 Rydw i'n gweithio i'r next item of business, which is a debate on motion 1003, in the name of Angus Robertson, on supporting the people of Afghanistan. I invite members who wish to speak in this debate, to press their request to speak buttons now or as soon as possible, and I call on Angus Robertson to speak and to move the motion. Cabinet Secretary. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I want to speak today about the situation in Afghanistan, particularly what Scotland can do to support the Afghan people. I would like to take a moment to reflect on every life lost, on every family displaced, on every girl denied in education, and every minority group now living in fear. The tragedy of Afghanistan is a tragedy of countless individuals and millions of families. I want to make three fundamental arguments today. First, I want to address the humanitarian challenge. Secondly, to address how Scotland can play a full role in the resettlement of refugees. Finally, what Scotland, as a good global citizen, is and will be doing to support the people of Afghanistan and those who served in Afghanistan. Over the course of the last 20 years, the UK has been instrumental in supporting the Government of Afghanistan both militarily and building the civil society that improved the lives of so many people, especially women and young girls. Supporting projects to improve education, healthcare, local government and economic growth across the country, we must work together to protect what gains were made. The economy in Afghanistan was already fragile and the state heavily dependent on foreign aid, and international assistance now hangs in the balance as we see the economy collapse. As we can also see on our television screens every day, the human rights situation in Afghanistan is extremely worrying. Women and girls, those who work for foreign governments or aid agencies are all threatened. The Taliban has a history of brutal discrimination against minority ethnic groups across Afghanistan, religious minorities, the LGBT community and others. Over 120,000 people were safely evacuated in recent weeks thanks to the international effort at Kabul airport, and Scotland is forever grateful to all the service personnel of all nations who work tirelessly and sacrifice so much in the service of their countries. Scotland also wants to recognise the dedicated work of diplomats and those in the humanitarian and aid sector who have worked to bring Afghanistan a better future. Now that the flights have ceased and there is no western presence in Afghanistan, we must ask ourselves what can Scotland do now. We have heard this week that hundreds of people eligible for relocation remain in Afghanistan. The UK Government is speaking of dual nationals as if they were second-class citizens and has said that any Afghans who flee to neighbouring countries and later make the perilous journey to the UK via the channel for a better life would still be subject to the Government's crackdown on boat crossings, as if the people of Afghanistan had not suffered enough. The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government wrote to the Home Secretary yesterday to make clear our opposition to the UK Government's nationality and borders bill. People who come to Scotland seeking sanctuary must be treated with dignity and respect at all times. Extremely vulnerable people such as children or victims of human trafficking deserve a system that enables access to support rather than one that erects barriers. Not a system that, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, is a violation of the 1951 refugee convention and will damage lives. Today, millions of Afghans throughout the country are in dire need of humanitarian assistance with 3.5 million internally displaced persons. 14 million people are food insecure as a result of decades of conflict drought and the impact of the pandemic. I would like to address how Scotland will play a full role in refugee resettlement. I would like to start by looking back at how Scotland welcomed and supported Syrian refugees. Six years ago, Scottish local authorities led the way in welcoming refugees fleeing the horror of the conflict in Syria. The first flight bringing refugees to the UK for resettlement landed in Glasgow on a dark and dreach day in November 2015. At that time, few local authorities in Scotland had experience in supporting refugees. That is no longer the case. I am proud to say that, in the intervening years, every local authority of every hue in Scotland has welcomed and supported refugees. Over 3,500 people have arrived and have been rebuilding their lives in the new communities, bringing with them skills and cultures from which we all benefit. I thank local authority teams who have made this possible, as well as the many third sector community and faith organisations and members of the public who have worked tirelessly to provide the friendship and support that people need as they settle in their new home country. Scotland is therefore standing by to play a full role today in providing a home for Afghans. In principle, I very much welcome the UK Government's announcement of the new Afghans citizens resettlement programme, as well as Operation Warm Welcome. However, I think that I would be delighted. First of all, I need to declare an interest as a non-executive director of the Revive Campaign, set up to advocate for victims of explosive weapons. On the Operation Warm Welcome, would the cabinet secretary note that recent statistics exposed by byline times show Afghans, given refugee status in the UK since 2009, compromised only 18 per cent of women and girls and of the under-18s only 15 per cent were girls? Therefore, would the cabinet secretary join with me in noting that the rights of women merit some attention and commit to asking the Home Office to ensure an equitable proportion of women and girls who are given refugee status? Yes, I do. I entirely agree with my colleague, and there's a lot more work that can be done on that, and I'll be coming on immediately to talk about the scale of the challenge, but also the opportunity and responsibility that we have to maximise the support that we can give to Afghans, especially amongst women and girls. I think that we understand that the current commitment to take 20,000 people over five years in the UK with only 5,000 in the first year is nowhere near enough. We've all seen the devastating scenes at Campbell Airport. I will, and then I'll have to make some progress, Mr Kerr. I'm very grateful to the cabinet secretary for giving away. Would he join me in pleading with the European Union that they would accept Afghan refugees at least to the same scale of those accepted in the plan that the UK Government has promoted? Of course, I'm pleased to call on all countries to play their part. I remember the contribution that was made in Syria proportionately the countries that accepted most were Sweden, Austria and then Germany. Somewhere further down the list was the United Kingdom, so we have more to do. I'm pleased that we can aspire to taking in more Afghans, and I hope that we can be agreed on that point, Mr Kerr, and perhaps join with other parties in this Parliament in calling for the numbers to be raised. The Scottish Government is also deeply concerned about the fate of Afghans who contributed to British aid efforts and supported Western efforts to enhance human rights and are not prioritised for resettlement. We must support those who supported us and have been left behind. We will continue to work with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Home Office, local authorities and other partners to provide people with the safety and security that they need to rebuild their lives. The new Scots refugee integration strategy led in partnership with COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council provides a framework for welcoming refugees in Scotland. It ensured that Scotland was prepared for resettlement in 2015 and continues to underpin our approach. We believe that integration begins from day one and that everyone in our communities has a part to play. Scottish local authorities have been welcoming Afghans who work for British forces or other UK Government institutions, along with their families, for a number of years now. That experience, along with that gain through resettlement for refugees from the conflict in Syria, will be invaluable in welcoming people into our communities. I am pleased to be able to give the following update on Scotland's offer to Afghanistan resettling here. Before June 2021, five Scottish local authorities had already welcomed nearly 400 people under the Afghan locally employed staff scheme since 2014. From that point, arrivals were stepped up in late June 2021 until the end of August, a further 43 families, since around 160 individuals arrived in Scotland across eight local authorities. A further 20 families, since approximately 70 individuals, are expected to arrive in the first weeks of this month. Scottish local authorities have offered a further 40 properties thus far. We are at a very early stage, which are ready to be matched by 40 more families who have recently arrived in the UK. To date, 18 local authorities have confirmed their commitment going forward, others are still going through internal processes to confirm their position. Scottish council leaders have unanimously agreed that Scottish local government should support the locally employed staff and refugee resettlement schemes. Local authorities need more detail, however, on the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme and operation warm welcome to enable council to make further decisions on longer-term commitments and participation. I will have to make a bigger progress because of the announcement that I want to make to the chamber. The Scottish Refugees Council set up the new Scots Connect network in 2016. The network now brings together 195 communities and voluntary groups across Scotland working to support and welcome new Scots in their communities. 145 groups have already registered their willingness to participate in an Afghan support network, outlining what services and support they are able to provide. The SRC has received more than 250 inquiries from individuals, offering practical skills and donations. The SRC is currently directing offers of clothing, children's toys, household goods and organisations in the new Scots Connect network. People and anybody who wishes to register can do that. The SRC is currently working closely with COSLA, and local authorities are responsible for accommodating and supporting new arrivals. I would like to stress that the Scottish Government's support for Afghan refugees is significant. That is why I would like to announce to Parliament that the Scottish Government has made £250,000 available from a humanitarian emergency fund to provide critical help to the people of Afghanistan. That is additional to the financial commitment that the Scottish people have already made to the UK's aid budget through tax contributions. We are in close contact with our humanitarian partners on the funds panel to explore ways in which that funding can be delivered safely and effectively to support those on the ground. Deputy Presiding Officer, as we debate today how best to support the people of Afghanistan, I ask that we all remember that a person's right to live in peace, dignity and security should not depend on what they can offer the economy of another country. We ask ourselves if those were our mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, sons and fathers, what would we want another country to do to help? I believe that Scotland is ready to help and we will act. In moving this motion, I commend it to all members and I hope that there is cross-party agreement on this important day. I now call on Donald Cameron to speak to a move amendment 1003.2. Mr Cameron, you have around nine minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I appreciate the opportunity to open for the Scottish Conservatives in this timely and important debate, and I move the amendment in my name. It's also the first time I've appeared in the chamber in a debate with the cabinet secretary, and I very belately welcome him, both to this Parliament and to his post. I want to begin my remarks by paying tribute to our armed forces, particularly those who have served in Afghanistan since the beginning and who have given so much in order that the people of Afghanistan could live in relative stability over these last 20 years. I especially want to pay my respects and those of my party to the 457 UK armed forces personnel who have lost their lives in the pursuit of democracy for the Afghan people. We remember them today, we think of their families today, and we thank them for their unswerving courage in the service of our country in making the ultimate sacrifice. I also acknowledge the 2,200 personnel who sustained injuries during the conflict. As an aside at this point, I should note that we welcome the announcement that the UK Government will be investing a further £2.7 million into additional mental health support for our veterans as part of the wider operation courage programme. I know that I speak for everyone on these benches and hopefully others across the Parliament that we are all indebted to our armed forces who strive to keep our country safe and who work so hard to help others. Not only must their achievements in Afghanistan over the last 20 years be commended, but the ability of our armed forces and diplomatic services to swiftly evacuate, as we saw in recent weeks, some 15,000 people to the UK in extremely difficult circumstances and in a very tight timeframe, with second to none. I know what he is saying about the swift removal of the services. However, would the member agree with me that the hardware left for deployment by the Taliban suggested by the US military, including 22,000 HMVs, 64,000 machine guns, 350,000 assault rifles, 33 blackhawk helicopters, 176 artillery pieces and 126,000 pistols, can only be considered a cause for concern for global security? I do agree with that. It is a cause and concern, and I will come on to address elements of the withdrawal into your course. However, I