Afghan refugees ‘don’t want to move to Wales because it’s too cold and they believe English isn’t spoken there’
Home Office sources have briefed the press that they are struggling to convince Afghan refugees to move to Wales because the refugees believe it is too cold and that people there don’t speak English.
The sources’ claims were to the Telegraph and PA Media.
A number of refugees had initially been reluctant to move to places such as Wales and Scotland because they believed English is not spoken there or it is too cold, Home Office sources told the news outlets.
Officials said they were working closely with families to encourage them to accept offers of accommodation and clear up any misconceptions.
Refugees from Afghanistan are still being housed in hotels at a cost of £1 million a day in the run-up to the first anniversary of the Taliban takeover.
Around 9,500 refugees are still living in hotels, one year on from the Taliban seizing power on August 15 last year.
Some 70 hotels are understood to still be in use at a daily cost of £1 million.
This is slightly down from 84 hotels which were previously being used, and it is understood officials are constantly looking at ways to drive down the cost.
In February, the Home Affairs Committee heard that the Government was spending £4.7 million a day housing asylum seekers in hotels, of which £1.2 million was being spent specifically on Afghan refugees.
Around 7,000 Afghanistan evacuees are said to have been moved into settled accommodation since arriving in the country.
Officials recognise that living in hotels for months is not the best situation for families, and are working to move them on to settled accommodation as quickly as possible.
Update
Some 350 councils are understood to have pledged their support in housing refugees across the UK.
But it is said to be complex in terms of matching families with appropriate homes according to the size of the family, its needs and specific vulnerabilities, on top of wider, pre-existing pressures on the housing system.
In June, refugees minister Lord Richard Harrington wrote to councils saying he was determined to move refugees from Afghanistan out of hotel accommodation, and appealing for further help.
But he said that, as of the week commencing June 13, there were fewer than 100 properties available to match families with.
Lord Harrington said most of those in hotels were larger families and therefore needed properties with at least four bedrooms.
He said his department was reaching out to landlords, property developers, the wider private rented sector, including Rightmove, and educational establishments over properties which could be converted, to encourage further offers of homes.
Ahead of the one-year anniversary next Monday, officials have not provided a total for the number of people who have arrived in the UK from Afghanistan.
Instead, an update is due to be published within quarterly immigration statistics at the end of the month.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
The average altitude of Afghanistan is above 11,000 feet, over three times higher than Snowdon. Large chunks of the place get up to 25,000 feet with permanent snow and glaciers. Not even Bedlinog has glaciers.
Sadly many of the Afghan refugees like so many from other countries are looking to become “little Brits”. So anything that doesn’t fit their perception of the urbanised Anglo American “dream” is likely to come lower in their preferences. Yet those refugees that do come to Wales are very glad they ended up here.
Home Office and The Telegraph? Hardly friends to refugees or Wales.
However, I can believe that there are a handful who do think like this. I’m glad they can so quickly forget what they were fleeing, and in no way am suggesting they’re at bottom of the list or anything, but ultimately being a refugee is about seeking safety and support rather than ideal lifestyle. But I am hesitant to be too judgmental on basis that Home Office and Telegraph are the sources.
I don’t believe a word of that, the sources are known for telling porkies…
Apparently many of the immigrant communities want to live among their own kind, and its perfectly understandable. They don’t wish to full integrate, and fear there will be less of their ethnicity here in Wales, or in Scotland. Observant of them, as very true.
I suspect ‘Wales’ will now have to counter this, but assuring asylum seekers that the weather is fine, and that we are fully multicultural, just like London, Birmingham, Bradford, Leicester, Slough etc. Public virtue signaling from the very heights of Welsh political power. (i.e. Drakeford’s garden shed).
Fine. They don’t want to come, I’m sure the famous English love of refugees will make them feel at home in flatland.
That’s the thing innit? Flatlanders would LOVE to dump their refugees in Cymru, but they can’t bring themselves to talk about us in any terms that are not critical, derogatory or downright hateful.
Oh dear. What a pity. Never mind. I’m sure the famously welcoming KIPpers of Kent(sic) will be pleased to have them.
It soon won’t be
It was reported recently, via a leaked military intelligence report, that 40% of asylum seekers coming into the UK are actually from Albania. That’s the same Albania that is a NATO member and hasn’t seen conflict since its civil war a quarter of a century ago. Once they arrive in Wales, said the same source, these people then set up Barber’s shops and car wash businesses. Everyone needs to get their beard trimmed once a month at least, unless you’re a lady of course or a youngster. Women and men both need their cars cleaned, preferably cheaply. Great addition to… Read more »
You seem quite informed on the matter. Maybe you should run with it yourself.