The painful limbo of refugees in the UK shames our country

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Afghan refugees wait to be processed after arriving on an evacuation flight from Afghanistan, at Heathrow airport in August 2021 (AFP/Getty)

The story of Tamana Safi seems like so many others that The Independent has highlighted in recent years, of refugees stuck in temporary accommodation and living on impossibly meagre government subsistence.

Others with no evidence of malign intent are even confined in detention centres, their cases in apparent indefinite limbo. Many refugees are unable to work for months, although eager to pay their way and to contribute to our society.

What on earth is going on in the Home Office, that it can take years to sort out most of these cases? Surely Home Office officials should show greater emotional intelligence and a less bureaucratic mindset in their assessments? It is the same mentality that has allowed the Windrush saga to be so painfully prolonged.