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Afghan refugees arriving in Manchester will ‘need help adjusting to life’, charity worker says
The three hotels housing refugees are understood to be at full capacity
A charity worker has spoken of the help ‘traumatised’ refugees arriving in Manchester from Afghanistan will need as they adjust to their new lives.
Clare Moseley is asking Mancunians to be patient with those who have fled after the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan last week after the US withdrew its troops.
Clare, who is the founder and CEO of refugee charity Care 4 Calais, says she has already seen how difficult it can be for refugees to adjust to a new home.
She added that many will be traumatised after fleeing from their home country, some leaving relatives behind and struggling to board emergency flights in the crisis-hit country.
She said: “Everyone has seen the pictures on the television. They know they will be traumatised, exhausted, worried about friends and family back home. They will be living with that trauma.
“I ask people to reverse it and imagine if you were suddenly dropped off in Afghanistan. All the smells, the sights, the sounds, are so incredibly foreign to you. The food is so different, there’s a different alphabet, you would not know how to do anything.
“Then on top of that, you’re told you have to spend the rest of your life here. Your environment is totally foreign.
“So if you can imagine being in this totally foreign place and being told you’ll never see your home again. I hope that will help people to understand.”
So far, Manchester has welcomed over 1,000 Afghan refugees who are currently being housed in three hotels near Manchester Airport. It is understood that the hotels are now at full capacity.
The first evacuation flight from the war-torn country arrived in the UK last Sunday, with the second touching down late on Tuesday night, and another landing early on Wednesday morning.
The UK government plans to welcome 20,000 more refugees across the next four years.
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