AFGHAN MOTHER AT RISK OF DEPORTATION BACK TO TALIBAN DEATH SQUADS, BLAMING UK GOVERNMENT VISA DELAYS
An Afghan mother who fled to Pakistan to avoid being killed by the Taliban risks being deported back to Afghanistan due to delays in Government processing of her resettlement to the UK.
The ex-British Council teacher is eligible to come to Britain but is stuck in a cramped Islamabad hotel room with her newborn baby son, five-year-old daughter and husband while struggling to get nappies, baby milk, fruit and clean water.
Nazila, not her real name, said the family-of-four are sleeping in one bed in the hotel, which houses more than 20 other families whose applications to come to the UK under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) have been approved.
After months in hiding following the Taliban takeover in 2021, the family escaped across the border last October when she was almost six months pregnant, passing disguised through checkpoints manned by the extremists who would have killed them as they view her and other ex-British Council contractors as spies.
As their Pakistan visas have now expired they face being sent back to Afghanistan if police check their documents, which she said would be a death sentence for them.
But despite the grave risks they face, an email to them from the Government, seen by i, warned a lack of accommodation in the UK means they will be stranded abroad “for several months or longer”, unless they can source their own place to live.
“If we are deported to Afghanistan we will never come back because my son does not have a passport or national ID and my daughter’s passport will have expired,” Nazila told i.
“We would be killed, all of the family members. Everyone is stuck here with a dark uncertain situation with no access to the very basics of life.”
Last month, i revealed that Government documents showed as many as 8,000 Afghans eligible to come to the UK under resettlement schemes were still waiting to be relocated despite “ongoing risks”, with the accommodation portfolio due to come under “significantly more pressure” this autumn.
Joe Seaton, a former British Council staff member who has been assisting Afghan teachers trying to reach the UK, said more than 40 are cooped up in hotels in the Pakistan capital.
“The UK Government urgently need to do more to address this unjust situation,” he said
“The inequality is jarring and the inhumane conditions the teachers are enduring are unacceptable.”
The danger of being caught by the Pakistan police is so great that Nazila said they can only leave their hotel room for no more than 20 minutes when it’s dark.
Her son has no cradle to sleep in and is about to start weaning, but she will have nowhere to prepare his food in the hotel room they all share.
The meals provided three times a day are too spicy for her young daughter and no fruit has been served during their five-month stay at the hotel with the family forced to buy their own food and water and cover healthcare costs of almost £1,000 despite having no income, she said.
“Everyone here is getting stressed and everyone is going to have depression after sitting in a hotel room for more than five months,” she said.
“I thought that after the baby was born we would be relocated to the UK, but still we are here in this cramped room.
“I need to buy things for my baby but I can’t. He’s using lots of nappies in a day. We are asking people from Afghanistan to send us money.”
The risks they face were highlighted when another Afghan was questioned by police who almost discovered her visa had expired before she narrowly escaped.
“I decided to come to Pakistan to save my child. If I had the delivery in Afghanistan, I would have had to go to hospital and all the hospitals are under the control of Taliban” Nazila said.
“So they would have definitely caught me and killed me and my family.”
During the run-up to the fall of Kabul in August, 2021, the family went on the run, later discovering to their horror that the Taliban were scouring their neighbourhood trying to track them down.
Terrified, they made their way to the border after obtaining visas for Pakistan, with Nazila disguising herself to elude Taliban checkpoints.
After three months in a Pakistan apartment, they relocated to the hotel in Islamabad, which has been allocated for them by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The family of the ex-teacher, who said she worked for the British Council from 2017 to 2020, had a previous appeal to come to the UK under a Ministry of Defence (MoD) run scheme, Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap), rejected in 2021.
Pathway 3 of the ACRS was set up to provide 1,500 places to three specific groups including British Council contractors in its first year, but only a handful of people have arrived in the UK under the scheme since it was launched in June, 2022.
Families from all three groups – alumni of the UK’s Chevening university scholarship, Garda World and British Council contractors – are marooned in the hotel despite their ACRS applications and biometrics security checks to come to the UK being completed, said Nazila.
“We’re all confused,” she said. “Everyone is asking why it’s taking so long, why are we still here.
“All the kids are playing in the hall even at 12 o’clock in the night. They don’t have anything to study, they are not allowed to go to school. I don’t know why they can’t find us accommodation in the UK.”
In an email to them last month, the Foreign Office’s team said travel for ACRS and ARAP eligible people to the UK will only be arranged once suitable accommodation is secured, with “a temporary delay” in issuing UK visas as a result.
A UK Government spokesperson said: “The UK has made an ambitious and generous commitment to help at-risk people in Afghanistan and, so far, we have brought around 24,600 vulnerable people to safety, including thousands of people eligible for our Afghan resettlement schemes.
“Supporting the resettlement of eligible Afghans remains a priority, however it is vital that those arriving have somewhere suitable to stay once they are in the UK. We continue to work with Local Authorities and other partners to find suitable accommodation, so we are able to welcome more Afghans.”
A British Council spokesperson said: “We have done, and continue to do, everything in our power to get our former colleagues out of Afghanistan.
“The relocation schemes are run by the UK government. Whilst we are relieved that a number of our former contractors and their families have been informed that they are eligible for relocation, we are pushing for progress with senior contacts within the UK government to ensure the earliest possible progression of their applications.
“The commitment and dedication of our colleagues is never forgotten, and we continue to work tirelessly on their behalf to press for a speedy resolution.”
2023-06-04T05:32:15Z dg43tfdfdgfd