A man who fled Afghanistan just before the Taliban recaptured Kabul said the UK government’s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda seemed like a political statement rather than an attempt to tackle human trafficking.
Omar, 31, who arrived in a small boat from Calais last August, was troubled by the prime minister’s distinction between those who come to Britain legally and those who do not, noting that for many people fleeing war zones, there are no legal avenues they can take to seek asylum in the UK.
He fled Afghanistan after fleeing an assassination attempt. Omar, a human rights journalist who also worked for the foreign ministry under the old regime, believed he would continue to be a target, so he flew to Turkey, continued to Calais by road and helped cross the English Channel with smugglers. He left his wife and two young sons in Kabul. He is currently waiting for his asylum application to be processed, staying at a hotel in London with about 120 other asylum seekers, many of whom have been waiting 14 months for their applications to be assessed.
His brother, a former British embassy official, was accepted into the UK’s resettlement program in Afghanistan last August, but Omar had fled Afghanistan earlier and had no legal way for him to come to the UK to seek asylum. The two face similar threats in Afghanistan, but only one has been given access to the resettlement scheme.
“The system needs to be reformed, but that is not the answer. That seems like a very political statement, “he said.
He did not think the message was aimed primarily at saving lives or fighting human trafficking gangs. “There are many other ways to stop people from dying in boats. They could make the visa regime more flexible for people fleeing Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. I had no alternative but to take a boat – there was no way I could come here legally.
“How will the government differentiate between people who are economic migrants and those who are genuine asylum seekers? This process is taking more than a year now. “
He suggested that a better solution would be to direct the government’s money on new facilities in Rwanda to hiring more staff in the UK to work on clearing the current backlog of asylum cases and relocating people. from hotels. “Or they could set up a large processing campus here to speed up the process there.”
He wasn’t sure if that would be a deterrent.
“Smugglers will tell people that the rules will not apply to them, they will tell them that everything will be fine. They will continue to charge people between £ 4,000 and £ 10,000 to cross. “
Omar speaks fluent English and has a family in the United Kingdom, so it seemed the obvious place to come. He rejected the suggestion that because he was a young man, he should be classified as someone who was probably an economic migrant, not a refugee.
“People are betting their lives when they cross the English Channel, you are ready to sacrifice everything for the chance to live in a peaceful society in the United Kingdom. It wasn’t something I did for fun; I came to this country to save my life. “
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