momentarily acknowledge the sacrifice of the Afghan people, particularly those who worked with our armed forces in order to try to make Afghanistan a better place to live. The long involvement of the UK, and it should be said, 50 or so other nations who participated in Afghanistan over the last 20 years, allowing for free elections to take place, for women and girls to receive an education and an international effort there that began to stabilise that part of the world following the brutal attacks on the USA in 2001. In spite of those achievements, it is depressing and deeply regrettable that, following the exit of American and British military personnel, Afghanistan has spiralled so quickly back to where it was some 20 years ago. The rapid return and rise to power of the Taliban has clearly taken the world by surprise, and despite the promise of more leniency from the new Taliban regime, compared to its first time in power, the initial signs are not good. We watch and wait. It is right that questions are asked of every national government involved about what went so wrong in Afghanistan. The recent US-led withdrawal from Afghanistan, which we have seen played out in the media, should make us consider the sense and worth of our involvement in that country and the policies pursued by successive Governments at home and abroad up to and including the past few months. In particular, we should query why the Biden administration pursued its policy of complete military withdrawal and what assumptions were made about the ensuing consequences. What should our future foreign and diplomatic policy be when it comes to Afghanistan and the surrounding areas? There are many, many questions to ask, but we are principally here this afternoon to discuss Scotland's role in supporting the sum of 25,000 Afghan civilians that the UK will be welcoming over the coming years. It is notable to record that the UK has already taken in some 36,000 Afghans before the current crisis developed. We as a country have a proud history of welcoming refugees to our shores and we have a truly diverse multicultural society as a result. Kenneth Gibson Thank you for taking the intervention. Does Mr Cameron believe that consideration should now be given to providing indefinite leave to Afghans already living in the UK so that genuine refugees are not forced to return to Taliban-run Afghanistan? I will come on to that point because I consider various issues under that, but I will return to that permissible. We welcome that proud history, even in the dull circumstances that some people seek refuge in our country. There is much in what the cabinet secretary has just said, especially in terms of welcoming refugees to Scotland, that I support, but can I register my disappointment, my profound disappointment, that in this debate and in his motion he directly, and I quote, condemns the UK Government in terms of international aid, which of course makes it very difficult for those benches to support the motion as it stands. And if there was ever a moment for the SNP just once to resist the temptation to score a political point, then this was it. If there was ever a moment for them to allow the Scottish Parliament to come together at an important and indeed tragic time, then this was it. Let me touch briefly, I'm afraid I've got to crack on. Let me touch briefly on that topic. The United Kingdom has for decades been at the forefront of helping some of the poorest and most vulnerable people from around the world. The Scottish Conservatives have long supported the UK's commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of GNI on international aid, and while we acknowledged the reasons behind the temporary reduction to 0.5 per cent, we call on the UK Government to reinstate their long-term commitment to 0.7 per cent as soon as practically possible. Personally speaking, I hope that that moment comes very quickly indeed. There is of course more to international aid than questions of funding. Recently the UK has led the world in this regard, and the pandemic has shined a spotlight on what we can do. Our contribution includes the UK being the biggest bilateral donor to the global partnership for education, which is the largest fund in the world dedicated to improving education in developing countries, and then there's our contribution to the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment, the international initiative to support global and more importantly equitable access to vaccines. At £548 million, we have made one of the largest donations helping to support the roll-out of 1.8 billion vaccine doses by early 2022 for up to 92 developing countries. I turn to the issue of refugees. The cabinet secretary has a welcomed operation, which was announced yesterday that seeks to ensure that Afghans arriving in the UK receive the vital support that they need to rebuild their lives, find work, pursue education and integrate it to local communities across our country. I strongly welcome that. I am encouraged by the detailed and varied forms of support that are on offer to ensure that those coming to the UK from Afghanistan are able to seamlessly become part of our society. We welcome the commitment to invest £200 million to meet the cost of the first year of the Afghanistan citizens resettlement scheme, and the further commitment to ensure that Afghans who work closely with the UK Armed Forces and UK Government in Afghanistan, often at great personal risk, will receive immediate indefinite leave to remain. To address Kenny Gibson's point, the UK Government has also confirmed that the 8,000-plus people who have relocated to the UK under the new Afghanistan relocations and assistance policy will be able to apply to convert their temporary leave into indefinite leave. That is, in my view, the right and proper course of action, not only to protect Afghans who put themselves and their families in danger by assisting our military and diplomatic endeavours, but also because it is our duty to provide safety and protection to those who come to the UK from likely persecution. In addition to that, the UK Government has announced a raft of additional social measures to support Afghan citizens coming to the UK, including £12 million to provide additional school places and £3 million to support access to the NHS. I hope that a similar commitment will be made by the Scottish Government in that regard, and perhaps the Government can return to that when it closes. In conclusion, I want to sum up by reinforcing that the Scottish Conservatives will support the efforts of both of Scotland's Governments in welcoming Afghans to our country. We believe that the package of measures that the UK Government has put together will ensure that those who come to the UK will be able to build a new life here. We must also ensure that we properly support our veterans' serving personnel and the families of those who have lost their lives serving their country as a result of the tragic conflict. I want to start by welcoming the opportunity to debate what we can do now to support the people of Afghanistan. That debate must be about our responsibilities to the people of a country that we have been involved with for 20 years. We need to unite today as a Parliament with our support for humanitarian action, the civil rights of the Afghan people and women's rights in particular. We do not have time to debate the wider lessons that need to be learned from the 20 years of our involvement in Afghanistan. For that reason, I welcome the call for the restoration of our UK spending on international aid to be reinstated by the Tory Government in the amendment that Donald Cameron has moved today. That cut should never have taken place and demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the vital nature of international aid and support, not just in Afghanistan but across the world. I hope that everyone now in the chamber is thinking of the women now denied opportunities to live lives without fear and all the young girls who benefited from education in the last 20 years whose contributions to society might never now get the chance to show the world. Of the work of our armed forces and all those who worked incredibly hard to keep those seeking to flee Afghanistan the best chance to get to the UK, of all those who gave their ultimate sacrifice in service of their country and in the belief that they were building something better, and of those in charities and development organisations who are still in Afghanistan helping people on the ground putting their own lives at risk, we now have a crisis of global proportions and one that requires a joined up international response. It is an immediate priority. People fleeing Afghanistan need to be able to cross the border into neighbouring countries. NATO should be called upon to offer logistical assistance where it can be helpful, and Western democracies must offer financial support to those nations, and European countries need to support that by opening their borders, and we must play our part in that in the UK as well. It is especially urgent that the UK Government steps up to ensure that those who are the right to British citizenship are supported, and to ensure that those who claim asylum are helped. We must honour the work of all of those who have been involved in our diplomatic and military operations in the country. I stand with my Labour colleague Lisa Nandi MP in demanding that the UK Government does not abandon the thousands of people who are left behind in Afghanistan and that the UK Government needs to increase the resources that it is deploying to help refugees to reach safety in the UK. The stories from MPs about the failures to connect with those who are getting in touch are appalling, so the reference in the Lib Dem amendment to calling on the UK Government to lift the overall cap on the number of people whom we should be supporting is important and needs urgent action. I want to also thank the Scottish Refugee Council for the work that they have done but for the excellent briefing that they sent us, highlighting the need for a change of direction from the UK Government and their call for all of us to share responsibility in our actions now to address the scale of Afghan refugees who need our support. The Labour Council for Roxas and Harrow, Peuanna Asad, came to the UK as a refugee from Afghanistan aged 3, and this week she spoke passionately about her collective sense of duty to a country living in fear. I believe that it is vital that refugees are given the opportunity to work when they settle in our country so that they can contribute their skills to our economy and to our communities. Across the UK, we have witnessed the benefits that refugees have brought to our communities when they are allowed to participate in our society, and most recently with a number of successful businesses and community groups that are set up by Syrians who fled the civil war and the persecution there. In turn, in Scotland, we need to welcome refugees and in doing so support those local community groups such as the welcoming here in Edinburgh who make the transition to life in Scotland successful for everyone. However, it is also vital that our councils are properly funded so that they can welcome those who choose to settle here. Speaking to my Labour colleagues in Edinburgh just in the last few days, they have previously raised the issue of funding to assist them in addressing the issue of homelessness in our city, and they estimate that there is already a gap of £9.5 million that they should have received during the Covid emergency. I believe that the Scottish Government must not shortchange people in Edinburgh who need help to find a home, and that will now include the people who are arriving here from Afghanistan that we all need to help. I refer members to my register of interests. I therefore call on the Scottish Government to provide the targeted support that our councils need to ensure that refugees who arrive in Scotland are given the life and the opportunities that they deserve, not just rhetoric, however good it is. Our amendment highlights the importance of our local authorities, community organisations and individual citizens in ensuring that every refugee is given the support that they need, now and going forward, to ensure that their new lives in Scotland are successful. Afghanistan is divided. It is suffering economic collapse and its people are living in fear. The Taliban want to say that they have changed, but most commentators have very much doubted that. The world is watching. Aid and support pledged from countries across the world needs to be delivered to the people who need it, not into the pockets of warlords. In addition to supporting people to come to Scotland and the UK, we need to play a progressive role in speaking up for humanitarian assistance, support for human and especially women's rights, and for democracy. I move the amendment in my name. Thank you very much. I can advise the chamber that we have a little time in hand, so I encourage members to make and take interventions. They will get the time back. I now call on Alex Cole-Hamilton to speak to her move. Amendment 1003.1, Mr Cole-Hamilton, you have around six minutes. