UK Home Office orders Afghan refugees to uproot families and leave London within a week
LONDON: Britain’s Home Office has informed hundreds of Afghan refugees who have been living in London for 18 months that they will have to move 200 miles north to West Yorkshire within a week, the Guardian reported on Thursday.
They are among 9,000 Afghans fleeing the Taliban living in temporary housing across the UK. They left their country as part of Operation Pitting, which was launched in August 2021 to evacuate British nationals and Afghans who had worked with UK forces after the Taliban seized control and left the country. fought outside.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at the time, “We will never forget the brave sacrifice made by the Afghans who chose to work with us at great risk to themselves.”
Now, the Home Office has told 40 families, including 150 children, who have been living in a hotel in Kensington for more than a year that they should move to another hotel in Wetherby, near Leeds.
Some of the refugees, including a former general and translators assisting British Army soldiers, told the Guardian they are refusing to be moved because their children, who have already experienced much trauma, are now exposed to the turmoil of changing schools. Will be forced to go through upheaval. in the middle of the academic year.
Others have found jobs in London and are worried about leaving them and finding work in a new location.
One refugee told the Guardian that most of the Afghans living in the hotel had decided to oppose the resettlement plan.
Hamidullah Khan, a former parliamentary adviser in Kabul who came to Britain with his wife and three sons, said the government had broken a series of promises made to refugees that it would help them find permanent housing.
“We asked the Home Office, ‘Why do you want to force us?’ And they say: ‘This hotel is expensive.’ Leeds Hotel is cheap.’ But we didn’t choose this hotel or this area to live in, the Home Office chose,” Khan said.
“We’ve been here for 18 months now, not out of choice. Our kids are going to local schools and in the middle of the school year, they ask us to leave.”
Meanwhile, in Wetherby, some residents said they oppose the decision to move Afghan refugees to a local hotel. One person told the Leeds Live website that the government was acting in a “secret and secretive” manner.
Under the UK’s Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act, the Home Office is “obligated to protect and promote the welfare of children when immigration decisions are made.”
A Home Office spokesman told the Guardian that the refugees had been told months earlier that they would have to head north.
“While the hotels do not provide a long-term solution, they do provide safe, secure and hygienic accommodation,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to reduce the number of people in bridging hotels, moving people into more permanent accommodation as quickly as possible.
“Sometimes, families may be moved from a hotel that is closing to another. In such cases, families are given due notice to relocate and are supported by their local authority. We are proud that this country has provided homes for more than 7,500 Afghan displaced persons, but there is a shortage of local housing for all.
The government aims to move all Afghan refugees into permanent housing by the end of the year, according to briefings given to local councils.