This week’s revelations about the UK’s dangerously cavalier treatment of Afghans who worked with British forces are shocking but not surprising. Many of the Afghans who backed it, worked for it or believed in broader western promises of long-term support for democracy and human rights were at risk. The UK timeline for processing asylum requests of Afghans who remained, and who had worked for or fought with British diplomats and troops was measured in months. Now thousands of people inside Afghanistan and beyond it must grapple with another layer of fear and uncertainty about what the Taliban know of their work with foreign forces, their family networks and their desire to escape. Not all those Afghans who sought resettlement in the UK were eligible, but applying for asylum should not have put them at greater risk.