have an entirely multilingual defence force that is fluent in the language of the area of operations, the Australian Defence Force will always need local interpreters. However, if Australia has a track record of abandoning its interpreters, why would any interpreters choose to work alongside and for Australian forces in the future? In fact, this goes for any skill or trade and not just interpreters.

This laissez-faire approach to saving the lives of Afghan interpreters is more than a humanitarian issue, it directly undermines our warfighting capabilities of a nation.

Indeed, international commentators have already started to pick up on this notion. Pakistani news site The Express Tribune ran the headline this week, “Australia abandons Afghans who assisted military”.

After this scenario, people may very well think twice before supporting the Australian Defence Force – and that is a very dangerous predicament.

As at the time of publishing, hundreds of Afghans have currently been granted visas to Australia, but are awaiting flights. Numerous obstacles have also confronted those looking to leave.

One family had to reschedule their flight after receiving a positive COVID test only to have the following flight cancelled due to the reduction in arrivals.

This issue is both humanitarian as well as military, and Australia’s key decision makers must acknowledge it as such.