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the amendment in my name. I am grateful to the Government very much for bringing this motion to Parliament today and for the tone of every party's speeches so far. I think that it underlines the humanitarian catastrophe that we are witnessing in that part of the world. I want to start by reflecting on an aspect of my life that I do not often talk about in this chamber. That is my Quakerism. I am slightly agnostic when it comes to religion, but I am a Quaker by choice rather than birthright. I have always grappled with military intervention. I have marched against wars, I have marched against military intervention. However, I found myself in a very strange situation two weeks ago of actively hoping that our troops would remain on the ground in Afghanistan. As the Taliban advanced across that country towards Kabul, the images and individual stories were harrowing. I was reminded of the words of the author, Wasan Shire, who said that nobody chooses to leave home unless home is the mouth of a shark. Babies being passed over walls by parents, the hardest decision they will ever have to make, people wading through a sewage canal to get to the gates of an airport, holding documents that they would never have the chance to show anyone among them British passports and letters of invitation to the UK, ignored and left to fall apart in the sewage. They stayed at those gates despite alerts of a warning of an imminent terror attack. They stayed at those gates after and during a terror attack. They stayed at those gates when that attack robbed dozens in the queues in front of them of their very lives. If they were lucky enough to get through all that unscathed, people were getting on flights with no possessions except the clothes on their backs. Some with no idea where the fight was even going just so long as it carried them over Afghanistan's borders. Some clung to the outside of those moving jets in scenes that none of us will ever be able to forget with no hope of survival such as that act of desperation, terror, persecution, oppression, abuse and violence. That is what drives people to do that, to have a shot just a hope of evacuation and escape. The Taliban have tried to reassure the world that they have changed, that their world view has changed, but even now we see aspects of their language and actions that they are undertaking give the lie to those assurances. They are not school boys. The Taliban, for want of a better phrase, are a death cult. They stone gay men or crush them to death. They cut the tips of the fingers of women and persecute and beat women in the street for their supposed transgressions of their twisted view of what they believe to be sharia law. They are medievalists and brutal. We spend a lot of time in the chamber focusing on where we all disagree, but I wholeheartedly hope that each and every one of us recognises our duty to the people of Afghanistan and that we cannot leave them to fight for their survival and the basic human rights on their own. I recognise that our military presence has finished in Afghanistan, but the humanitarian presence that we offer to the people of that country, the safe harbour that we offer them, must continue. To that end, I support the Scottish Government's motion today that mirrors the arguments being made by Liberal Democrats in this Parliament and in Westminster as well. My own amendment sets out how I would like the UK and Scottish Governments to go still further. The UK Government should urgently expand its plans for the resettlement of Afghan refugees. Instead of providing immediate sanctuary to 20,000, the scenes that are already described in the chamber today show why we cannot wait four or five years. That crisis is happening now. Given the scale of that crisis, 20,000 people should be the starting point, not the limit of our ambition. It should be the floor, not the ceiling. That is why I want the Scottish Government to share proactively evidence of the support that it can make available and the resources that it can gather or dedicate. I do not doubt its credentials on that matter or the scope of its desire to make a difference on that. I welcome that feeling. Those who arrive will need physical and mental healthcare. We have heard some of that already today. They will need housing, guardians, translators, education and more. Those are people who have faced enormous suffering and trauma. I ask the Scottish Government to provide guarantees that it is ready to assist as part of a cross-party, cross-parliament and cross-sector work to persuade the UK Government to lift those ambitions. If the Scottish ministers produce and share guarantees of Scotland's readiness, it could help to enable Scotland to provide safe harbour to thousands more. I was grateful for her kind words about ours, but Sarah Boyack's amendment aligns with my own in recognising the important role of local authorities, and the third sector, as well as other stakeholders. Warm words from the Scottish Conservatives' amendment cannot hide the devastation caused by Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab's decisions. Yes, even President Biden and others, too. Donald Cameron gave an excellent speech. It is undermined by the conflict that exists in his party over the 0.7 per cent GDP aid commitment. I welcome his call on his colleagues out of the border to increase that. I hope that they listen to him. The UK and US Governments have left the people of Afghanistan, particularly women and girls, to the Taliban. It is a betrayal. Their decisions have left thousands fearing for their lives. How many UK nationals and Afghans were left behind? Why did we wait so long to start evacuating interpreters if we knew that this was coming? They worked with our troops and officials for 20 years. There is no hiding that this is the biggest foreign policy disaster in decades. Every Scottish Conservative should be ashamed by their part in surrendering the UK's position of leadership and strength on international aid. Only a handful of countries met that UN target of 0.7 per cent. Thanks to the Lib Dems of putting it into law, the UK was one of them. That commitment has been shared. It is not just Afghanistan that will suffer. Take Yemen, where aid is being halved. 400,000 children under 5 are at risk of starving to death. Aid cuts for that country are a death sentence, according to the UN Secretary General. I will conclude with this, Presiding Officer. The member is just concluding. I am happy if there is time. I noted that London is soon to be host to the world's biggest arms fair. Surely, given your comments and the comments that many of us agree, what we actually need is the world's biggest humanitarian fair. As a Quaker, it would come as no surprise to Michelle Thomson to say that I utterly agree with her on that point. I would like to finish by echoing the words of a teacher in Kabul, who previously worked as an interpreter for the international forces. I sleep 10 minutes, then I wake up. I sleep 15 minutes, then I wake up. I am feeling tremendous fear. When the Taliban announced their government, I am sure that they will be killing us. Our words mean nothing to the Afghans if we do not deliver it with our actions. We now move to the open debate. I call Cokab Stewart, who will be followed by Pam Gozel. Ms Stewart, you have around six minutes, please. I would also like to thank the Scottish Government for showing the much-needed urgency in tabling this motion for debate. I speak today not only as an elected member, but also as a Pakistani immigrant to England originally and then moving to Scotland where I have been made to fail welcome. The scenes that we are witnessing in Afghanistan at present depict nothing short of a man-made humanitarian and human rights disaster. Having invaded their country 20 years ago, the UK and its international partners are now abandoning the very people that they have long claimed to be protecting. Just like in Britain's imperial past, the UK has never understood the people or country that they have occupied. There is nothing great about Britain that abdicates its responsibilities and leaves thousands to the mercies of a cruel and barbarous regime. It is therefore the Conservative Government's moral and ethical responsibility to offer every support to those who are seeking asylum. The human cost of this crisis is impacting my constituents right now. Only last week I spoke with members of the Afghani community in Glasgow and they didn't know if their families were alive or dead, most of whom at that time were hiding from the Taliban in Kabul. Perhaps the most difficult to hear were their fears for their daughters, their sisters and their mothers. The tension in the room at that time was palpable and it reminded me of my own experiences as a teacher working specifically with children and families that were forced to seek asylum in Glasgow. Families who have had to flee their home, country for fear of death or worst have felt safe in my city and I was privileged to assist them in rebuilding their lives. It will be critical for the young Afghani people that we welcome to have access to specialist trauma support as well as the language and social supports to help them to settle in the UK. Given that crisis was entirely the creation of the UK Government and their partners, the UK Government must in turn provide the additional necessary funding to fully support those children. The Afghani community representatives that I spoke to were clear in what they needed. They emphasised the necessity for the UK Government to put in place a fast-track process for existing Afghan asylum applications in the UK, of which there are over 3,000 at present, and the triggering of family reunion rights, which need to be extended beyond spouses and children under 18. Furthermore, there should be no immigration returns to Afghanistan nor asylum support cessations or any evictions of Afghans. Worryingly, the ideological war raged by the Conservative Party has left the current UK aid budget ill-prepared for the current pressure it faces. Even overseas development and aid programmes focusing on the education and health of women and girls has been cut. The member for giving way observed that every political party that has taken part in this debate so far, apart from the Conservatives who are coming on to the issue later in their speech, has given a commitment to Afghans who are already in the United Kingdom so that those who are genuine refugees, who I imagine are the vast majority, should not be returned to Taliban-led Afghanistan. Does Cookab Stewart agree that it would be helpful in the winding-up speeches that we can have the commitment of all parties, including the Conservative Party, on this important point? I absolutely agree with you on that point, and I look forward to hearing that in everyone's winding-up speeches. As I was saying, the cut from 0.7 to 0.5 of GDP sounds like a tiny percentage, but it would have a massive difference to the Afghans in desperate need of support at present and in the months to come. Indeed, even the UK's current commitment to take 20,000 Afghani refugees doesn't tell the whole story. In reality, the UK has only committed to 5,000 Afghans in 2021, which is woefully inadequate. There is also a clear and present domestic danger to all refugees, including fleeing Afghans, and that is from the Home Office, Nationality and Borders Bill. If passed this bill in its current form, it severs the UK's relationship with the refugee convention. For 70 years, the convention was created and shaped by Britain after the Holocaust enshrined an individual's right to seek refuge—a basic human right. Instead of sheltering the most vulnerable, the new UK immigration agenda aims to criminalise refugees who arrive on our shores by irregular means of travel. Compare that to the Scottish Government, which has used the refugee convention and human rights as the foundation of the new Scots-Revychee integration policy, with dignity for all at its core. As Scotland prepares to welcome those fleeing the Taliban, we are incredibly lucky that our local authorities such as Glasgow City Council have been opening their doors to the world's evacuees for over 20 years. Refugee integration Scotland highlighted that a key to the success that we have enjoyed in Glasgow in integrating our refugee population—the highest per head in the whole of the UK—has been respecting a key objective of the global compact on refugees, enhancing refugee self-reliance. To achieve that, it will be vital that partnership working with local refugee support groups and the Scottish Afghan Refugee Association are co-ordinated. In this vein, it is very welcome indeed that the Scottish Government have reiterated its commitments to work with partners at all levels in order to provide refugees with the support and safety that they need to rebuild their lives. In finishing, the UK Government must hold true to its international obligations under the refugee convention and the global compact on refugees. Anything short of that would be a complete moral failure and a clear demonstration that the UK Government cannot, if trust the UK, when you need the support the most. From the start, I would like to say that this is very personal and sensitive speech, so I will have maybe some time at the end, but I will not be taking into any interventions, otherwise I would like to make progress with my speech. It is with great sadness and regret that, after 20 years of our intervention in Afghanistan, we are standing here today watching the liberties of innocent people and those that helped to have been taken away. Under the Taliban, things will go backwards. Let us be clear, the Taliban have not changed. Women who have had once gained liberty and had the future now fear for their life, girls who could go to school and get an education and build a future will now be a lost generation, women who could stand for elections are now going to be sidelined. Now, literally overnight, that fragile democracy that has been built over 20 years has been shattered. The haunting images of terrified Afghans fleeing from Kabul airport are definitely seeking refuge from the terror that awaited them and are unlikely to escape our memory anytime soon. I am sure that there are many women in this chamber today who have been told at some point that they cannot do that, or to be told that they are women that they did not have the same rights and opportunities as men. I know that I certainly have. It is not something that you ever forget. The thought of young girls being robbed of their education and freedom is one that is difficult to comprehend. I know that all of us in this chamber will look upon the images coming from Afghanistan and feel a range of emotions from sadness to helplessness but I have to tell you that more than anything, Presiding Officer, I am angry. That is how I feel as a woman, knowing that so many young Afghans and girls will never go to school, they will never be able to forge their own paths simply because they are women. We gave those women and girls hope. We gave them jobs and careers. The prospect of brighter futures. We gave them a voice. Also to be taken away by the medieval mindset of the Taliban