Afghans being forced to resort to desperate measures to escape to the UK, veterans minister reveals
AFGHANS are resorting to desperate measures to try and escape to the UK, a minister has revealed.
Johnny Mercer said he still receives calls for help ahead of the two year anniversary of the west’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Veterans’ Affairs Minister told the Sun on Sunday: “I had a letter overnight from an Afghan with a picture of his daughter saying he was going to sell his daughter today if I didn’t get him out of Afghanistan.
“And I’m sat there with my own three daughters having lunch. It’s horrific and it remains a human catastrophe what has happened in that country.”
Harrowing reports have emerged from the country including parents selling their children and organs to feed starving families.
Mr Mercer admitted some people who helped the British had been left behind after the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
He said he wanted to see a “clear and professional pathway” to get those people out and into settled accommodation in the UK.
The UK government is set to close the final 15 hotels still housing Afghan refugees next week.
Mr Mercer insisted they had been “super generous” and it was “unfair” to keep Afghan refugees in hotels any longer.
More than 24,000 relocated to the UK after the Taliban seized Kabul two years ago.
Around 8,000 Afghans living in hotels at a cost of £1 million a day were served with a three month notice at the end of May. Around 2,000 were still in hotels this weekend, with properties in the pipeline.
Critics including Labour’s shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock claimed Afghans were being “thrown out onto the street”.
But Mr Mercer, who served in Afghanistan, hit back accusing Kinnock of “just standing on the side lines and throwing rocks”.
He went on: “There’s nothing compassionate about those who’ve criticised me, or the scheme, who would end up leaving these people in hotels for years and years.”
The vast majority of Afghan heroes and their families have been offered settled accommodation before the hotels close.
It is understood a small minority have presented as homeless after rejecting offers of properties because they wanted to stay in expensive areas like London where there is no accommodation.
Official Home Office figures this week revealed Afghans made up the most common nationality of people who made the perilous small boat crossing in the first half of this year.
Mr Mercer added: “The truth is France is a safe country and if they are entitled to be relocated to the UK under the [Afghan relocation] scheme they can apply from a third country.
“I’m afraid I feel very strongly against those who are taking this journey and risking their family’s lives.”