Malala Yousafzai urges countries to open their borders to Afghan refugees

Clara Kelly

“I think every country has a role and responsibility right now.”

Malala Yousafzai has urged countries across the world to open their borders to Afghan refugees as the Taliban continues its takeover of Afghanistan.

Speaking to BBC’s Newsnight on Monday, the activist and Nobel peace laureate who was shot in the head by Taliban gunnmen in 2012 for campaigning for girls’ education, said that leaders need to take a “bold stance” for the “protection of human rights”.

“I think every country has a role and responsibility right now,” she said.

“Countries need to open their borders to Afghan refugees, to the displaced people.”

Yousafzai added that it is also neccessary that global governments ensure that refugee children have “access to education and safety”.

She said governments will have to “ensure that the refugee children and girls have access to education, have access to safety and protection.”

“That their futures are not lost, that they can enroll into local schools, that they can receive education within those refugee camp,” she added.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said on Monday that Ireland will “participate fully” in providing humanitarian aid to Afghan refugees.

Martin said that he is “deeply concerned” by the situation in Afghanistan and the “pace” at which the situation has developed in recent days.

“I am deeply concerned by the unfolding situation in Afghanistan,” he said in a statement.

“The pace of developments there has taken many by surprise.”

It comes as Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney suggested on Monday that Ireland could be an “example” in a “tragic situation” by taking more refugees than usual.

“People have been clinging on to planes to try to escape a future they’re very fearful of,” he said.

Thousands of Afghans and foreign nationals surged on to the tarmac at Kabul airport on Monday seeking a place on a flight out of the country.

Commercial flights have mostly been suspended, stranding Afghans and other foreign nationals in the country, while the US continues to evacuate its officials.

The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan is over and has taken control of the presidential palace, with the elected president having fled the country.

Afghans now suddenly face the prospect of complete domination by the Taliban again, after the group – in just a matter of days – took the rest of the country in its grip.

The Islamist group was able to seize control after most foreign troops pulled out and many people in the country now fear that the Taliban could reimpose the brutal regime they enforced prior to the war in 2001.

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