Afghan refugees given deadlines to move out of hotels or 'face eviction' says Yorkshire MP

Veterans minister Johnny Mercer, announced in the Commons yesterday that around 8,000 refugees from the Taliban-controlled country will be given three months’ notice to leave hotels. Mr Mercer said £35m would be provided to local authorities to help them support Afghan households to move into settled accommodation. Those who turn down an alternative offer of accommodation would not receive a second offer, he added.

John Healey, shadow defence secretary and MP for Wentworth and Dearne accused the government of giving Afghans the ‘cold shoulder’.

He told the House of Commons: “This nation… promised those who put their lives at risk so serve alongside our Armed Forces in Afghanistan, that we would relocate them, that we would settle them, we would give their families safety, we would help them rebuild their lives. “[The minister] has confirmed he is giving them the cold shoulder.

“He’s serving eviction notices on 8,000 Afghans, half of whom are children, with no guarantee they’ll be offered a suitable, settled place to live. The government website confirms that at the end of last month, the number of Afghan households who had refused accommodation offers was just 258. They want homes, not hotels. They want to rebuild their lives. They want to contribute to this country.

“The government has failed the brave Afghans who supported our troops before the fall of Afghanistan, and it has failed them since.”

Alexander Stafford, MP for Rother Valley, said in the House of Commons that the government should focus on ‘safe and legal routes’ into the country.

He told a debate about stopping small boat crossings in the Channel: “Everyone wants children to be safe: nobody wants a child to be living in a hotel; and, fundamentally, nobody wants a child to make a very dangerous crossing in a small boat.

“The safest place for a child is not to make that crossing. There are safe and legal routes, which we should try to focus on, rather than encouraging people smugglers to take children on the channel.”