Last year on 15th August, when India was celebrating it's independence, Afghanistan has been taken over by Taliban. In the next 15 days, many Afghans were forced to find refuge away from home. Many of them were given shelter in the UK. While they were welcomed in the country, their condition only detoriates there. Many families have been accommodated in small hotel rooms for the past year while their visitors were screened by the authorities.
What's more, the prospects of jobs and education do not seem to be a part of their near future. To gain a better insight into what the past year had been and what the future holds for the Afghan refugees, Asian Voice reached out to a few people.
It has been a year since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, two decades after they were held back by a US-backed administration. The Talibans now hold a firm grip on power in Afghanistan. They control most of the country and face no strong opposition. One of the most significant change in last one year is that lives of women and girls in Afghanistan have changed dramatically. Girls are no longer permitted to attend secondary school. Women are blocked from working in most sectors. And they are under orders to cover themselves in public. Serious human rights violation continued unabated, especially against women, children and minorities. The crime rate has also shot up drastically.
Afghans fleeing Afghanistan
Following the Taliban takeover, Afghans became the largest group of applicants for asylum in Europe. In fact, the fleeing Afghans have taken shelter in more than 40 countries on six continents, including 25 in Europe. The countries with the most arrivals include the US, where more than 75,000 Afghan nationals have arrived.
EU countries committed to take in up to 40,000 Afghan nationals, many of whom have already reached Europe. Since August, nearly 3,000 Afghans have been evacuated by France, more than 5,000 by Germany. The United Kingdom has given shelter to over 16,000. But thousands more, such as human rights activists, artists, scientists and journalists, are still trapped in the country. They fear Taliban reprisals and are seeking to reach Europe by any means.
Situation in UK
The UK formally opened the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) on 6 January 2022. By August around 7,000 Afghans brought to Britain during the mass evacuation had been moved into homes - leaving 10,000 still housed temporarily in hotels awaiting permanent housing. Most of these refugees fled their home country with just little more than the clothes they were wearing and a trauma of their experiences. Currently, large refugee families are crowded in small hotel rooms where they cannot cook their own food.
The uncertainty and crowding in temporary housing is causing growing tensions for this refugees. There is also a heightened risk of domestic violence, surveillance and constraints on their freedom of movement. Women, especially are more traumatised and distressed as traditional gender roles and no money and social support gives them a feeling of being trapped.
UK is currently paying a massive £1 million everyday to hotels, for temporarily housing this 10,000 Afghan refugees. This is in addition to the £3 million spent per day housing other migrants in hotels, including those who cross the English Channel illegally.
Providing permanent residences
Refugees Minister Lord Harrington called on local councils across the country to push harder in moving refugee families from temporary housing into permanent accommodation, warning in a letter that more than 2,000 properties were needed to house the remaining 10,000 Afghans, including more than 500 four-bedroom homes.
According to the Home Office, there is a “challenge” overall in finding local housing to accommodate the vast numbers of asylum seekers “not just for Afghans and those in need of protection but also British citizens who are also on a waiting list for homes.” The government has therefore offered permanent homes to asylum seekers in Scotland and Wales.
However, despite many Afghans being unhappy with remaining in hotels for such a long time, they are reluctant to move to Scotland or Wales on the assumption it is too cold there. There is also an erroneous belief that they do not speak English. There have also been security concerns raised about the vast number of Afghans evacuated in the wake of the unilateral American withdrawal from the country, with the UK Border Force admitting last year that many Afghans were arriving in the country with forged identity documents.
Looking to the current situation for Afghan asylum seekers in UK it can be said that, it has been one year of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban but, Afghan refugees in UK are still struggling to build new lives. For many families, these difficulties are compounded by trauma from years of conflict, along with anxieties over loved ones still in Afghanistan. But, inspite of struggles and problems, there is a hope and future for them, especially for their children who have already started going to the schools in UK.
