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Manchester has already accommodated over 1,000 refugees fleeing Afghanistan
Manchester has been welcoming refugees for weeks now
Over 1,000 refugees fleeing Afghanistan have already been housed in hotels here in Manchester, new figures are suggesting today.
It is believed that at present, capacity in the three hotels being used in Manchester is full and the government is now seeking to place people in other parts of the country.
The hotels being used have not been disclosed by the government.
Several weeks before the Taliban seized total control of the country, Manchester’s town hall had already been working with the Home Office and Foreign Office to place people fleeing to safety in initial quarantine.
This comes after Mancunians were thanked by local refugee charity, Care 4 Calais, who have seen an influx of donations delivered throughout the week from people across the city at one of their numerous drop-off points, one of which is at Beetham Tower down Deansgate.
A huge sum of money has also been donated, with the charity surpassing their initial £30,000 target for the ‘Afghan Welcome Packs’ with £40,000 in donations.
Founder Clare Moseley, who set up the charity in 2015, said on the efforts: “It’s just been fantastic.
“I’m a Northerner myself and we’re really proud of Manchester for responding in this way. We’ve had numerous locations accepting donations for us and I believe they are pretty full. We have had people bringing car loads and van loads of stuff.”
Following the Taliban’s take over of the country earlier this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that over 20,000 Afghans will be eligible to be resettled in Britain across the next five years, with women and girls given priority status.
The first evacuation flight from the war-torn country arrived in the UK on Sunday, with the second touching down late on Tuesday night, and another landing early on Wednesday morning.
For more information on how you can help the refugees fleeing Afghanistan, visit the following links:
British Red Cross
UNICEF
AllWeCan.org
United Nation Refugee Agency
Refugee Council