rule. Those same women are being silenced and their futures are being stolen. We are now their voice. I am sure that we have all heard the stories of the women burning their diplomas and degree certificates to hide the fact that they were educated. Imagine for a moment that this is your daughter, desperately concealing her education to avoid extreme punishment. Punishment for having audacity to go to school is horrible thought, but the daughters of Afghanistan will be punished by the Taliban. Make no mistake of that. Although there is plenty of blame to go around, we must all focus on here and now. The responsibility is responding to the crisis that sits with all of us. We must focus on helping to rebuild the lives of Afghans and their families coming to the United Kingdom. I welcome the UK Government's commitment to resettling 20,000 Afghan refugees in the UK, most notably interpreters and other individuals who have helped to run forces. I also welcome that people who are deemed to have a threat to their life from the Taliban are being offered indecent leave to remain in the UK. That is the right decision, but even before the crisis, the UK has taken in more than 36,000 Afghans since 1996. It is right that we should open a refugee scheme that is accessible to all those who need it. I know that Scotland will play their part. Scotland's councils, voluntary organisations have risen to this sort of challenge before, and they will do again today. Already, people across the country have answered calls donating clothes, nappies, toys, prams, pans, kitchen utilities and things. Of course, there is a role of our brave armed forces and diplomats who are on the ground of Afghanistan. They faced extraordinary danger with the enemy at their gates, working day and night to get as many people out as they could. Despite a very real threat to their life, they continued exemplary the world-known level of professionalism that they are famed for. Once again, they have made our country proud and earned a place in history books. I applaud them and I thank them. Let us not forget that this is not the end, it is the beginning. The question that we must attend to is what comes next. People have been left behind. We must do all that we can to help them. I want to talk about the devastating statement that now plagues Afghanistan. One figure that stands out with me is that, for 15 consecutive years, the number of free countries in the world has been in decline. Just take a moment to think about that. It is shocking. If there is one thing that we all agree on no matter what our politics are, it is that we have a responsibility not to turn our backs on those who need our help. Whether they are former Afghans, service personnel, women and girls or those from minority communities, there is much to do, but this is what Scotland is all about. I have many constituents, Afghans, families, friends and neighbours. Over the past few weeks and months, I have been on the phone to love ones in Afghanistan, worried sick about the safety of their family members. They are parents, brothers, sisters and children, often hiding and moving house to house regularly to escape the clutches of the Taliban every day of reality. Those precious phone calls to tell relatives that they are loved and that they are still alive, safe for the time being but always at risk. They are not only heartbreaking but they also tell a very different story to the public face that the Taliban are seeking to present to the outside world, to the international community. Glasgow Afghans know the truth on a daily basis. They are speaking to friends and love ones facing the reality on the ground. I want to give one example. A constituent whose brother was in Baglan province saw his district overrun by the Taliban and his brother was put in jail. Put in jail awaiting a Taliban officer to arrive there to question them. However, before that happened, there was a counterattack in the area in the Northern Alliance. Still fighting today against the Taliban, it retook the area and the prisoner was freed. Had that counterattack been delayed by a single day, my constituent's brother would now be dead. Now they are desperately trying to make their way over land out of Afghanistan to a place of safety. Sadly, the district in Baglan province is currently back in Taliban control for the time being. What is a safe route out of Afghanistan for my constituent's brother? They clearly cannot return to Afghanistan. That is, of course, God willing, they make it out to safety in the first place in their family here in Glasgow. What have they done to under threat? They were supporting the Afghan national police force to bring law and order peace, safety and security to that nation and other lives on the peril. Should they make it to the UK, it would quite simply be an outrage to see them criminalised under the UK government's nationality and borders bill, as highlighted, I note, in Maggie Chapman's MSP's amendment here this afternoon. The experience of my constituent's brother also highlights the Taliban making control most, but not all, of the country. Indeed, Panshire province continues to hold out against the Taliban. That resistance has been led by Ahmad Masoud, son of Afghan national hero Ahmad Shah Masoud. Shah Masoud held off both the Soviets and the Taliban before his assassination in 2001. The motion today talks about recognising the lead role internationally that the UK government must play in ensuring that aid continues to reach those who are most in need. In that context, I absolutely welcome the £250,000 announced by the Scottish Government Humanitarian Emergency Fund to support those in great need, which is, of course, as pointed out by the cabinet secretary in an additional financial commitment that the Scottish people already make to the UK's aid budget through tax contributions. Aid to Afghanistan needs to go to as many people as possible, who are in great danger, of course it does. Our age-aged agencies have to be safe, of course they do. The UK, the international community, also needs to make sure that it goes where possible to all parts of Afghanistan in need of support and not just those areas under Taliban control. In that context, I understand from Afghan constituents that the Taliban have effectively blocked off routes in and out of Panshire province. They may very well need humanitarian support also, not just areas under the control of the Taliban. Of course, back here in Scotland, we need to ensure that all 32 local authorities are supported and empowered to take Afghan families fleeing violence. I know that there will be much discussion about how much money the UK Government provides to support our councils. I do not want to get involved in that argument here this afternoon. However, we should not forget that a reported £38 billion was spent by the UK on its involvement in Afghanistan. How much support will the UK have put up for health, for education, for housing and for wider community support? It comes at a cost, but it is just quite frankly the right thing morally to do. Together with the USA, the UK's promises of protecting human rights and supporting a free, open democratic society in Afghanistan, a society where the rights of women, children and minorities were respected have dramatically melted away with alarming speed. Funding the humanitarian fallout to ensure that local authorities right across Britain can play their part in supporting our Afghanistan friends is the very least the UK Government can do. Of course, in Scotland, much of the co-ordination that must be led by the Scottish Government and partner agencies has a proud record of integrating communities well, but such integration does not just happen by accident. It takes careful planning and preparation. I very much hope that Scotland's Afghan community will be involved in that planning and preparation, but also in the delivery of support. I was pleased to hear that the cabinet secretary has already had a round table meeting with various public partners, but also with community organisations such as Glasgow and Afgan United. The strain placed in Glasgow and Afgan United over the past few weeks has been immense. Often volunteers supporting the wider community, who have loved ones at risk in Afghanistan at this difficult time. Volunteers with themselves have their own families at risk. Their workload has spiralled, but the practical and emotional support offered has been vital for many families. Such organisations will also be vital in supporting the Afghan families, the new Afghan families and the new Scots, who will settle here in Scotland, as will our integration networks such as Mary Hill integration network and, of course, the Scottish Refugee Council. I was pleased to hear that it is fantastic and an amazing job already undertaken by the Scottish Refugee Council. We have to make sure that they are not only part of support plans and preparations, we have to make sure that these organisations are resourced to deliver that vital support on the ground. I am sure that that is something that the Scottish Government will take seriously. I do not think that we could underestimate the emotional and mental support offered by such organisations. In closing, I have not mentioned how many Afghan families the UK and Scotland should take. Needless to say, the current numbers are widely accepted to be grossly insufficient. I will say that, when the UK Government looks at the numbers of Afghan families as well as the criteria for settling in the UK, they look generously at humanitarian visas to support family reunification for so many Scots Afghan families whose loved ones are in danger right now in Afghanistan. They are in great peril. They are worried sick about their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers and their wider families. I stand here in solidarity with my constituents who are Afghan, Afghan Scots today. As a Parliament, we should come together through all that we can to make as many people a new life in Scotland, one that is safe, free, I can realise their dreams and aspirations so crudely snatch from them in Afghanistan. I call Pauline McNeill to be followed by Kenneth Gibson. I sincerely welcome that the Scottish Government has chosen to have an early debate on this important subject and already really excellent and important speeches. The last one is from Bob Doris. It was anti-war columnist Daniel Larison who said that now that US forces are finally exiting Afghanistan, some American hawks are already agitating for the Government to stop internal conflict by backing a new insurgency and wage economic warfare on the country that the US has previously responded to in military defeat by inflicting economic punishment or former enemies in the US trade. Bargo in Vietnam impaired the country's economic recovery and contributed to the mass exodus of refugees from the country beginning in the late 1970s. What we already know is that there is a significant refugee crisis now in the wake of the US-led exit from Afghanistan inflicting collective punishment in the country. That will drive even more people to flee to other countries. The international approach must be to recognise that Afghanistan remains a poor country and this heavily dependent on outside aid and any disruption of the flow of that aid has serious consequences. Meanwhile, all of us in here worry about the position of women and girls, LGBT people, while they are left under Taliban rule. As Sarah Boyat says, we must absolutely not forget them. It is a huge human rights crisis and a geopolitical nightmare in the region. We did not need the distraction of Dominic Rab, our foreign secretary, who had a dreadful performance yesterday trying to answer questions on his role. However, that aside, we must focus now on what we can do. It was Lisa Nandi who described this as the biggest foreign policy failing in a generation. The scenes from Kabul airport are shocking. The evacuation process from Afghanistan continues to be a shamble at best but life-threatening. Warnings were given that there would be a bomb blast outside Kabul airport last week, but still 92 people sadly died. Their willingness to risk their lives to get to the airport demonstrates the desperation that many Afghans feel who see no future for themselves under the Taliban rule and who can forget the footage of hundreds of people in Kabul airport running alongside a US Air Force plane as it gathers speed in the runway with several men climbing on to the side. Harrowing videos posted on social media appear to show two people falling to their deaths from the US aircraft after it took off. One was Afghan teenager Zakaianwari, a 19-year-old footballer who played for the national youth football team and is an absolute tragedy that his life has caught short in such appalling circumstances. Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Simons has noted that the appalling was handling of the collapse in Afghanistan by Conservative ministers has left a huge number of lives at risk and a potential humanitarian crisis. The lack of planning to get people out is totally unforgivable. In the past week, the UK Government has announced that it will create safe routes for Afghans to come to the UK, and I wholeheartedly welcome that, but we still do not know how the supposed safe routes will be opened up and many people obviously fear for their lives being able to access those routes. 