This month marks one year since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. In a matter of days, everything changed.
While evacuations of people under the ARAP scheme had been ongoing for a couple of months already, this crisis required a global effort of mass evacuations. Many thousands of people had to immediately flee the country or go into hiding to stay alive.
Thousands of Afghans have since arrived in the UK. Many have been living in hotel rooms across the country, waiting for a more permanent home. Here are some of their stories.
Ahmad’s story
Ahmad* arrived in Scotland just three months ago. He originally applied to leave Afghanistan under the ARAP scheme in June 2021, as he worked for the British Embassy in the late 2000s, but it took until January 2022 for the relocation of him and his large family to be approved.
“I was worried if they find any documentation which proves that I worked with the British Embassy then they will definitely come and they will harm us, kill us, our family, you know. I was really worried, why the process is taking so long, because I was working as an interpreter, the most dangerous work I could have done! So I was concerned that they were taking too long, I applied for the relocation in June and they replied to me in January 2022, and that was momentous.”
They had to travel to Iran and apply for their visas there. Eventually, they were approved to come to the UK, where he and his large family have been spread across 3 hotel rooms in Fife.
“All of my family is with me. I can’t say it’s a good experience, if I had my own house that would be great, you know. But I’m having other problems. My wife’s mental health, she’s getting medicines and she’s alright with that but it’s not getting better when you’re staying in a hotel. I’m trying to ask the Home Office to give me a house as soon as possible. Also, some people’s behaviours, I don’t know what their problem is. Some of them, not all of them, not the hotel management or anyone, just 2 or 3 people… I’ve been here for 2 months, some people have been here one year, it’s a difficult situation.
“The housing process, it is just too slow, they have to speed up the process! Because everyone staying in hotels is getting sick now, mentally they are really poor.”
Despite his current situation, Ahmad is hopeful for the future.
“We are hoping for a bright future, because now our children can study with freedom, we ourselves can study if we want to, we can work openly now. I had my own business back in Afghanistan. When we get the house I think we will have a bright future, we can start our own business, higher education, everything is available here for everyone, and that’s perfect, that’s really good.”
Kochi’s story
Kochi* and his brother ran a sports promotions company in Afghanistan for five years, until everything changed overnight and they had to go into hiding.
“So everything just went down immediately. And I guess nobody was prepared for that kind of situation. So a sudden collapse of that magnitude just left us scratching our heads and to begin with fending for our own lives. I had three immediate family, my brother, my sister and myself, apart from uncles and aunts and cousins and everybody else, so I had to leave my house 24 hours before the Taliban made their way into Kabul and move to my brother’s place where we just took guard. We basically covered the entire house in whatever we had and took guard protecting the family, thinking this is it this is it we are going to die, we will go out defending our families. But the good thing was that for the first few days nobody came to the street that we used to live in.”
“Personally with us, me and my brother and my entire family were in the media and probably one of the few most well-known individuals out there so we never knew whether they were coming for us or whether we were on a list, so that confusion also created a lot of anxiety and to a certain extent depression, it was a living hell basically.”
Prior to the Taliban’s takeover, Kochi and his brother had been making plans to move out of Afghanistan, to Pakistan or Uzbekistan, but when the Taliban took over they were unable to apply for passports for their family.
“The queues that we had just trying to take out like a hundred dollars from the bank accounts were a chaotic sight to behold, for miles and miles you’d have people standing in queues to take money out of the bank. So I was just about to leave the country anyway but that immediate collapse then forced us to stay back. I couldn’t get my family the passports that they required because the Taliban had come to power, and they weren’t issuing passports to everybody. It took us almost 9 months to get passports and get ourselves to Pakistan. And then from there onwards we came to the UK, Scotland.”
“It was a peaceful relief, coming to Scotland, it’s a beautiful country, beautiful people. We’re still being welcomed very warmly here by the people.”
Kochi’s experience in a hotel has been generally positive, although he knows that this hasn’t been the case for everyone. He feels that more could be done to help Afghans integrate into the UK.
“A bit more could have been done in terms of integrating individuals academically. As soon as they come to Scotland or the UK there are no organised academic programmes for them to go to school, to learn English, maybe apply for college or something. I know that on a more individual basis the Council is there assisting us and they’ve been doing a really good job, nothing to complain about there, but I personally believe that most of the Afghans who are going to be picked up or are still to come to the UK, 90% of them wouldn’t speak the language as it is required for them to either go work or open up a bank account or understand the Universal Credit system or understand the financial structure of this country.”
Kochi hopes to build on his work in Afghanistan, and perhaps bring it to Scotland.
“I’ve done a bit of passive research here in the couple months I’ve been here and hopefully I’ll start making use of the foundations I have, and maybe in 6 months time I get a promoters license and set up an event or two depending on what media outlets we get interested in or what kind of endorsements we get from sponsors. If that happens, we go with that, if not then in 6 months time I’ll be looking for a job somewhere. But I’ll be pushing myself to do what I left half-baked in Afghanistan.”
