Joanna Cherry, KC, MP, met with the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak on Wednesday to push for help to save female Judges and prosecutors trapped in Afghanistan.
The meeting coincides with publication yesterday of direct testimony from former women judges in Afghanistan gathered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
There are approximately 100 women and their families trapped in Afghanistan in hiding, and in daily fear for their lives. They have received death threats, and their former homes have been raided by the Taliban looking for them.
Ms Cherry also presented a petition on the matter in the House of Commons this afternoon, and confirmed that this petition while it mirrored one signed online by 56,000 people, was signed by Roddy Dunlop KC, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. You can watch that on Parliament TV here.
The MP for Edinburgh South West said: “The accounts from these women is harrowing, they have been living in daily fear for their lives since the Taliban ceased back power in Afghanistan. One woman has already been found and murdered. I have urged the Prime Minister to help them. He understand their perilous situation and we had a productive meeting which I hope will bring results.
“The women are at risk directly from Taliban and from the men they helped to prosecute who have been freed from prison.
“We encouraged female prosecutors and female judges in Afghanistan stood up for the rule of law and for a more inclusive and equal nation. Those left behind are in mortal danger.”
It was in March that Ms Cherry asked the Prime Minister in the House of Commons for the meeting. She said then: “With the encouragement of the British Government, female prosecutors and female judges in Afghanistan stood up for the rule of law and for a more inclusive and equal nation. Those left behind are in mortal danger. Last year I met senior officials at the Foreign Office, who were open to making a specific case for at least some of those women to be relocated to the United Kingdom, but nothing has happened since then. This dire situation requires a prime ministerial intervention, so I am not asking to meet the Prime Minister’s officials or his Ministers; I am asking him directly whether he will meet me to see what we can do for these women.”
The Prime Minister replied: “I am very happy to meet the hon. And learned Lady. She will know that we take our obligations to those who helped and served in Afghanistan extremely seriously, through both the Afghan relocations and assistance policy and the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme. We have already brought 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan to the UK and worked closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and others on those legal routes, but I would be happy to meet her to ensure that we are targeting our compassion and generosity on the people who most need it and not those who are coming here illegally.”
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