15,000 Afghans have arrived in the UK in the last fort 98,000 of whom are former British Government employees. Those who were working for the UK Government were brought under the Afghan relocations assistance policy. They will get indefinite, leave rather than temporarily leave to remain, and that is to be clearly welcomed. As previously said, the nationality and borders bill will automatically refuse Afghans who try to escape but are obviously not safe routes on boats. Under current immigration rules, it will be automatically disqualified. It would be helpful, particularly from Conservative colleagues, to add your voice to the seriousness of that if we are serious about providing safe passages or refuge for Afghans trying to get out of the country. It appears so far that those who have been flown out to have been considered at risk, but those who have not been working for the UK Government will have the usual long waits for their applications considered and will not be able to work in the meantime. I think that there is quite a lot to be considered in terms of immigration rules that will apply here to people that we want to help. The current scheme that the minister mentioned, the Syrian refugee settlement programme, is in questions that I want to raise. It is great to hear that 18 councils have come forward, but in the past some councils have complained that the financial support for the scheme has not been as good as it should be. I would like some reassurances on that while welcoming the announcement of the emergency fund. I share the First Minister and the Minister, Angus Robertson's views that we should make a big commitment here to settle Afghans refugees. That is something that will be humanitarian, something that Scotland has done in the past. It would also be helpful to have clarity on the numbers that we hope to take. I appreciate that there is a debate over the 5,000—how many of those 5,000 will the Scottish Government hope to take? Beyond that, what would you like to take in terms of funding? We need financial support, or it really is not worth—you can see the difficulties. I want to conclude on this. Bob Doris, who is eloquent, talked about in Glasgow has a fairly large Afghan community and there will be a much bigger Afghan population around the country. Those Afghans who have settled here have been absolutely amazing and providing support. It would be worth considering whether some of that money could go to ensuring that the advice and support that they will give people coming into Scotland because they know what it was like for themselves. To give them access to some funding might be quite helpful in the whole debate programme. With that, I close my queue. Afghanistan is at a pivotal point in its existence. In reality, very little progress towards a truly modern democratic society, the way we recognise it, was made over the last 20 years. For example, under the first Taliban regime, 2.3 per cent of girls attended secondary school. By this year, it was still only 13.2 per cent and 37 per cent for boys. Views remain highly traditional, with 85 per cent of Afghans believing that adulterates women, not men, should be stoned to death and 79 per cent supporting the death penalty for apostasy. It is not difficult to see why the Taliban was therefore able to secure the support of a sizable chunk of Afghanistan's population, particularly in rural areas. The country was, of course, devastated by more than four decades of war from the 1979 Soviet invasion onwards. The Soviets caused catastrophic damage to Afghan society, killing an estimated 600,000 to 2 million people, destroying half the country's 24,000 villages with a quarter of the population fleeing abroad. Nevertheless, after the left falling a costly guerrilla war by Raddy Clyde's Mujahideen backed by the west, China and the Gulf states, the client state at left in place still survived a year longer than the Soviet Union itself. Contrary to that, with the almost immediate collapse of the US-backed Afghan government kleptocracy in a few days, the relative calm in recent years secured by the dedication and sacrifices of UK, US and coalition forces from Canada to Croatia, mass rampant corruption, tribal patronage and predatory policing. Elections, billions of dollars in military and development aid were stolen, warlords kept in place and a small privileged elite was in charge. Generals claimed the salaries of non-existing soldiers while failing to feed those actually under their command. Such was the rush to leave Afghanistan that the US commander of Bagram Air Base neglected even to tell his Afghan counterpart that he was off. Shockingly, DNA and biometric data on those who worked for the US and its allies was left to the Taliban. Black Hawk helicopters, 22,000 Humvees and even Cessna grounded at aircraft were abandoned, although, without spare parts, they will not last and could perhaps be exchanged following negotiations as the West tries to limit growing Chinese influence. Professor Michael Burley's book, Small Wars, far away places the genesis of the modern world 1945-65 exposes the shocking ineptitude of US foreign policy post-war and ineptitude it continues more than half a century later. Development and humanitarian aid ranging from money invested in the economy, education, counterterrorism, narcotics control, disaster relief and refugee support in 2019 amounted to $779 million in a country of $39 million. To put that into context, that is less than NHS Ayrshire and Arn's budget that year to serve 367,000 people. Most of the aid provider over two decades was the former military hardware and salaries. Together, foreign aid represented almost 78 per cent of Afghanistan's public expenditure in 2019. Money now lost to a desperately poor economy where three quarters of the population do not have enough to eat as winter approaches. Humanitarian aid is of critical importance and should be provided directly to the people without pre-conditions if the Taliban permit it. Additional aid must surely be dependent on how the Taliban treats women, girls and its own minorities, whether it allows some of its citizens to leave and not becoming once again a haven for the launch of terrorist attacks. Of course, the impact of the Taliban's renewed control of Afghanistan will reach far beyond its borders, unless another issue of direct importance to Scotland and the west is addressed—opium. The Taliban claim that it will work to eradicate poppy cultivation, and indeed the practice was nearly eradicated two decades ago. Yet should we believe them when an estimated 3 million people in Afghanistan are now employed in opium production and distribution. Three of the last four years witnessed record opium production in Afghanistan with cultivations soaring by 37 per cent last year. According to the United Nations 2021 world drug report, almost 93 per cent of villages cultivate opium poppies in the country's southern region, in Helmand. All village leaders reported opium poppy cultivation to the UN. Cutting the seed pods of mature poppies pays at least twice as much as harvesting pistachios and significantly more than working in construction. Revenue from heroin and opium provides a Taliban with an estimated 60 per cent of its income. Income is not only important for them to maintain, it may even want to expand it. In a country with 40 per cent unemployment, farmers living hand-to-mouth receive advanced payments for growing poppies but not crops. Can they therefore be blamed for growing poppies or does the problem line with the greed international demand and the system that incentivises cultivating illegal crops? There is money to be made from the 10 per cent cultivation tax collected from poppy farmers by the Taliban and drug labs producing the actual heroin are subject to taxation too with estimates of the Taliban's annual income from mis-ranging up to US$400 million annually. The UN Office of Drugs and Crime estimates that 90 per cent of the world's heroin and opium supply originates in Afghanistan, contributing 11 per cent to that country's GDP. While it is difficult to pinpoint exact numbers, less often to dispute is where the Afghan heroin ends up. Here in Scotland another 1,339 lives were lost to drug overdoses last year, much of it heroin. The Scottish Government is working to tackle the problem in multiple ways. However, controlling a supply of heroin by tackling importation is extremely difficult. The national crime agency works with partners on every step of the trafficking route. However, while the Taliban regime is utterly apprehensible, it will be wrong to disregard the contribution of other actors to the thriving heroin industry. The reason why the production of opium heroin was able to soar the way it did in the last 15 years while it was an Afghan Government in place that was not a Taliban. Corrupt Afghan Government officials not only allowed the trade to flourish over the years but actively nurtured and benefited while cultivation seemed to go relatively unhindered by Western forces. It is hard to believe that the Taliban will be one of the demands made by the international community. The Taliban wants to consolidate the regime, but dealing with them is a tough task given their ideology and the fact that an even more fanatical, fundamentalist force Islamic State Coruscant province is waiting in the wings should they appear to moderate to their own supporters. Afghanistan faces a bleak future, but for its people and the safety and security of our own, we cannot abandon it and must work with everyone that we can to do our best for the people of Afghanistan. I now call Maggie Chapman to be followed by Edwin Mountain. The current crisis in Afghanistan is both overwhelming and multi-layered, but I want to begin by expressing my solidarity with all those who are suffering now or trying to flee to safety and my deepest sympathies to those who have lost loved ones in this catastrophe. Over 18 million people within the country are in need of humanitarian aid. They are suffering intensified both by the Covid pandemic and by climate change-induced droughts. The Office of the United Nations High Commission of Refugees reports that over 550,000, more than half a million Afghan people have been forced to flee their homes since the beginning of this year alone, adding to the already three million displaced inside Afghanistan and the 2.6 million refugees elsewhere, nearly 90 per cent of whom are in Pakistan and Iran. The United Kingdom and its allies bears a great responsibility, not only to the Afghan people who have worked with our military forces and thereby placed themselves and their families at increased risk but in relation to long-running harms and injustices endured by the entire Afghan nation. Afghanistan was the unwilling playground for the so-called great game of the 19th century callously played between the British and Russian empires. It was again exploited as a proxy for the Cold War in the 1980s, when the US urged rebels to fight to the last Afghan. And at the very beginning of our current century, its people experienced the arrogance and recklessness of Bush and Blair's enthusiastic invasion and its tragic aftermath. Clearly, the UK is complicit in the failed attempt at nation building in Afghanistan. We must stand up and recognise our role in creating this crisis and accept and act on our responsibility to Afghans fleeing conflict and persecution. The UK Government's current commitment to taking 20,000 Afghans is pathetic. We must do more. The UK Government's cut of the aid budget, as already discussed this afternoon, means that we are failing in our duty to those in need around the world, but especially it is disgraceful when considering the reliance of those seeking refuge in refugee camps and elsewhere and those internally displaced, those relying on foreign aid. I add my voice to the calls already made this afternoon to give those already in the UK indefinitely to remain. The invasion of Afghanistan, like the later war in Iraq, was part of the desperate near-conservative search for a good war in which the resources of the global south are seized for extractive capitalism and the war dressed as promoting human rights. In Afghanistan, they used rhetoric about women's rights and yet more Afghan women and children have been killed and wounded during the first six months of 2021 than in any full year since records of civilian casualties began to be kept. That year, by the way, was 2009, eight years after the invasion. That indicates something of the way in which imperialists have disregarded the lives and wellbeing of the most vulnerable in Afghanistan. The United States drone strike of just a few days ago reported to have killed several young children might well be another sign of that same contempt. The Scottish people, those people who this summer stood in solidarity to prevent the deportation of their neighbours and friends, will recognise this as a matter not just of charity and compassion but of justice. They will want us, as their representatives, to do everything we possibly can to support those in need, both within Afghanistan and as refugees. They will expect to see the international humanitarian fund used in this crisis to be able to welcome Afghan refugees to their towns and cities and to support the work and expertise of civil society organisations. I thank the cabinet secretary for the announcement of £250,000 for this fund earlier this afternoon. I echo his remarks and those of Sarah Boyack and others about the role that the civil society organisations and local authorities played during the Syrian resettlement scheme. I know that they are ready to step up once again. The Scottish people will want to see the Scottish Government using its moral influence not only to urge international co-operation on safe routes and humanitarian visas but also to bring about a discourse of respect and honesty. For this crisis has shown us in stark and agonising clarity how desperately we need to make our own independent human and humane immigration policy. For the direction in which the UK Government is plummeting can be nothing for us but a source of shame. The nationality and borders bill currently at the committee stage in the House of Commons is a direct and callous attack on the basic rights of refugees. If passed in its current form it will place the UK in contravention of the refugee convention itself. That historic treaty passed after the second world war in which the global community looked back at the dispossessed, the persecuted and said never again. The bill would criminalise genuine refugees who are unable to travel directly from their country of persecution, threatening them with four years in prison and seeking to remove them without even hearing their asylum claims. It would see more use of large-scale hostile type accommodation centres, the dangers of which we know only too well. Refugees granted only short-term and precarious so-called temporary protection and enforced separation of parents and children. So much for the warm welcome the UK is supposedly giving to refugees. Even the Law Society of England and Wales, scarcely a band of dangerous radicals, says that this bill would undermine access to justice and undermine the rule of law. This catastrophe highlights too just how urgently Scotland is a country that prides itself on its decent and progressive values and needs to make its own decisions on foreign policy and defence. In collective honesty and humility, we as an independent country could acknowledge our complicity in the injustices of the past and seek at least to begin to redress those wrongs. We could work cooperatively with others, large and small, to address global problems and, crucially, we could resist being dragged into yet more military interventions, adventures from which wealthy corporations somehow inevitably profit while disposable children die. I now call on Edward Mountain, who will be joining us remotely to be followed by Alasdair Allen. