Afghan women may be offered "safe route" to resettle in the UK as refugees

[IwantToRetire]

Shabana Mahmood has announced the reopening of a scheme to resettle refugees in the UK, as she hopes that offering "safe and legal" routes will deter small boat crossings.

The home secretary said the UK wants to "live up to our international obligations" by helping those who are fleeing war and persecution, but the process must be "capped and controlled".

The Home Office said the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) will reopen immediately and expects that around 25% of arrivals will be Afghan women and girls and Palestinians.

The Home Office expects arrivals to increase to the "low thousands" as levels of illegal migration fall.

A cap will be set for each year although details of the number have yet to be provided.

People arriving in Britain under the safe and legal routes will be be put on a five-year path to permanent settlement.

Full article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5vgyj8k3dzgo

It varies depending on different areas of Afghanistan, but the Taliban are far from universally accepted. They are oversupplied with weaponry because the US left so much behind.

I mean plenty of Afghani men may well be abusive or coercive, and cultural norms are different than UK ones. But the Taliban's extreme oppressive misogyny is extreme.

It is not just Afghan women who will be at risk in the uk. The naivety displayed over this is shocking.

Article 8 rights are qualified and there is a long list of situations when they can be restricted, including when they interfere with the rights of others.

There is a general feeling across Europe that the courts have not balanced Article 8 rights correctly.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2g03gv2z6o

I just think that men aren't at risk in Afghanistan, they don't need asylum from human rights abuses in the same way as women do.

We cannot know that any request to bring men with is not coerced until the women have been here for quite a while and received support for the mental abuse and torture they've suffered. There needs to be at least a year I'd say and maybe longer, before making a decision about whether or not they want male relatives. The UK government then also needs to assess whether the men pose a risk.

I know for a fact in this situation my DH would send me and DDs on alone, even if there was no guarantee he could ever follow. Any decent man would.

Paternity scams:

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/criminal-gangs-fake-dad-asylum-scam-5HjdhBB_2/

I agree, but these women will be at heightened risk I would expect. ALL women and girls are at higher risk from these men, most of whom are also criminal (they have to be to take the small boats route). But it's a bit nonsensical offering asylum to these women if you're also importing their abusers by the boatload.

Afghan women here have not escaped from Afghan men who can coerce them though - there are plenty who could act as proxies for family coercion to ensure women bring men over.

Surely the better response is for the UK to put pressure on Pakistan to accept these refugees? We send vast amounts of money to Pakistan and should be exerting pressure in return for these payments. We should be prioritising refugees from regions closer to the UK which are more culturally aligned and from those nations where they are more like to be economically productive once they settle in the UK.

Pakistan don’t want them because they know that is importing Afghan political power into Pakistan too. Same with Egypt, Jordan, etc and Gaza/Hamas. It is like Lebanon - a peaceful modern Christian country until they accepted a large number of Palestinian refugees who turned on them, killed large numbers of Lebanese, seized power and turned it into a islamic state that houses terrorist. There is nothing to stop that happening in the uk.

Pakistan is deporting women’s rights activists back to Afghanistan. To see people on a feminist board cheering this on is depressing to say the least.

'Sir Keir argued that urgent changes are needed to defeat "the forces of hate and division" across Europe.'

And this emotive framing of what are or should be pretty practical issues is what makes it all so charged.

We have this from the right and the left.

I personally suspect that women from Afghanistan and Iran who want to come here - especially women's rights activists who've managed to get out to Pakistan - would be some of the fiercest advocates against religious extremists who deny women's rights coming to power in the UK. Because, unlike most UK women, they've actually experienced Islamist extremism.

Whilst I think neighbouring states have a legitimate concern about terrorism, women will in general be a lower risk and those who advocate for women's rights are clearly not Hamas / equivalent migoynistic ideology

Cheering? Where? Any idea why Pakistan might not want women’s rights activists in their country too?

@GreaterWaterBoatman

I don’t disagree with you. I don’t know what the solution is for these women in that case. I do know we have been too quick to put our own safety and stability at risk in the UK

Then they are naively importing the same ideology they escaped from into the uk.

Pakistan is deporting women's rights activists back to Afghanistan because they are Afghani. You have made it clear you support Pakistan's policy of deporting Afghanis back to Afghanistan, that includes women's rights activists.

Where did I say I supported it? I understand it, that is very different. That is a bit like me saying you are cheering on the imposition of Taliban politics within the UK. I don’t think you are, I just think you are very naive.

Pakistan is not turning away Afghans because they are Afghans. They are turning them away because they do not want to import political instability. They don’t want a proxy war between Taliban and opposing Afghan forces on their territory. And they don’t want either side to exert political power domestically.

The Taliban are already in Pakistan, its not like the borders are 100% impermeable

So you don't support Pakistan deporting Afghanis back to Afghanistan? That's great. What is your objection to some of those Afghanis, specifically women's rights campaigners who meet the threshold for resettlement, being given the opportunity of a new life in the UK? Or do you have a complete objection to the UK taking any refugees?

ETA they are deporting people because they are Afghanis which is why they have ordered Afghani medical and dental students (including women) to leave the country..

Pakistan/Taliban history is complicated. At times Pakistani govt have supported the Taliban.

https://www.cidob.org/publicaciones/strange-bedfellows-soon-be-estranged-how-events-are-straining-relationship-between

Well yes, hence Pakistan trying to limit further afghan influence/unrest of their border areas.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, I don’t think we should import Pakistan culture and politics to the UK either. But we have imported enough of it that women seeking to escape from abuse in Pakistan are unlikely to now find safety in the uk.

Threshold for resettlement? In practice there isn’t one! That is the problem with the uk at the moment.

What benefit would it be to offer woman’s rights activists resettlement in the uk if we also allow enough of these tyrannical regimes in to seize power here too?

I haven't made any secret of my thoughts that I think we should replace the single male illegal migrants with women from Afghanistan.

We should start having thresholds and if you're going to accept refugees at all, they'll meet it before any of the men. They should not bring menfolk with them at first, and there need to be strict safeguards. So they should apply knowing there is a strong chance they'll be going alone (or alone plus children) and they will be in charge of their own lives in the UK (which I am sure many of them will be delighted about).

There are pathways for resettlement. There are thresholds that must be met before a person can be granted refugee status. I'm sorry you didn't know this.