National leader Judith Collins fears the Taliban, which she describes as a "death cult", will kill Afghans who assisted New Zealanders if the Government hasn't yet evacuated them.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will at 3pm announce the Government's response to calls to evacuate Afghans who have helped New Zealand after the Taliban - listed as a terrorist entity - captured the capital city Kabul.
The Government last week signalled plans to provide some Afghans with a "pathway" to New Zealand. It would be a revisit of a 2012 policy, which oversaw 140 Afghans - mostly interpreters employed by the Defence Force and their family members - repatriated.
Ardern told The AM Show on Monday Cabinet will decide what support could be offered to the likes of interpreters. The Government is also working with at least 47 New Zealand residents on evacuation plans and isn't ruling out sending in Defence Force troops.
But Collins fears it's too late.
"We have a huge responsibility and I just hope the Government is going to announce today that they've got out the last of those that were involved in helping us; so that's the interpreters but also the carpenters and people like that, who were working in the camps," she told Magic Talk.
"I've been to Afghanistan, I've seen the work that was going on there, and I'm just devastated for the people of Afghanistan, particularly the women. New Zealand does have an obligation. "The obligation is to those who helped us, worked with us, helped to keep New Zealanders safe."
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been driven from their homes so far due to the conflict, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR - fleeing not only the fighting but the prospect of the Islamist regime that ruled before 2001 being reimposed.
During their 1996-2001 rule, women could not work and punishments such as stoning, whipping and hanging were administered.
Collins said the Government's focus should be on working with allies such as the US, which has authorised the emergency deployment of 1000 additional troops, to evacuate Afghans who have assisted New Zealanders.
The US Department of State and Department of Defense released a joint statement, showing they intend to take over the civilian airport in Kabul.
"At present we are completing a series of steps to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport to enable the safe departure of US personnel from Afghanistan via civilian and military flights."
"I just hope the Government is going to tell us that they've already got them out and on their way to New Zealand. We know it's never going to be good for the Afghan people with the Taliban, which is basically a death cult, frankly."
Collins last month also referred to Islamic State as a "death cult", amid uproar over suspected terrorist and ISIS bride Suhayra Aden being resettled in New Zealand, after Australia axed her dual citizenship.
ACT leader David Seymour is meanwhile calling on Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi to explain what's taken the Government so long to consider helping Afghans who assisted New Zealand.
"A group of Afghan people who assisted New Zealand in the Afghanistan conflict had their applications declined by Kris Faafoi on 5 July," Seymour said. "Faafoi must now tell us on what grounds he made that decision."
Faafoi said last week he's been seeking Defence Force advice.
Seymour also criticised Ardern for earlier telling The AM Show on Monday, "We have to make decisions quickly."
"Quickly would have been months ago," Seymour said. "Canada got the Afghan people who helped them out last month. The Taliban have moved fast but this Government had opportunities to help much sooner than today. It's time for answers."
Ardern, when asked if New Zealand would ever recognise the Taliban as the legitimate ruling entity of Afghanistan, told The AM Show there would be a lot to consider.
"Our bar will be very much a consideration of what day-to-day life is like; whether or not women and girls are accessing education and the lives that they're able to lead there.
"As an international community, I'm sure there will be some conversation around how the new regime is treated."
Green Party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson, and human rights spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman, have strongly condemned the new surge in terror by the Taliban.
"The New Zealand Government needs to assist in bringing home all New Zealand citizens currently stuck in Afghanistan, as well as repatriate Afghan citizens who worked with the New Zealand Defence Force. The assistance these Afghan citizens have provided New Zealand now puts their lives at risk," said Ghahraman.
"These interpreters are at risk of torture and persecution because of their assistance to our Defence Force."
