Don’t forget us, plead Afghan refugees still stuck in hotels

Every afternoon when Nazir walks his children from school to the hotel where they have lived since last summer, they ask the same question: “When will we be getting a home?”

He has no idea how to answer. For the past seven months Nazir, 41, his wife and seven children have lived in limbo in a hotel in Newport Pagnell, near Milton Keynes.

They were evacuated from Kabul last August and are among some 11,500 Afghans still stuck in hotels waiting for their new lives in Britain to begin. As the political discussion moves on to refugees from Ukraine, they worry they will be forgotten.

Many families are expected to remain in hotels until at least December. The situation is so intractable that the Home Office plans to reclassify some hotels as long-term accommodation.

Nazir was an interpreter for the Royal Marines in Helmand for nearly three years, serving on the front line until 2012. He was also qualified as a civil engineer.

Like all those evacuated under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, Nazir has the right to work, but in reality it has been impossible.

He has applied for countless jobs, most recently at a supermarket and butcher in the town. But with no permanent address, his attempts have been fruitless.

“It’s a big issue. Employers say, ‘If we take you on and then a week later you leave, that doesn’t work.’”

The uncertainty is taking a toll. Many of the 150 Afghans in the hotel where Nazir and his family live are taking medication to cope.

“Everybody here is getting depressed,” Nazir said. “That’s a big challenge for us; it’s a long time to live in a hotel.”

Like the majority of those still waiting to be housed, Nazir’s is a large family, which means suitable homes are not easily found from available social housing.

However, those working closely with the response say local authorities are frustrated that when they do offer up properties, the Home Office is slow to match them with families. There is also concern the government has continued to allow councils to veto requests to accommodate refugee and asylum-seeking families, despite Home Office officials begging ministers to scrap this power at the start of the pandemic.

Nazir’s children, who are aged two to 17, are starting to put down roots and make friends at school in Newport Pagnell but the town is unlikely to end up being their permanent home. The Home Office is placing families wherever accommodation becomes available.

Nazir said it was hard to stay positive. “Though our children go to school and we’re given health facilities, a permanent home is the thing that brings you stability and rest. We don’t have that here in the hotel.”

Many families still waiting for permanent homes have seen their children miss out on lessons. Nazir’s children only started school in January and others around the country have only been enrolled in the last few weeks having been evacuated last August.

The delays have been so dire that volunteers quipped the Taliban was better at providing education.

One former judge who was rescued as part of an evacuation of female judges from Kabul organised by Baroness Kennedy is living in a west London hotel with her husband and her two children, aged seven and ten. They arrived in November and their children started school in January.

She said the children missed Afghanistan and their bikes and other toys left behind. She longs to be able to prepare home-cooked food and give them some normality.

“It’s hard staying in a hotel room with children,” she said. “For a family, having a home is a necessity.”

Once she has a permanent address she hopes to apply for a law conversion course so that she can work in Britain. Her husband who used to work in a government department in Kabul is also eager to work.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council said: “While attention is understandably focused on refugees from Ukraine, we must not forget the plight of Afghans. Too many Afghan families including many children have been left for too long living in limbo in basic hotel accommodation unable to get on with rebuilding their lives.

“The government has failed to not only ensure Afghans are quickly matched to available housing also to ensure all councils provide homes. Families must now be moved rapidly into their own homes and helped to access all the support they need to overcome all the challenges they have been through.”

Some Afghan families are now refusing houses - particularly in rural areas - because the delay has been so long that they are nervous to move hundreds of miles from the cities they have put down roots in for the last seven months.

Louise Calvey, head of services and safeguarding at Refugee Action, said: “I think the Home Office need to be more creative in their approach to accommodation. “Some of the Afghan refugees are really high-functioning professional people, they just want to be able to get on with things, for example just giving access to a deposit so they can rent a private flat where they want to be, that would work brilliantly for them. But we’re taking a one size fits all and with refugees that doesn’t work.”

Mansour Ahmadzai, 47, worked for the Afghan government as Director of Natural Resources before the Taliban takeover. He has been in a bridging hotel 40 minutes outside Leeds with his wife and two daughters, aged 9 and 16, since August and has been unable to get a job, partly because the hotel is so remote and there is very little transport.

Ahmadzai said his family were finding the stagnation hard. He cycles around the Yorkshire countryside near the hotel to try and stay positive.

“The past two months I have not seen anyone move from here,” he said. “Things have stopped, I think it’s because of the Ukraine war, the Afghans have been completely forgotten.

 “Of course it is stressful for us. It impacts on our lives and our future careers. We don’t know where we are going and what we are doing.”

The Home Office said: “The use of hotels to house those resettled from Afghanistan is a short-term solution and we are working with local authorities to find appropriate long-term accommodation for them.”