An Afghan woman refugee needs your help

I recently met a young Afghan woman called Shazia who previously worked as an interpreter for a General in the British army in Afghanistan and was evacuated to the UK just after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. It was because of her job as an interpreter that she was granted a British Residency Permit (BRP). The UK’s record on refugees is shameful but at least it has shown some sense of responsibility to a few of those who risked their lives working for the British abroad.

Shazia studied at the American university of Afghanistan (considered ‘infidel’ by the Taliban). She is 23 years old and is earning a pittance working shifts on reception in a hotel. She has been using her meagre earnings not only to support herself but also her mother and grandmother who have fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan. Her father, uncle and grandfather, all of whom were in the military, and had worked in the Ministry of Defence under Ashraf Ghani, were shot in targeted assassinations and car bombings by the Taliban in 2019. Her mother is a women’s rights activist, and was principal of a government high school, and is therefore also a potential target of the Taliban.

Her mother and grandmother managed to get evacuated to Pakistan earlier this year; but they left in a hurry without documents which means that they have no legal status; they can’t work and they can’t leave the house. They are at risk of eviction if they don’t pay the rent, and they are also fearful of the Pakistani police, who would either arrest them or extort money not to arrest them. Her grandmother is now ill, but they cannot afford to get the medical help they need.

Shazia is doing all she can to support them but it is not enough.

Refugees from Syria and Afghanistan continue to languish without the kind of care and welcome that has been rightly extended to Ukrainian refugees. Given the devastating consequences of the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan on the lives of women and girls, we need to do all we can to support them.

I have done what I can to help Shazia with some existing bills, i.e. towards the outstanding rent which her mother needs to pay to avoid eviction but I simply don’t have the resources to help with medical fees and ongoing costs. We hope this support will only be needed for a couple of months as her mother has started the process of getting visas to come to the UK; Shazia is cautiously optimistic that if they can survive the summer, she may be reunited with them in the autumn.

That’s why I decided to set up a fundraising page, to see if I could raise a total of £3,000 to get them through this crisis, and to give her some peace of mind. I am worried about her state of mind, alone here in London. Her family is depending on her as a life line for their survival, and this pressure and anxiety is taking its toll on her mental and physical wellbeing.

Please donate as little or as much as you can afford. Shazia is only one of many individuals in these circumstances, but if we can do no more than this, we can at least change her story.