Afghan refugees deserve better than to be forced into homelessness

Editorial: The air force pilot we have singled out stands for thousands of other Afghans who endangered their lives when they served the British, and deserve far better treatment than they are currently receiving

The Afghan pilot and those like him should be given more time and more help to find accommodation (The Independent )

As so scandalously often happens, it takes distressing revelations about the plight of one individual to highlight far wider policy failings. But it beggars belief that the individual whose difficulties we report today is the very same Afghan pilot whose perilous quest to reach safety in the UK has already been charted by The Independent.

It turns out that the air force lieutenant, who arrived by small boat after inexplicably failing to qualify for the Afghan resettlement scheme (Arap), is among thousands of new refugees now facing eviction and potential homelessness, in part because of a government rule change. Where successful asylum seekers used to be given 28 days to leave their Home Office-paid accommodation, the starting point for those 28 days has now changed, leaving some with as little as a week to make alternative arrangements.

The effect is that what should be a time of joy and immense relief – the day someone learns that their asylum claim has been granted – turns sour almost at once. The success of their claim means that they must now find their own housing. So, the good news for the Afghan pilot is that he may stay in the UK, but the bad news is that he faces imminent eviction from his Home Office hotel and must find somewhere else to live.