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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor

Hotels occupied by resettled Afghans being cleared for small boat arrivals

Members of the UK armed forces taking part in the evacuation of entitled personnel from Kabul airport in Afghanistan in 2021.
About 8,000 Afghans were invited to the UK under Operation Pitting, a British military operation to evacuate British nationals and eligible Afghans from Afghanistan following the 2021 Taliban offensive. Photograph: LPhot Ben Shread/MoD/Crown Copyright/PA

Hotel rooms occupied by Afghan interpreters and soldiers who served with the British army are being cleared to house people who came across the Channel in small boats, the Guardian has learned.

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has sent letters threatening to remove Afghans from hotels across the UK next month. But the Guardian has been told that many of those rooms will still be paid for by the UK taxpayer and are part of a 5,000-bed “buffer” for any surge in the number of people arriving by small boats this summer and autumn.

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