Refugees asked why people fleeing Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Eritrea were receiving less favourable treatment than those fleeing conflict in Ukraine.
“They say everyone is human, but when it comes to refugees, some are treated much better than others,” he said. He hopes to join relatives in Britain. “The UK is offering online visas to refugees from Ukraine but we have to take a more dangerous route. There’s a risk that we could die crossing the Channel but I left Afghanistan to stay alive.”
“It was a very bad situation for our family, so my mother told me to leave,” he said, speaking fluent English. He was dismayed that as a minor, travelling alone, he had not been given more support, although throughout Europe he had encountered Ukrainian refugees his age being offered school places and foster care...At a train station in Belgium there was a sign saying ‘We welcome refugees from Ukraine!’ It should have said that all refugees are welcome. No one seems to care about Afghan refugees,”
The number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan crossing the Channel in small boats has risen fivefold this year, according to immigration figures released last week, as more refugees flee in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Immigration data released last week showed that in the first quarter of this year, 1,094 people from Afghanistan crossed the Channel to claim asylum in the UK, about one in four of the 4,540 people who made the journey, and representing the largest nationality group.
Afghans with western links among rising number trying to cross Channel | Refugees | The Guardian
No comments:
Post a Comment