UK: Afghan Women Evacuees in Limbo & More News Here

(London) – The uncertainty and crowding in momentary housing is inflicting rising tensions for Afghan evacuees in the United Kingdom, particularly ladies.

Eight months after emergency evacuations from Afghanistan, many Afghan evacuees to the UK are nonetheless in momentary housing, often resort rooms. Human Rights Watch interviewed 5 ladies who’ve lived in three momentary housing areas in London since late August 2021. They described a heightened danger of home violence, surveillance, and constraints on their freedom of motion in momentary housing populated totally by Afghan refugees.

“The Afghan women interviewed were all grateful for being evacuated,” mentioned Sahar Fetrat, assistant ladies’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But they have dealt with a huge amount of trauma before and during their flight from Afghanistan, and now they are dealing with conditions that are affecting their mental health and keeping them from integrating into the community.”

Human Rights Watch wrote to the house secretary, the minister for refugees, and different related UK authorities in April 2022 to boost our issues and inquire in regards to the authorities’s plans to treatment the issues. At the time of publication, the federal government has not responded.

The UK evacuated about 18,000 folks together with greater than 6,000 British nationals after the Taliban took management of Afghanistan in August and housed them in momentary lodging whereas in search of extra everlasting housing for them. The Guardian reported that about 12,000 folks stay in momentary housing, with many households dwelling in one room.

The UK Home Office ought to step up the tempo of offering extra long-term housing and help companies for Afghan refugees, Human Rights Watch mentioned.

“A hotel room is always a hotel room; it’s never home,” one girl mentioned. Another expressed frustration with the gradual housing course of, saying, “A hotel in London is brilliant for a short time, not for seven months. We have lost a sense of routine, personal space, home, and freedom to manage our lives independently.”

The ladies informed Human Rights Watch that on account of lack of private area in their momentary lodging, emotions of misery and strain from the evacuated group members in the housing, and aggression and home violence in opposition to ladies have elevated. “A woman was battered by her husband in our hotel, when she tried to report it, the community in the hotel stopped her by intimidating her over the consequences,” one girl mentioned.

Another girl mentioned that “Several times, I have heard a couple fighting next door. The husband shouts and leaves, slamming the door, and the wife cries loudly. She has spent seven months in a hotel room and hasn’t seen anything but the hotel premises.”

Traditional gender roles, and lack of cash and social help imply that most of the ladies say they really feel trapped in their rooms. “For married women like me, we must stay in hotel rooms looking after our children and watching our husbands going out freely and making friends outside,” one girl mentioned. She mentioned she wish to attend a language course however has nobody to take care of her kids.

Another girl mentioned, “For most married women, there is no activity, and most husbands don’t let their wives to go out; these women are going crazy.” In Afghanistan a few of these ladies would even have had restricted freedom of motion however would have had extra privateness and their very own area.

Evacuees obtain a month-to-month profit from the UK Home Office of £250 to £280. But the ladies interviewed mentioned that many males take all of the stipends for the household. “Women are given bank cards, but the husband keeps the pin codes,” one girl mentioned. “Most of these women are uneducated or unfamiliar with such systems, and they have no control over their own money.” 

The ladies mentioned that Afghans from totally different components of the nation are thrown collectively in momentary housing, though they’re from different ethnic and linguistic teams and a number of religions and have broadly various views on social norms. The consequence, they mentioned, is usually strain on the ladies to adapt to norms they’d have resisted even in Afghanistan, at a time after they had hoped to be integrating into their new UK communities.

Women from much less conventional backgrounds face microaggressions and sexist feedback from some males. “One day I went running in my sports outfit,” one girl mentioned. “When I returned to the hotel, a man standing in the hotel lobby checked me out from head to toe and said, ‘I see you have integrated too soon, haven’t you?’”

She mentioned that younger single ladies face even harsher judgments: “The environment is getting more toxic and intolerable day by day. Once, somebody directly said that I am a prostitute and I promote prostitution among women. Men tell their wives to avoid talking to women like me.” She mentioned this additionally cuts the wives off from feminine buddies who might assist them find out about UK tradition and life.  

Four of the ladies interviewed mentioned that they had been evacuated as a result of that they had labored exterior the house, in some instances in outstanding jobs. The fifth girl works in the house and was evacuated on account of her husband’s function in the earlier authorities.

“I am very grateful to the UK government,” one of many ladies mentioned. “But the sense of constantly being watched for every action I take, everywhere I go out and every time I come back, getting judged for not wearing a hijab is restricting me as a person. It is tiresome.”

Another girl mentioned, “While I feel fortunate to be evacuated, I cannot deny how shocking the evacuations process was. We were robbed of our home and the future we had imagined for ourselves, and in the hotel, I constantly feel judged for my choice of clothing, not only by the Afghan community but hotel’s staff too.” She mentioned most of the Afghans in the resort deal with her with disapproval as a result of she doesn’t match conventional expectations of Afghan ladies. “We were dumped in hotels together without any plans by the officials to get our housing sorted in any near future.”   

The ladies interviewed described extreme psychological well being penalties from their experiences in Afghanistan and the persevering with tensions they face. One mentioned that the Home Office has supplied some psychological well being help however that “Our people need to be educated on the importance of counseling and therapy first. I see a lack of proper effort and communication from both sides, especially from the officials’ side.” 

The Home Office, with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities working carefully with native authorities, ought to urgently expedite shifting evacuees into everlasting housing that meets requirements for housing circumstances and area, taking the entire household’s wants and preferences into consideration, Human Rights Watch mentioned. Officials ought to be certain that lodging are in a location the place residents have entry to group sources together with parks, playgrounds, kids’s facilities, well being services, and social companies.

While households stay in momentary housing, the wants and desire of ladies ought to be taken into consideration with particular consideration to issues that single ladies or women-headed households could face. The authorities ought to have clear and efficient insurance policies to take care of home violence in momentary housing, together with posted and outreach supplies in Afghan languages. Staff in these services ought to be educated to acknowledge and reply to gender-based violence, ought to be made conscious of and delicate to the residents’ various backgrounds, and will deal with all residents with respect.

The authorities ought to present common outreach to folks in each momentary and everlasting housing by culturally and linguistically competent social service staff and hyperlink folks with companies for folks experiencing home or gender-based violence as wanted.

The authorities must also guarantee that ladies have entry to their very own funds and advise male members of the family that they can not take feminine members of the family’ advantages. The authorities ought to present childcare so that ladies can attend language courses, together with for girls nonetheless in momentary housing. The authorities must also present higher entry to psychological well being help and knowledge to evacuees about its significance.

“The women I spoke with are resilient and eager to move ahead in beginning new lives in the UK,” Fetrat mentioned. “But they feel stuck right now, in environments that are often dangerous for women. They need more support from the UK government to rebuild their and their families’ lives.”

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