A charity campaigner in the island has said she feels the government should be housing refugees in light of the Afghanistan crisis.

Louise Whitelegg, Isle of Man coordinator at Christian Aid, believes there’s a high level of ’frustration from a lot of people’ that the Isle of Man isn’t ’doing [its] bit’.

She said: ’The vast majority of people don’t understand why we can’t just get on with it and accept refugees and I don’t myself.

’I feel that there’s been a lot of noise around the refugees and I feel like there’s been a real change.

’There are still a few people against the idea but I feel they’re in the minority now.’

Evacuation is currently underway for as many people from Afghanistan as possible as American forces prepare to leave on August 31.

Meanwhile in Haiti there are hundreds of people still missing following the earthquake. Ms Whitelegg doesn’t understand why the government wasn’t doing more.

She continued: ’I don’t understand what the blockage is, specifically in regards to Afghanistan because many of them will be English-speaking and will have degrees and everything.

’I feel the cost for the government would actually be negligible, it would be a great statement for the Isle of Man on the international arena.

’I fail to see the downside, I fail to understand why anyone would object to this when you see the horror these people are going through.’

The government responded that it was monitoring the situation for a possible launch of a live appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee.

A statement said: ’The issue of accommodating refugees in the Isle of Man would mark a major policy announcement and would therefore be a matter for the incoming administration to address following the general election on September 23.’

Ms Whitelegg recently set up a fundraiser for both the Afghanistan and Haiti crises and described the response as ’mind blowing’ after an anonymous donor gave £50,000.

She added: ’A private individual in the island saw the people trying to get on the plane on the news and got in touch and he donated £25,000 to Afghanistan.

’I had a conversation with him and said "it’s frustrating because Haiti isn’t getting the coverage because we’ve almost become desensitised to it."

’He said "I’m going to give £25,000 to that as well" - it is life saving.’

This comes after Christian Aid hosted a prayer vigil for those affected on Thursday in Douglas.

Ms Whitelegg said the vigil was ’amazing’ and more than 100 people turned up.

She continued: ’It gave an opportunity for people to come together. The prayer station created for the vigil will be put in Peel Cathedral from Tuesday evening, so people can go and have a personal reflection.’

Donations are being taken via the GoFundMe page and free post to Christian Aid Isle of Man.

Ms Whitelegg urged anyone affected to contact her at [email protected].