The deaths of LGBT+ people in Afghanistan could have been prevented if Western governments had prioritised their evacuation after the country fell to the Taliban, campaigners have said. It comes after a new report from Human Rights Watch and OutRight Action International found that life for LGBT+ Afghans has “dramatically worsened” following the Taliban’s violent takeover last August. Nemat Sadat, one of the first native Afghans to come out publicly as gay, told TLE that much of the community has spent the last eight months under self-imposed “house arrest” to evade capture, but warned the risk of being seized by authorities had intensified. “What irks me is that this could have been prevented. If the international community and powers-that-be listened to my call and prioritised the evacuation and resettlement of the 1,000 most at-risk LGBT+ people in Afghanistan,” he said.