WEST Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin writes for the Observer…
MANY of you will have been troubled by the news from Afghanistan and as someone who has served as a Minister in both the Ministry of Defence and in the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office I am acutely aware of the role our armed forces, diplomats and aid workers played in that part of the world and the sacrifices people have made to try and make that country a better place to live.
I am sure most of you know someone who has served there, and my thoughts are with them all as we face up to the consequences of this very difficult event.
I also know from my time in Government that development assistance plays a crucial role in helping countries to develop themselves. In Afghanistan 10 million children have received an education thanks to UK aid. And I strongly support initiatives to ensure that boys and girls receive at least 12 years of quality education, wherever they are in the world, and I hope that important development gains made in Afghanistan are not wiped out by the Taliban. Fully half of the country is under the age of 19 so has never lived under the Taliban before.
In my role as the Chair of the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union which links MPs from 179 countries, I am in touch with some Afghan politicians, particularly female MPs, seeking to claim political asylum.
The UK is a beacon of freedom and democracy for so many people around the world. I hope that Worcestershire will be able to play its part in providing asylum to some refugees who fear persecution. We have a proud record as a country for doing this for hundreds of years and I welcome the confirmation that the UK will provide a home for up to 20,000 of the most vulnerable Afghans and for those who helped our own citizens when they were in Afghanistan.
