Days after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, thousands of civilians are still being evacuated from the country and many, many more are desperate to leave. 

People like Zemar Sakha, who left Afghanistan years ago and made their home elsewhere, look at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country with anxiety and heartbreak.

Sakha left Afghanistan 36 years ago for London, UK, where he owns a carpet shop. But he left family back home – loved ones, whose futures now look uncertain and worrying under the Taliban.

"I hope people hear the voice of Afghan people somehow, somewhere. They really need help, there's a disaster, every minute, every hour of the day," he says.

In the UK, parliament has been called into an emergency session called to debate the situation – and the country's involvement in the two decades-long war in Afghanistan.

In the face of the current situation in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the decision made by the UK government back in 2001. 

"The United Kingdom, among others, joined America in going into Afghanistan on a mission to extirpate al-Qaeda in that country and to do whatever we could to stabilize Afghanistan, in spite of all the difficulties and challenges we knew we would face. And we succeeded in that core mission," he told parliament.

Sakha, like many critics of the withdrawal, thinks Western forces played a role in destabilizing the country to the point it allowed an easy return for the Taliban.

"Look, they have to support us any way they can because they are part of the problem, all the West is involved in this problem, all of the West," says Sakha.

The UK has agreed to take 20,000 Afghan refugees in the coming years, with 5,000 set to arrive this year.

_{Cover image: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP}