Afghan refugees have been asked by the Home Office to leave Manchester at the end of August - and many now fear an uncertain future.
Khalid Mohammed, a 42-year-old man, fled Afghanistan when the Taliban regained power. As a father-of-two he knew conditions under the highly repressive regime would soon become intolerable.
"I knew I had to leave," said the 42-year-old. “I have a wife and two daughters, all of whom are highly educated individuals who would not be able to continue life as they did under the Taliban.”
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Khalid and his family came to the UK through the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, seeking asylum legally through the UK’s channels. They eventually found their way to Manchester, where they were put up in a hotel with dozens of other refugees.
But now they face yet more uncertainty. In March, the Home Office announced that all Afghan refugees will be asked to leave their hotels by the end of August.
According to Manchester City Council, there are currently 740 Afghan refugees living in Manchester hotels. That figure includes 115 families and 52 individuals. But by August 23 they will be evicted and forced to find a new home.
The ruling comes after veteran's minister, Johnny Mercer, said that it costs £1m a day to house 8,000 Afghan refugees across the country. Mr Mercer believes it’s unsustainable to continue with this form of accommodation.
The Minister also added that the refugees will not be offered a second option after the first accommodation offer is provided to the refugees.
The Home Office said previously the hotels were only a temporary option. But, according to volunteers at Care4Calais, nationally very few refugees have been offered a house in the past two years.
Khalid said there's a lot of confusion and anxiety about what the future now holds. He explained: “I read the news originally on March 29, but no one told me what was going to happen next. None of the authorities at the hotel even agreed that this was happening, that my family would be kicked out soon.
“Most people in the hotel do not know how to speak English and aren’t given any classes to learn it. So, no one could read the news articles that said that we were going to be asked to leave.”
He says Manchester council have been trying to help, but he doesn’t feel like it's enough.
Khalid said that the council is currently only showing him houses in the south of Manchester. The council currently cannot buy houses in North Manchester, due to a moratorium in place, as requested by the MP of Blakely and Broughton, in M8, M9 and M40 postcodes. However, the Home Office and the council are planning on lifting this moratorium.
Khalid says that he wants to move into full-time housing but is concerned about the cost of some of the homes - refugees would be expected to rent the properties through the council. Instead he said: “I have heard that there are cheaper houses in Stockport and Oldham, but I haven’t been shown them yet.”
Khalid’s friend Nassir Ahmed used to work as a driver on the outskirts of Kabul. He now lives alone in the same South Manchester hotel. Nassir said he was recently taken to a town outside Manchester by officials and shown possible options for new accommodation.
“They never gave me the name of the town they took me to," Nassir said. "They just showed me around houses and mosques to say that I could possibly live here instead of in Manchester.”
Manchester council has refuted this claim and say that Nassir will have been told the name of the town he was taken to, the MEN understands.
But, Nassir and Khalid are both reluctant to move away from Manchester, a feeling they say is shared among many of the refugees.
“The feeling in the camp is that in Manchester we are safe,” Khalid said. “If we go to Curry Mile, we see people we can talk to in languages we can walk to them in. It’s our home, away from home.”
Nassir says he fears becoming the victim of racist violence. In 2021 he says he lived in a hotel that was attacked by far-right groups. “I had to change rooms twice because the far-right broke in and damaged my room completely," he said.
“They broke the light switch, the bulbs, the windows and more,” he adds. “I was outside of Manchester when that happened. I fear this repeating itself and having to face racism again.”
Manchester council have been given £250m in Local Authority Housing Fund to refurnish and buy houses to give provide refugee families with sustainable house, and a £35m package to support those affected by these evictions.
A spokesperson for Care4Calais, who have regularly helped house refugees, said: “Whilst a small number of families have received offers of housing, the overwhelming majority have not. Families have been desperately looking for their own accommodation but are being rejected by private landlords. It is causing a great deal of anxiety.”
The charity fears many refugees might 'end up homeless as changes in the support package will take at least a year before proving beneficial in providing housing'. However, it is understood Manchester City Council would make contingency plans to prevent the risk of anyone becoming homelss after the hotel deadline comes up.
A council spokesperson said: "Manchester has always provided a warm welcome to people from overseas who have come to our city to escape persecution and build a better and safer life for themselves.
"We are working intensively with Afghan refugees in bridging hotels here to help them find settled accommodation which they can afford in the private rented sector, and to help them find employment. Many have already moved on to live across the North West, North East and other parts of the country."
A government spokesperson: “We have announced substantial extra support to help Afghans into settled accommodation, putting an end to the insecurity that comes with living in hotels.
“Families will be given at least three months’ notice and we will do all we can to support them into accommodation before the notice period ends, including having dedicated staff based in hotels, so they can get the advice they need, including on how to rent, support to find jobs and access to English language training.”
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