The UK’s Afghan refugee offer exposes how short-sighted the government’s immigration policy is

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Afghans crammed into a US Air Force transport plane fleeing Kabul (AFP/Getty)

It’s very comforting to read that No 10 believes that offering 5,000 places in the UK for fleeing Afghans is considered adequate because it is "very rare" for people to want to leave their country. I might have been concerned without this reassurance.

The images of desperate people falling from the wheels of departing military transport planes and thousands of hopefuls queuing at Kabul airbase to leave Afghanistan must have, thus, not been representative of wider fears of Taliban repression and reported desire to flee.

That this government’s immigration policy is farcical, tragic and especially so frighteningly short-sighted, has never been as starkly exposed.