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. It's right that this Parliament is debating Afghanistan, and this should be a debate about what we need to do to help, helping those who are struggling to come to terms with the actuality of what the withdrawal means and helping those who are in fear of their lives. What this should not be about is blandly criticising that not enough is being done, especially as the world I believe is still mobilising to respond to fast-moving events. I have always had the greatest respect for those who have written a blank cheque on their commitment to their country. At the same time, I have held in total contempt those arm-shared generals who play petty playground politics with serious matters to justify their political aims. Gesture politics to me, as I'm sure all real politicians will agree, should have no place in this Parliament or any Parliament. It's sad to me that some appear to be using that this afternoon. I believe that the withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan is a huge mistake, one that we will all regret and one that the US must take responsibility for. Mr Cole-Hamilton, be under no illusion that the US withdrawal forced the UK withdrawal. Without the US, our forces would have been swamped by the Taliban. In the coming months, we will have to see if it's possible for religious sellers to change the way they behave. Frankly, I doubt that they will do. I do believe that we will see the Taliban take murderous revenge on those who don't support their religious and nationalist idealism. Now, however, is the time to look to ours and those who have the courage to stand with us and those who need our help. It's almost 20 years since we deployed forces in Afghanistan. Our servicemen, women and their families have been under constant strain. 457 of them have given their lives and over 2,200 of them have been injured. Many of those who served out there will be asking what it's all for. I've had these discussions with many ex-servicemen and women, including my son, who served in Afghanistan. The answer that I told him and the others that I've spoken to is that the 20-year deployment that we gave hoped the oppressed and prevented Afghanistan from being used as a terrorist base. That is a huge achievement, one that the UK should be rightly proud of. No life lost protecting freedom is ever wasted. Unless those that benefit from those freedoms don't remember the debt that they owe, I won't and we shouldn't. Presiding Officer, the UK Government has been leading the international response to the crisis. We called for emergency G7 NATO and UN Security Council meetings. We played our part in evacuating 15,000 civilians from Afghanistan, a number that includes 4,000 British passport holders and over 8,000 Afghans who worked with the UK Government. I want to commend every one of the 1,000-plus troops, diplomats and officials who gave their all to ensure that the all that was evacuated could possibly be. However, let's be clear that the Taliban takeover does threaten to destabilise the country with extremism and persecution. I welcome that the UK is ready to stand up and to continue to support Afghans getting out of Afghanistan and to support those arriving in our country. We shouldn't ever forget that, since 1996, we've already taken in 36,000 Afghans and we'll take in at least another 25,000 more over and above those who have already been evacuated. Operation Warm Welcome, which was announced this week, promises to ensure that Afghans resettling in the UK receive the vital support that they need to rebuild their lives, find work, pursue education and integrate into their local community. This is a significant package of support, which includes £12 million to provide additional school places, £3 million to access the NHS and up to 300 university scholarships. Let's not forget that the UK Government is already committing £200 million to the Afghanistan-Stan citizens resettlement scheme. We owe a huge debt of grass due to all those Afghans who work alongside the UK and risk their lives in doing so. It is therefore only right that we now do everything that we can to help to resettle the Afghans, restart their lives and thrive within the UK. The military withdrawal from Afghanistan was premature and, I believe, a massive mistake. We have much to do to ensure that those refugees that have escaped are provided with a safe place to live become integrated within our community. We also need to ensure that all those who are struggling come to terms with withdrawal from Afghanistan are fully supported. I will make one final piece, Presiding Officer. What we do not need to do is play party politics with this issue. To those of you who have it, you are simply beyond my contempt. I thank you. I now call Alistair Allan to be followed by Katie Clark. Other members have spoken very powerfully, not least Bob Doris beside me. I should say that they have spoken very powerfully about the tragic situation in Afghanistan and our moral obligation in Scotland to help some of those who are fleeing for their lives. Those people include, as we have heard, many women and girls who have gone to school or who have done anything else to make them conspicuous in the eyes of their new Government. They also include all those who have assisted coalition forces in any way over the past 20 years. It is for another day to offer assessments about the political decisions that led to such a rapid withdrawal of those forces. It is suffice to say for the moment that history is unlikely to be kind. At least Mr Mountain willfully mistakes that as a criticism of our armed forces. It most certainly is not. I want to say something specifically about those who have worked for international development agencies in Afghanistan, particularly to give opportunities to women and girls. As some members will be aware, Linda Norgrove from the Isle of Lewis in my constituency devoted and ultimately gave her life to helping people in Afghanistan to rebuild their communities. Linda was kidnapped by the Taliban and died during a failed rescue attempt in 2010. To her great credit, Linda's parents John and Lorna now work from their home in Lewis to fund and facilitate projects that continue Linda's legacy of supporting women and families in Afghanistan. Needless to say, since the Taliban captured Kabul on 15 August following their rapid advance across the country, the fate of all those working on those projects has been a cause for serious concern. On 26 August, as people know, an explosion outside Kabul Airport caused by an ISIS-K suicide bomber killed at least 170 people and injured a further 150. Amid all that chaos, the Linda and Orgrove Foundation was attempting to evacuate two vulnerable female staff members along with their families. Sadly, despite getting close several times over the course of a 46-hour deal, they did not manage to get on a plane before the military presence departed. The Linda and Orgrove Foundation is now anxious to find a way out of the country for them in the days ahead, and I would ask the UK Government to be aware of and act on those concerns. The charity also hopes to be able to bring 20 of its 70 female Afghan medical students over to the UK to continue their studies. All five of Scotland's medical schools have very creditably already said that they would be happy to accept those students. The Foundation has vowed to continue their work in Afghanistan to the best of their abilities under the new regime, despite the obvious difficulties. Where Scotland can help more generally, of course, is in giving a welcome to people who have come here seeking refuge. Scotland has a long and proud history of opening our doors to refugees from all over the world. The UK Government has also said that vulnerable Afghan citizens who were called forward by the foreign office but could not be evacuated will be guaranteed a place under the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme, and the UK Government has committed to taking around 5,000 refugees from Afghanistan in the first year and 20,000 over the coming year. As the Scottish Government has pointed out, those numbers are unlikely to be anything like adequate, and given the UK's involvement in Afghanistan for decades, it is not possible to claim that we have no responsibilities here. If I may end as I began on a local note in my constituency, I want to praise the work of the local authority and the community there over recent years in welcoming Syrian refugees to the Western Isles. I know that many of those families can confirm that they have enriched island communities both culturally and economically and made a success of their lives. One of their children recently won a class prize for Gaelic. I want to record my personal thanks to those families for making the Western Isles their home. As the cabinet secretary has likewise indicated, I hope that we can now give that same heartfelt welcome across Scotland to refugees from Afghanistan. I believe that we owe that much not only to the families themselves, but to everyone from Scotland who has tried to help over the past decades in Afghanistan, whether in our forces, or like Linda Norgrove and the many agencies who have been committed to building a better future for the people of that country. I strongly welcome that the Scottish Government has called this debate today and the powerful contributions from across the political spectrum supporting human rights and the people of Afghanistan. It is important that those issues remain centre stage, because that scrutiny in itself will help those fighting for human rights in Afghanistan and put more pressure on the Taliban. The situation in Afghanistan is bleak. As so many have said, we face a humanitarian and human rights crisis. Women, girls and human rights defenders and those who have helped the West are at great risk. In the short time that I have, I would like to focus on what we have to learn from our experiences over the past 20 years. Of the weakness and the corruption of the Government that have been in power in Afghanistan over the past 20 years and that have fallen so quickly to the Afghanistan, to some of the issues that have been raised about, for example, drugs and how we accept that Scotland and the UK have to bear a responsibility now, that we have to relentlessly focus on how we give support to those fleeing the Taliban and on how refugees can be housed and welcomed in Scotland. It would be wrong if I did not declare—I suspect that a number of others in this Parliament from their speeches that I campaigned and marched against the western military intervention 20 years ago. I was sceptical about the stated war aims and the arguments that were made at that time, particularly because of the history of failed interventions and occupations in Afghanistan. I feared that it would be a counterproductive war that was not the most effective way of combating terrorism and that there was no clear exit strategy. I understand that many supported that invasion and one of the reasons they did was because of the plight of women and girls under the Taliban. It was clear that that was not the motivation of the war from the USA, given the role that they had played in the 1970s and 80s, funding the Mujahideen against a secular Government that had brought in free medical care, mass literacy programmes and unprecedented gains for women and girls. Of course, the problem was that they were backed by the Soviet Union and then the Soviet Union invaded, but over the last 20 years, 457 British service personnel have loved their lives in Afghanistan. Many more have been injured, had limbs amputated and have suffered psychologically. Many civilians such as Allister Island's constituent Linda Norgrove have also lost their lives and it is estimated that almost a quarter of a million people have lost their lives in the conflict and, of course, the majority of those were Afghan. However, most politicians across the political divide supported the invasion and the big political parties were all in favour of it. One of the things that needs to come out really clearly across the political divide today is that we have a responsibility and that we have to play our full role in assisting those who are fleeing the Taliban. We must, yes, condemn and robustly condemn the UK's inadequate response and the international aid budget cuts are shameful. I hope that the Conservative benches, when they sum up, will echo the demands that have been made across the chamber. However, we also have to look at what this Parliament can do, what the Scottish Government can do and what all levels of government are able to do. Some of those who are working with refugees have told me that they are not even confident that we will take the 20,000 promised, given that previous commitments in similar situations have not always been honoured. In reality, it is the Home Office that commission and undertake most of the resettlement work. In Scotland it is the councils that bear that burden. However, as I say, every level of government has to take responsibility. I really welcome the further financial commitment from the cabinet minister today, but I would ask if we can consider going forward what further we can do, what the Scottish Government can do. My colleague Pauline McNeill asked what percentage of the refugees are set to be resettled and that we feel that Scotland is equipped to welcome. I would ask how many refugees we can bring here and what work the Scottish Government has done so far to work out how many refugees it would be possible to house across the Scottish council areas and to advise what discussions are taking place about what more can be done to maximise the numbers that Scotland is able to provide support to. We have to show solidarity. Yes, we have to learn lessons from the past, but most of all we have to give practical help and we have to keep speaking up on behalf of those who are fighting for the kind of values that have brought most of us into politics in Afghanistan, to know that they have our solidarity, that we will not forget them, because the more we do that, the more we will ensure that Afghanistan has a society that the people in Afghanistan support, but also is one where fundamental human rights and the rights of women and girls are respected. I now call Alex Cole-Hamilton to wind up for the Liberal Democrats up to six minutes, please. