THE head of a Scots charity who arrived in the UK from Afghanistan in the back of a lorry has said refugees escaping the Taliban face being locked up and sent back to the war-torn country.
Sabir Zazai, CEO of the Scottish Refugee Council, said refugees who come to the UK as he did, via “irregular routes” – such as crossing the Channel – should not be criminalised and must not face the threat of being sent back to Afghanistan.
Zazai, who left Afghanistan in 1999, called on the UK Government to make a commitment not to return refugees and to take more people hoping to settle in the UK.
The UK Government has announced plans to resettle 20,000 vulnerable Afghans – particularly women and girls – with 5000 arriving in the first 12 months.
However, Zazai said the scheme should not disadvantage those who “arrive at our shores” who risk being criminalised for fleeing the Taliban.
READ MORE: Sabir Zazai: I've seen the best of 'British values' are not in Westminster
“Maybe a woman with a child arrives through the resettlement programme and they get all the right support and everything ... but if that same woman arrived with a child from Afghanistan in Dover we don’t want her to end up with a criminal record or to end up in detention or prison,” he said.
“Fast forward a few weeks or months and certainly next year many attempting dangerous sea crossing will be Afghans because over three million people are internally displaced and this will include unaccompanied children and families.”
He said local support was crucial to his own settlement in the UK: “I arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry in December 1999 in Dover and the local communities in the UK invested in me, in my integration, which I’m extremely grateful for.
“And if it wasn’t for the community integration and that community dispersal and that local community support I wouldn’t have been able to make the contribution that I made today and I wouldn’t have been able to integrate to society or learn the language.
“Sadly, the new [Nationality and Borders Bill] talks about putting people away or locking them away from communities and I think that’s another huge concern because integration happens within communities, it doesn’t happen in barracks, in detention centres or in remote islands.”
As MPs discussed the Government’s plans in a recall debate, Robina Qureshi (above), director of Positive Action in Housing, welcomed news that the UK would waive border rules to allow Afghan asylum seekers to enter the UK without a passport, but added: “It is the bare minimum that the UK and the US should do after a war on terror that cost over 70,000 civilian lives, lasted 20 years and took a week to disintegrate.”
She urged people to contact their MPs with specific demands, including suspending refugee removals to Afghanistan, grant asylum to those refugees already here and to put in place humanitarian visas.
Satbir Singh, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said people were running for safety from Afghanistan by any route available.
READ MORE: Afghan former British Army interpreter facing death after UK refuses him entry
He dismissed the plans to resettle 5000 Afghan refugees this year: “That is woefully inadequate. Along with nearly 90 others, we have written to the Home Secretary and briefed MPs on the changes that are needed to ensure a generous and compassionate welcome to Afghan refugees.”
He said “resettlement-only” plans which would criminalise or deny full refugee status to those who make their own journeys to seek asylum in the UK should be scrapped and immediate asylum granted to Afghans already waiting for status in the UK.
All Afghans already in detention should be released and family reunion rules relaxed.
Singh added: “History will judge how the UK responds to this crisis. We must protect Afghan refugees here in the UK, and those who arrive over the coming weeks and months.
“Together, we must stand against the anti-refugee bill, and for the fairer, welcoming society we believe in.”
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