Afghan refugees trapped in limbo

Last August 100 Afghan refugees were brought to a ‘bridging’ hotel near Junction 16 of the M4.

They were among thousands who had worked closely with the British mission in their country and who were promised British citizenship by the Prime Minister as the UK and US pulled out of Afghanistan.

They would have faced certain imprisonment and possibly execution by the Taliban for ‘collaboration’ if they had not been lifted to safety.

By Christmas 2021 none of them had been resettled into communities but there were assurances that they soon would be.

My MP James Gray, got hold of the latest figures for me and as of last week 87 of the 100 are still stuck in this ‘bridging’ hotel.

The Home Office launched a resettlement programme nine months ago. They called it (I kid you not) Operation Warm Welcome.

At the current rate of resettling Afghan refugees it will be late 2026 before the last ones are properly housed.

We have a moral obligation to these Afghan refugees. They are grateful to be safe but want now a chance to build a new life in our country, and to seek work.

They cannot begin to do this in their current state of limbo, trapped in a motorway hotel.

John Boaler

Woodland Park

Calne

Wiltshire

Chauvinistic view of women's rights

I have given up writing to my MP Danny Kruger, since he seldom bothers to reply, and his slavish devotion to the Prime Minister and conviction that he is always right means that he has no interest in constituents’ views unless they coincide with his own.

However, I feel that, as a constituent, I must speak out against his appallingly ignorant and chauvinistic views about the rights of women.

The idea that the US Supreme Court’s decision on Roe/Wade is a purely technical constitutional matter of respecting democracy would be laughable if its results were not going to be so tragic for millions of women.

Anyone can see that it is part of a political Trump-driven attempt to impose the extreme views of a religious minority on what we all thought was the land of the free.

The refusal of the British government to enshrine the right to abortion in its proposed Bill of Rights is a worrying sign of how things may turn out here.

James Dickie

Easton Royal

Pewsey

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