Bilal’s story
Bilal* was studying his Masters in Germany when the Taliban took over in his home country. In the past, he worked for the British Council, so the British Embassy offered him the chance to relocate to the UK.
“I was not there but when I heard of course I was following all the news because in 15/20 days the government is losing all its provinces. It’s a bad experience and I was watching the media, I was suffering from anxiety, I had many bad moments, and there was stress of studies, of family, of losing completely your country while being a student in a foreign country.”
He has been living in a hotel room in Scotland with his wife for around eight months.
“I think that we were the first guests in the hotel, all people who had worked with British forces, armies and organisations. There were some problems especially with the food, it was totally opposite from our typical food so that’s why they hired me, they wanted an Afghan cook. They asked me if they want to work with us so I accepted. In the beginning there were problems but we are waiting for our permanent home now, some families have already left the hotel, they got their houses, some are still waiting, everything is in progress. We look forward to getting our residence. We already got our BRP. Everything is fine.”
Bilal and his wife have been offered a house and hope to move out of the hotel in the next few months. He hopes to be able to continue his studies and find work that is more suited to his experience, and hopes too that stability will come to his home country again.
“All the Afghans are homeless so hopefully good things come again for our country and a stable government so we can come again to our country. But Scotland is also our country so we are feeling happy, we have rights and are working, so are treated normally. For me personally, I’m looking to complete my education, start working, making a good life, just start a normal life. Hopefully I can get that.”
Bilal is hopeful for his future, but he still has many friends and family still stuck in Afghanistan.
“I’m still wondering from UK government, some of our family are still ineligible so are still stuck in Afghanistan. For me, my mother, my mother in law and my three sisters. They have no-one, no male member of the family to look after them in this situation, they are dependent on me physically as well as financially. I’m happy that I can still support them from here but they still need physical support. They have applied. There are some more, my colleagues, they are still in Afghanistan, have not heard back, have not had approvals or documents are missing, they are still looking for relocation because the situation is getting worse. I hope the UK do their best to hopefully get our family members and people who are eligible out of Afghanistan.”
Sweeta’s story
Back in Afghanistan, Sweeta was a human rights defender with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, monitoring human rights in particular for women and girls in Afghanistan. Her husband was a lawyer with an organisation supporting Afghan women. When the Taliban took over, they had to flee immediately.
“When the Taliban took over it was hard for us to stay there. They would not have accepted us staying there and working as we were before. Our organisations helped us to get out of the situation, to get out of the country for our own safety.”
“When we were evacuated it was an emergency situation because my husband’s life was in danger. If we did not leave Afghanistan quickly there was the threat of dying, so we were taken to Denmark as an emergency around August last year. After that we were brought to Scotland.”
“It’s very hard to leave everything behind and start over life from zero. It is a hard feeling to leave your country and everything behind.”
They were initially evacuated to Denmark, before the British Embassy brought them to the UK.
“In February 2022 I got to the UK. After quarantine we were sent to Scotland. We were in a hotel in Fife for 6 months. We are very happy, the people here are so kind and very supportive in every process and everything they’ve been really supportive and helpful. Whatever we’ve needed over the 6 months they’ve been there for us.
“In the hotel whenever I speak to the ladies they are very happy with the services from the government, they are able to study, their kids are able to go to schools, they even get support with money. The only problem that I’ve heard from the ladies is about getting accommodation is time consuming, it takes so long to get into their own accommodation which means it takes longer for them to get to their goals and get settled the way they want.”
Sweeta and her husband have recently moved into their own accommodation in Middlesborough. She says that it can be tough, moving forward while worrying about everyone back in Afghanistan.
“Many people have relatives, young daughters, brothers, fathers, family members who are in very hard situations back home, they get threats every day and life is miserable for them. So that is affecting their mental health here, they are suffering even though they have all the luxuries or safe lives here but they won’t be happy here because internally they are sad for them and they can’t concentrate on their lives here. It’s hard for them because they know there is someone stuck – a relative or someone who is in danger every day.”
Sweeta is keen to continue her work defending the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, and to advocate for others who have recently arrived in the UK.
“I’m very hopeful despite all these hardships that I’ve been through, I won’t give up, it won’t defeat us, it will not make us hopeless. I’ve worked high up in organisations, I’ve had high achievements, I was very glad that I was working with women and helping women.
“Now that I’m here I’m trying to help people that are coming from Afghanistan, I am trying to work for them and people that are in the same situation that I’m in right now. I will help them in future. I would like to be an individual who will be supportive and do something for my society in future.”
*Names changed to protect identities and for the safety of their friends and families still in Afghanistan.