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Angus Robertson, in an intervention to Corkab Stuart, asked for opposition parties to restate their commitment to allowing Afghans who are domiciled in this country to stay. Nobody should be repatriated to that country under the Taliban and I am happy to do so for the Liberal Democrats. When Harold McMillan handed over the keys of number 10 Downing Street to Alec Douglas-Hugham, he has reported to us that, so long as you do not invade Afghanistan, my boy, you will be absolutely fine. Our Government and the American Government have discovered the truth, in those words, the hard way. I started by talking of my Quakerism, from where my liberalism stems, and I have always been deeply skeptical of any military action to further the interests of the British state. I struggled, like Katie Clark, who I think has just made an excellent speech, with the original invasion of Afghanistan. Not for any love for the Taliban, but because I doubted the motives behind it and military aggression of any kind repels me. However, the end game was one of those rare occasions where the removal of armed forces has actively resulted in brutality and oppression. I cannot reconcile myself with that. In practical terms, the war in Afghanistan has ended, so now the international community must take responsibility for what comes next. That means offering safe passage and safe harbour for those who need it. It means being emphatic and clear about our willingness and our capacity to let people find peace here. The people who clung to the planes leaving Kabul airport were not doing so out of choice. People do not run along tarmac like that on a whim. They do it out of fear and out of terror, leaving a home, a culture, a community and a family. In the most chaotic and uncertain ways, that only happens when the alternative is much, much worse. Afghanistan may now be reported as the graveyard of empires once again, but for many people it was their home. A place with rich history and culture and people to go along with that. Their world's first oil paintings came not from the great cities of Europe but the caves of Afghanistan. It was also the birthplace of one of the world's oldest faiths, Zoroastrianism, which believes at an ultimate triumph of good over evil. Now, as a result of catastrophic failures of diplomacy, intelligence and forward planning, the end of a war may now somehow lead to even more bloodshed. If someone has been forced to flee their home to escape war and persecution, they should not be confronted with needless barriers in pursuit of safety. We should not be quibbling about numbers or questioning motives. Since the days of the Kinders Transport in World War 2, the UK has a proud reputation of providing sanctuary to those in need. The UK is a nation of immigrants and we should be proud that people who want to come to our country and work in our NHS are part of our society now. The Conservatives have been determined to drag that legacy through the mud, treating refugees and asylum seekers with hostility and contempt through the hostile environment policy. I am grateful for Donald Cameron in his remarks and in his call to his own colleagues at Westminster to restate the 0.7 per cent aid budget. It has been a powerful debate, a very moving debate, and I am very grateful for the support of our amendment, the kind words of Sarah Boyack, who is right to speak in granular detail about the roles of local authorities. Corkab Stuart offered, I think, a very helpful analysis of the structures that we need to put in place to support those arriving refugees. Pam Gossel gave a moving account of the plight of Afghan women and girls, and that image of women burning their degree certificates will stay with me. Bob Doris spoke of his constituents' effort to escape, who, with a bit more time, may have made it out there, but so many Afghans did not have that time because they were not given notice of the American departure. I was overjoyed by the election of Joe Biden to the US presidency. I hope that he might have ended Trump's doctrine of isolationism. America has, after all, maintained a mission in Korea for 70 years to present the sort of destabilisation that we now see in Afghanistan. There is an inscription, Presiding Officer, at the base of the Statue of Liberty that is often quoted in this chamber. It comes from a poem by Emma Lazarus. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free. It is imperative that the US now recognises the destabilisation it has caused and, through open, throw open the doors of liberty to the Afghan people it has deserted. Pauline McNeill gave a typically moving speech in which she identified personal stories of those whose lives had been cut short. Edward Mountain referenced my remarks as well. I would like to say for the record that I recognise how fatally undermined the UK mission in Afghanistan was by US withdrawal. Everyone could not have helped to have been moved by the emotion and anger that we have seen in countless interviews with former and current serving armed forces personnel at the situation, captured, I think, in a spellbinding speech in the House of Commons by Tom Tuganat. There have been many other excellent speeches in the chamber this afternoon, but my time is running short. Scottish Liberal Democrats are at our heart and to our fingertips, internationalists. We believe in championing the values of human rights, democracy and equality. Now the international community must act together to use every diplomatic means possible to try and secure a safe route out of the country for those who wish to flee Afghanistan. I urge those across the chamber to support my amendment today. I would like to congratulate the Scottish Government for organising a debate and welcoming the cabinet secretary on his role. After the powerful words and emotional words from Pam Goshall and Kokob Stewart, Bob Doris, I would like to offer my prayer for all the Afghan people who lost their lives. Presiding Officer, there can be no doubt that the past few days have been nothing short of disaster. We have watched in utter horror the sin of Afghans running after planes that are taking off, staying at an airport that they know will be bombed, parents handing their babies to complex strangers from our armed forces, hoping for an escape from inhumanity, the real desperation truly hard to watch. Regardless of the past, we have a moral responsibility to do what we can and help these people and we must. We cannot let the past 20 years' effort go into vain. I do at this point want to thank our armed forces for the work they have done to your left as many of our Afghan allies, Afghans who put their own lives on the front line, including the medics, interpreters, and some of, not of all, security forces that help to protect our own embassy staff. Today, as my colleague Sarah Boyack has rightly said, must be about looking at our responsibilities to the people of Afghans after nearly 20 years of war. They are our friends and we should remember that we made a promise to them. And now, they are fearing for their lives, worried about what life be like now, their families, their children and friends. Our refugee, the government has to be told, sorry, the government has to be bold, it has to be ambitious, the tourists sit there and claim to lead the new global Britain. Action speaks louder than words. Deciding officer, it's time for action. The offer from this so-called global Britain government is only 5,000 refugees over the next five years to settle down in our nation, while our allies in Europe and across the world are doing all they can to help resettle in larger numbers. The UNCHR currently estimates that 90% of the 2.6 million Afghan refugees outside of the country live in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan. We can do far more to play our part in supporting refugees. I hope that we have a real genuine settlement programme that can truly support the needs of the Afghans. We need to have a programme that will be ambitious and welcoming, because if we don't, it leaves the option that more vulnerable Afghans will be at risk of being at the mercy of human trafficking and those who seek only violence. I urge the government to change the direction now. We are a welcoming nation, we are a caring nation, a compassionate nation. We can now show real leadership. Here in Scotland, we can show that leadership. We need to play our part at home. We've seen several groups in Edinburgh and across Scotland who have been supporting refugees for several years and they stand ready to provide real support to those coming from Afghanistan. As Sarah Boyack referenced, the welcoming right here in our capital has done tremendous work helping those in need, supporting refugees to run English, to find jobs and access local services, offering opportunities for friendship, creativity, health and well-being in Edinburgh, connecting locals and newcomers through social and cultural exchange, collaborating with others to share knowledge, skill and influence positive changes, that the kind of action we need right now. We can only do more, however, if we ensure that funding for local authorities is there so we can truly support anyone who is seeking help. The refugees deserve to be treated with respect, not stuck inside a poor, inadequate, temporary accommodation. Many refugees today are on the waiting list right now looking for comfortable, safe home that they can settle their families in. Scotland can do and must do better than where we are right now. I joined calls for the Scottish Government to make the necessary financial commitment by not just reversing the cuts for local authorities have faced in recent years but also to ensure adequate funding is in place for new housing. This will not only help our existing communities but also those refugees newly arriving into Scotland, so that all can be given the life and opportunities they deserve. No more rhetoric is time for action. Presiding Officer, in my eyes, this city, this capital, is truly a beacon of hope. I came to this city because I knew that it would give my family a fresh start in life. That would take us in with welcoming arms. Let's ensure that anyone looking for a new start in life can begin that journey right here in Scotland. I hope that the Parliament will support the Labour amendment. I now call on Jackson Carlaw to wind up for the Conservatives. Presiding Officer, this has been a compelling debate. It has been uncomfortable for me at times. I hope that it is uncomfortable for everybody because I do not think that any of us should, in any sense, feel that we have some moral high ground or a lack of personal responsibility in everything that we have been discussing this afternoon. I can say that, if I was a Labour member, we will support the Labour amendment this afternoon. Those who have asked specific questions of the Conservatives will come to them in summing up. I would like to start just with a couple of observations. First, Kenneth Gibson reminded us in a motion he tabled today that it is a week this Saturday that the events of 9-11 took place in New York, the catalyst for the invasion of Afghanistan subsequently. I remember that day. I imagine all of us are old enough that we remember that day and the profound sense of shock, not just at the events but at the realisation that the whole period of foreign politics that I have grown up with, based around the events of the Cold War, which had been in a sort of hiatus, had suddenly been replaced with a completely new form of politics and thread and that that was going to dominate events in the years ahead. Some 58 nations supported the incursion into Afghanistan in the first instance to end the threat from al Qaeda and the use of Afghanistan as a base for international terrorism. In that objective, we were successful. I think that many of us accept that the subsequent war in Iraq, whatever the merits are otherwise and that is a separate debate, diluted the effort that had been made in Afghanistan and took the eye of the international community and the countries that have been part of that invasion and hopefully that rebuilding of hope in Afghanistan away from the prize of a better Afghanistan in the future. As all the work that we did on education for women that Pam Goswell and others have touched on this afternoon, there came to be a kind of growing realisation as time went on that the hopes of that first election, that first democratic election were not being fulfilled, that the Government of Hamid Karzai, which sought to try and centralise Afghanistan around Kabul, was alienating many of those in the regional provinces of Afghanistan. There was an emergence of an internal civil conflict with which we then found it almost impossible to wrestle. I think that as we come to the most recent events, the departure was a disgrace. I look to the United States as the principle body of culpability. In two presidential elections, we have been presented in America with candidates either unfit for office, deeply polarising or unsuited for office. That is the first time in my lifetime that that has