Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees, co-founded by KLS in 2016, has finally become its own registered charity. We’re delighted and still very supportive of what they are trying to achieve. We look forward to continuing working closely together.
We just received their monthly e-news and saw this piece about the one year anniversary of the fall of Afghanistan, that we thought it would be useful to reproduced here. This does ring true with what our Afghan members and partner refugee organisations are telling us too.
“This month marks one year since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Despite the “warm welcome” repeatedly promised by the Government, nearly 10,000 Afghan refugees in the UK remain in limbo in unsuitable hotel accommodation. This podcast, produced by Sky News, charts the journey of one such family, from their traumatic escape from Kabul to the difficulties they’ve faced since arriving in the UK. It’s well worth a listen.
A further 23,000 people – many of them at severe risk – still haven’t heard back about their application, while others, like this female Afghan judge whose family has been actively targeted, have had their applications rejected. We can, and must, do more.
This excellent update from the BBC’s Lyse Doucet provides a lucid and frank snapshot of the current situation on the ground.”
And…
“In its support for Ukrainian refugees, the Government has once again found itself on the backfoot. With the Office for National Statistics estimating that around a quarter of sponsors, or, in other words, 6,000 hosts, will no longer either be able, or want, to host a refugee beyond the initial six-month phase, roughly 19,000 individuals could be left without a home early next month. More here.”
And finally….
“An excellent breakdown exposing the discrepancy between the Home Office’s narrative on refugees and the reality, backed up by hard statistics, of who is actually arriving in the UK and from where. All in all, a damning indictment of a system which Kenan Malik concludes is designed to be glacially slow.”
Volunteer with us
If you would like to get involved with our work supporting refugee communities then do get in touch with us here.