Refugees who worked alongside international organisations in Afghanistan are among a rising number of Afghan asylum seekers in camps in northern France planning to cross the Channel in small boats.
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.
The asylum seekers said they knew they were unlikely to be eligible for resettlement through the UK’s formal programme for Afghan refugees, despite having worked for the Afghan army or with European-funded organisations, which was why they were prepared to take the risk of travelling by small boats to join family in the UK.
There was little evidence that the Rwanda relocation scheme was acting as a deterrent to those considering making their way by boat. Several expressed confusion over the UK’s proposals to remove asylum seekers who arrive by boat to Rwanda, and appeared convinced the scheme would not apply to people from Afghanistan or to those who had family in the UK.
Kafayat (who, like the other asylum seekers interviewed, asked for his full name not to be printed), a 31-year-old civil engineer from Jalalabad, was working on a European-funded project to build a leisure centre and park for women and children in Laghman province when the Taliban took control of the area 11 months ago.
He said he was held for three days by a group of Taliban militia and told he would be killed if he continued to work on the project. On his release, he decided to flee the country immediately, leaving his wife and four-year-old son behind.
“I’ve heard of the Rwanda scheme but they wouldn’t send me there, would they?” he asked this week, speaking at a food distribution point in Dunkirk, where about 300 asylum seekers, mostly from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, are staying in tents along a stretch of scrubland by the coast. He hopes to join relatives in Southhampton. “I worked with European organisations in Afghanistan for years. It was too dangerous to remain there,” he said.
Refugees asked why people fleeing Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Eritrea were receiving less favourable treatment than those fleeing conflict in Ukraine. Refugees from Ukraine are offered food and accommodation free of charge in a youth hostel in Calais, while asylum seekers from elsewhere sleep in tents on the outskirts of the city.
Abdulrab, a 24-year-old computer science graduate who was working as a computer engineer for the Afghan army when Kabul fell, also left the country immediately last August. A cousin had been arrested and killed by the Taliban and he felt it was too dangerous to remain. He and Kafayat had both been badly beaten by police in Bulgaria as they travelled from Afghanistan to France.
“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.”
Arifullah, 17, fled Afghanistan last August after his father, who had been trained by Nato forces and held a senior role in the Afghan army, was arrested. He has been travelling for the past 10 months and plans to cross the Channel by boat in the next few days to join relatives in the UK. “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,” he said. He was finding conditions in the Dunkirk camp – where there is no sanitation and no running water or electricity – very challenging but was trying to stay positive by thinking about the future. He said he hoped to study software engineering in the UK: “I want to be the next Elon Musk, or set up a company like Facebook or Amazon in the UK.”
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. Last year 1,323 Afghans crossed the Channel, accounting for one in 20 crossings.
Refugee charities said the rise was the inevitable consequence of the restrictive nature of the UK’s Afghan resettlement schemes, for which the vast majority of Afghans are ineligible.
A Home Office spokesperson said everyone who arrived in the UK by small boat or hidden in the back of a lorry would be considered for relocation to Rwanda. “The UK has made one of the largest commitments to support Afghan refugees of any country and will resettle up to 20,000 Afghan women, children and others at risk,” the spokesperson said.
“The rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. The Nationality and Borders Act will crack down on the evil people-smuggling gangs who are abusing our immigration laws, risking lives and hindering our ability to help people come through safe and legal routes.”