happened. Whatever I felt about American administrations from Eisenhower and Korea through Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon in Vietnam, through Reagan in Grenada, through Bush and an exemplary first incursion repelling the invasion of Kuwait, through Clinton subsequently in the Balkans, through any of that, Bush and Obama, I may have disagreed, but I thought that there was a basic level of competence. I do not see that today. I think that if people across the world think that America has given up on them, then why should they expect them not to give up on America? I saw a headline in the Chinese Communist national newspaper saying that people in Taiwan should look to Afghanistan and see their future. That is deeply disturbing for us as part of a NATO alliance that has relied inherently on the strength of the United States. It, of course, in Saigon collapsed in anigumineus fashion. They did at least manage to dump the hardware and the sea rather than leave it for those who were left to take over. America did recover its authority from Vietnam. We just have to hope, even as we stand here in some dismay, that that can yet happen again, because America has to be a crucial part of our international Western response to events. At the moment, it seems that there is a lot of wishful thinking abroad that the Taliban is going to be different. The early signs are not encouraging. Women and Hamat have all been expelled from university, told that they can no longer work. Huge numbers of people have been summarily executed, and yet there are those in the overseas development institute in London, in UNICEF, who say that there are grounds for optimism. Where, I think, and we have not touched into this debate this afternoon, there could yet be a real subject for international debate. Is what happens if the Taliban does not deliver? Do we simply then withhold all aid and support for the people of Afghanistan as a penalty to the imposed government of Afghanistan? Or do we recognise that we still have a moral responsibility to the people of Afghanistan notwithstanding the actions of the subsequent government? That is something upon which we need to touch. I think that this afternoon there were some compelling contributions. I listened to Bob Doris, I listened to Katie Clark, to Fousal Shoudry, to Pam Gosel, who all talked about, with passion, about the people of Afghanistan and our responsibility. I hope that we accept that it is a collective responsibility. Let us not find ways together to be cynical and to undermine the challenge that is now before us. We are an excellent country at welcoming and incorporating people into the United Kingdom. Operation Welcome, we should be willing to succeed not finding excuses and reasons to hope that we will fail. I am not going to get into the numbers debate, but two questions have been asked of us this afternoon. I want to be clear. The commitment from the UK Government, and I think that I saw an exchange between the cabinet secretary and others, is one that relevant Afghan citizens already in the UK with limited leave can apply for indefinite leave to remain at any time, despite the immigration rules currently, stating that they have completed at least five years with limited leave before they are eligible. The criteria is that they have worked for the UK, they are at risk of death, which is a pretty comprehensive provision in the current circumstance, or that they are otherwise eligible to set out with the releakations and assistance scheme. I do not feel confident to go beyond that today, but I am prepared to work with the Scottish Government to bottom out what that commitment actually represents. Secondly, we have been asked about our commitment to international aid. I and my predecessor were absolutely clear that we did not agree with the decision of the UK Government, although we understood the economic circumstances of the moment, to reduce the international aid budget. I will continue to call for its earliest possible restoration, but I would point out that it is not a cash sum, it is a percentage of GDP. That requires a strong economy, a growing economy, and there is not much point of willing a bigger percentage if you are not also going to will a stronger and bigger economy at the same time. So the amount of aid that we are able to give, whatever the percentage, depends on the strength of our economy as a country, but I do, and we are saying in our own amendment that we want to see that position restored. I recognise my time as up, may I just finish by saying that, collectively, as a chamber, as a country, as a people, we owe one heck of a debt to all the people that helped us in Afghanistan and to the people of Afghanistan that we sought to help, and we must honour that in full. I now call on Jenny Gilruth to wind up the debate for the Scottish Government. Minister, up to decision time, please. I would like to thank all members who have taken part in this afternoon's debate. As Jackson Carlaw noted, the contributions have shown really powerful compassion for the lies and the likelihoods of the people of Afghanistan, and I want to thank every member who has contributed for taking part. Members have told the stories of the people affected by the US-led military withdrawal and across party lines members have demonstrated the willingness of this Parliament to step up. As we know, the return and the resurgence of the Taliban has stirred fear in many, not least for Afghanistan's women. The reign of the Taliban from 1996 to 2001 was one in which women and minorities lived in absolute and all-encompassing terror. Women confined to their homes unless accompanied by a man. Women refused an education. Women banned from working. The Taliban now say that they will respect women, almost as though they have attended a PR course on how to appear reasonable. We must not forget that this is a violent regime that does not recognise human rights. I share Edward Mountain's cynicism that the Taliban are really seeking to change at all. Indeed, yesterday, a senior Taliban official in response to a question on whether or not women would form part of the proposed Taliban regime stated that members would be selected on merit, specifically those with capacity for posts, the implication being that women have neither. Misogyny knows no borders and it does Afghan women a real disservice to suggest that we in the UK or in Scotland have all the answers. We should be cognisant of the politics at play. As Talat Yakbut wrote earlier this week, we are in yet another crisis where Muslim women are used as tools to deflect from foreign policy disaster and domestic political fallouts, all without nuance and all too often without hearing from the women being pointed at, written about or photographed, crying in fear. We must commit to actively listen to the voices of the women whom, as Talat notes, were frozen out entirely from the negotiations regarding the military withdrawal. As members know, earlier this week, the cabinet secretary and I met with members of the Afghan community in Scotland. Safia Khaled, who works for the Glasgow Afghan United, who Bob Doris referenced, made some really practical points that I want to share with members. She spoke of the need for Afghan women to be trained to understand the rights that they have in Scotland. She spoke of the need for Afghan women to be shown where they can shop, how they can travel and the importance of making sure that they do not feel lonely. She spoke of the importance of access to English classes with wraparound child care provision, because of the reality that, for many Afghan women, only their husbands will understand English. I want to give Safia a commitment today that officials are undertaking urgent work on this matter. I want to turn now to some of the points raised by members in today's debate. Donald Cameron opened by speaking of the importance of our armed services and paid tributes to those who fought to bring democracy to Afghanistan. I want to share that sentiment from the Government benches and join with him in that. Sarah Boyack, Maggie Chapman and Katie Clark derided the UK Government's overseas aid cut, and I hope that members know that they have support of the Scottish Government on that matter. It should not have happened. It should not have happened in the midst of a global pandemic. Alex Cole-Hamilton spoke of the importance of the violence of the Taliban regime. I am not going to repeat some of what he said, but it was particularly vivid and demonstrated the sheer brutality of the Taliban in action. I am glad that co-capture and Bob Doris are actively speaking to Afghans in their community, which is hugely important. The fear that they must be living with at this moment in time must be unbelievable. I want to give an assurance that the Scottish Government will help with those representations to the UK Government in any way that we are able to do. Pam Gosol gave an extremely powerful contribution today, and I want to thank her for that. She spoke about a lost generation of women and girls and the haunting images that we all recall of Afghans desperately fleeing for safety. Pauline McNeill touched on that, too. She said that the daughters of Afghanistan will be punished by the Taliban and make no mistake. I fear that Ms Gosol is absolutely correct. Bob Doris spoke about the importance of planning and preparation, and he can be assured that the Afghan community will be and are already involved in that preparatory work that he spoke to. Katie Clark asked a number of very specific questions, which I want to address very briefly. We do not yet have the detail of the total number from the UK Government, but I can give her an assurance that we will share that detail with members when we have it on the specifics regarding work with councils. As I mentioned, the cabinet secretary and I met with COSLA earlier this week were due again to meet them very soon. Local authorities have already been undertaking that preparatory work since June, and the cabinet secretary gave an update as to the current numbers in his opening remarks. We will keep members updated on that as the situation evolves. I hope that members appreciate and understand that it is moving at a quick pace at this moment in time. The UK has a duty to help the people of Afghanistan, not least because of our historic involvement in three-angle Afghan wars from the years 1838 to 1919, although not inclusive. The United Kingdom was also at the centre of the intervention into Afghanistan in 2001, and it must be at the centre of the solution to the current crisis. As the chamber knows, the UK Government's Afghan Resettlement scheme offers to take just 20,000 people over five years with 5,000 people in the first year. That is not enough. According to the House of Commons Library, the UK accepted around 27,000 Asian Ugandans in 1972 and between 17,000 and 22,000 Vietnamese refugees between 1979 and 1992. Resettled people are granted refugee status by the UK while abroad. They are then brought to live in the UK, and their status is decided by officials from the UN and the UK Government. The UK Government will choose who is offered resettlement in the UK. I know that the Prime Minister has written to the First Minister on this matter. He can be assured of Scotland's support, but the resettlement scheme must do more for the people of Afghanistan. It must commit to take more Afghan refugees, and we in Scotland stand ready and willing to help in that endeavour. We have heard today of Scotland's commitment to supporting the people of Afghanistan. I want to touch briefly on my constituency. As a Fife MSP, I am proud that Fife Council is one of the councils that has been willing to step up to the task at hand, to co-ordinate their efforts with Fife voluntary action, who are actively collecting donations at their offices in Glenruthys and Corkoddy. I want to put on record my sincere thanks to the 18 council areas that have pledged their support additionally. As Minister for International Development, I was pleased that the humanitarian emergency fund could be activated to provide support for humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan. Maggie Chapman can be assured that this funding will be used to get to those who need it most in Afghanistan. Members who were here last session will recall that we reviewed our international development offer earlier this year, and that following the election, the SNP will increase our international development budget by a third, but the UK Government's decision to cut overseas aid during the worst excesses of the pandemic was nothing short of deplorable, or to quote the Baroness of London links, it was a disgrace. Now is the time for the UK Government to recommit to the 0.7 per cent target, which should never have been reneged upon. As Pauline McNeill told us, many threw themselves fatally at the side of aeroplanes so desperate they were to escape, thousands of people risked their lives to cross Kabul just to reach the airport. They faced Taliban checkpoints where there were so-called kill lists and bribes. For those fortunate enough to have the money to pay the bribe, or not to be on that kill list, their fight for a better life did not end there. We all saw the images of people desperately trying to get onto those aeroplanes. So many were not lucky enough to have made it, and the choices they face now no one should ever have to make. I watched the Rory Stewart documentary last night, The Great Game, so named after the way in which the British and the Russian Empire treated Afghanistan in the 19th century. Afghanistan is no game, as Afghan author Khaled Hussainy notes in his book Kite Runner. There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but there is little childhood. Today, we remember the lives of those who have been killed over the past 20 years, the children, men and women, civilians and those from our armed forces, who we sent to Afghanistan in good faith. To the Afghan refugees who fled in terror, you will always be welcome in Scotland. This Government and this Parliament stands ready to assist. That concludes the debate on supporting the people of Afghanistan, and it is now time to move on to the next item of business.