Paralyzed Afghan child, 2, offered life-changing surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital, escapes Taliban but still waits for British civil servants to be taken to London
- Two-year-old Navid paralyzed after suicide bomber’s attack at Kabul airport
- Great Ormond Street Hospital has offered its family life-changing surgery
- His family has managed to cross the border from Afghanistan to Pakistan
- The Foreign Office has not yet approved the family to move to the UK
A paralyzed Afghan child offered life-changing surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital has survived Taliban and cross the border Pakistan – but still waiting for British civil servants to fly him London,
A two-year-old boy named Navid was injured during his chaotic return from there in August Afghanistan When a suicide bomber killed 183 people at Kabul airport.
Experts on Great Ormond Street have agreed to help, but his family – whose plight was revealed by The Mail on Sunday last month – are dismayed by the Foreign Office’s delays.
A suicide bomber killed 183 people at Kabul airport in August during a chaotic return from Afghanistan, injuring a two-year-old boy, called Navid.
Two suicide bombers target people trying to enter Kabul airport and airlift from Afghanistan before Taliban came to power
The family has a 30-day visa to stay in Pakistan and UK civil servants are expected to arrange transport to London before it expires early next month.
A government spokesman declined to comment on Naveed’s case, but said: ‘We continue to do everything possible to secure a safe passage for British citizens and eligible Afghans to leave the country.’
Dr Zuzana Olszewska, a specialist in Afghanistan at the University of Oxford who helped the family, said: ‘It sounds like a cruel move.
‘After the steadfast promise of help, the family was full of hope, but now they are feeling crushed again.
‘If their visas to Pakistan expire, they risk imprisonment or deportation – which would be punishable by death. Every day the family asks us if the British Embassy is in touch and what else they need to do.
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