SWANSEA, Carmarthenshire and Neath Port Talbot councils are taking in refugee families from Afghanistan, and could accept more further down the line.

Carmarthenshire Council’s housing department has already found somewhere to live for three families.

Swansea Council said its three families were arriving this month.

Neighbouring Neath Port Talbot Council is offering assistance to three families initially, then another two.

The Taliban took full control of Afghanistan in just 10 days following the departure of international forces in June, although the hardline group already controlled large parts of the country.

The country’s president, Ashraf Ghani, has fled, and thousands of people who fear persecution are desperate to leave.

The predicament is especially dire for Afghan interpreters who have helped Western forces.

A priority relocation policy was launched in April for current or former Afghan interpreters and other personnel who worked with the UK and were considered to be under serious threat. Some 2,000 Afghan staff have been resettled in the UK since June.

Ministers said they expected 5,000 Afghans to relocate this year under this scheme, rising to 20,000 in the long term.

A Swansea Council spokesman said: “Swansea has already committed to assisting families from Afghanistan.

“We are welcoming three families this month and are looking to welcome more.”

Carmarthenshire Council said its current commitment of three families could change.

MPs meanwhile have asked for councils to get extra funding to resettle fleeing Afghans.

The crisis was debated in the House of Commons on August 18.

Some Conservative MPs put Boris Johnson under the spotlight, with his predecessor Theresa May saying it was “incomprehensible” that the UK was not doing more.

Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed the Prime Minister had shown “staggering complacency,” but Mr Johnson said the UK would honour its “enduring commitment” to the Afghan people.

UK aid funding for Afghanistan is to double to £286 million.

The Taliban, which ruled the country in the 1990s, sought to strike a conciliatory tone in a press conference this week, saying for example that women’s rights would be respected within the framework of Islamic law.

Andrew Morgan, leader of the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), which represents the country’s 22 councils, said it was important that local authorities played their part in resettling refugees.

“If we all sign up to this, we’re talking less than a handful of families actually per local authority area, so the numbers are actually very, very small,” he told BBC Wales.

“The alternative is that these people, quite frankly, could be persecuted in the next couple of weeks if we don’t help them.

“I wouldn’t want it on my conscience that we see in a month’s time that a number of individuals and families are being killed in Afghanistan when we had the opportunity to help them come here.”

Councils in Wales took in a number of Syrian refugees as years of civil war ravaged the Middle Eastern country.

The Welsh Government said it was working with councils to help find homes for people fleeing the situation in Afghanistan.