From the BBC:
“UK to charter flights for Afghan refugees stuck in Pakistan”
The UK government is to charter flights to relocate Afghan
refugees living in Pakistan who have been promised UK visas, starting on
Thursday. Thousands of people who worked with or for the UK government in
Afghanistan and fled the Taliban are in Pakistan, waiting for relocation to the
UK. Some have been waiting for over a year, according to charities. Earlier
this month, Pakistan said it plans to start deporting illegal migrants from 1
November.
Among the Afghan refugees in Pakistan are former translators
for the British army and teachers for the British council, all part of either
the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme or Afghan Relocations and Assistance
Policy. All went to Pakistan because the UK asked them to go to process their
visas ready to start a new life in the UK. But many of the refugees' visas have
now expired. And according to a risk assessment document revealed in court, the
British authorities in Pakistan now consider people in this group to be
"at risk of deportation".
Recent government figures show that around 3,250 men women
and children on the UK's relocation schemes are living in guest houses and
hotels in Pakistan's capital Islamabad. While in Pakistan, they have no legal
access to work and their children are not allowed to go to school. Initially
many thought they would be in Pakistan for a few weeks. Documents released in
court revealed how many face longer waits in part due to instructions by Prime
Minister Rishi Sunak, banning their accommodation in hotels in the UK in all
but extreme cases. Instead, longer-term accommodation was to be found. An email
released in the documents stated that this "should represent an overall
net saving to the taxpayer".
The UK government is planning on sending several flights
until December Over
the past few weeks the BBC has spoken to people on the UK's relocation
programmes; many said they are afraid to leave their hotels. According
to official sources in Pakistan, the UK government is now planning on
chartering several flights over the course of the next few months, until
December. The officials have said the first of these flights starts on
Thursday. The UK government has not said how many people will be onboard
the first flight or how many are expected to be relocated before 1 November
deadline. The BBC understands that the government has decided that those on the
relocation programmes will no longer need to be matched to so-called
"suitable accommodation" before they arrive. There was some hope, but
also confusion about the news of the flights.
'No one knows who is first' Jamal, not his real name, worked as a
translator for the British army, and said he had not heard anything from the
British authorities. "Hopefully everyone will move soon, no one
knows who is first, who is in the middle, who is last," he told the BBC.
Mahfouz, also not his real name, worked delivering projects for the UK
government. "I am just concerned what will happen if my family will
not be on one of those flights until the end of December. "My wife
is pregnant and if we don't travel soon we may have to wait into next
year," he said.
Those on the UK schemes are becoming increasingly nervous
about the 1 November deadline. Several told the BBC on at least two
occasions where they had heard of police raiding accommodation and detaining
people on the UK relocation schemes, who did not have the suitable documents to
hand. Even though they were released, it has left many frightened they could be
sent back to Afghanistan. The Taliban government has declared an amnesty
for those who worked with international forces. However, many people we
spoke to talked about living in hiding before they left Afghanistan for
Pakistan, scared, they said, of what might happen to them. Some felt that by
following the UK authorities' directions and leaving Afghanistan they had put
themselves at increased risk.
Qasim - not his real name - worked with the UK authorities. He
said: "Before we left Afghanistan, our lives were in 50% danger. Now they
are in 100% danger." The UK authorities' risk assessment also acknowledges
that things may change after 1 November. The document states that they have
stood a "reasonable chance of success" of securing release, if
notified in time of someone on the scheme's detention. But that "it is
very difficult to judge we would be successful in every case if it were to
happen frequently beyond 1 November and we were not informed or the eligible
person didn't have the documents with them."
A UK Ministry of Defence spokesperson did not comment on the
flights but said the UK had brought around 24,600 people from Afghanistan to
safety, including thousands of people eligible for the country's Afghan
schemes.
^ It is good to see the British Government continue to do
what is right with those Afghans that worked and helped them over the past 20
years.
I hope other Governments around the World will do the same. ^
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