Britain Closing Door to Afghans (WPost)

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday September 09, 2002 12:19 by asylum

considering recent asylum issues in Ireland, this could have an impact here

Britain Closing Door to Afghans
After Arduous Trip, Asylum-Seekers Face New Restrictions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54780-2002Sep8.html

By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 9, 2002; Page A01

DOVER, England -- The long days and nights stashed away in trucks, minivans and buses, or traveling on foot, begin to melt together as Khudabaksh Nazir, 17, recounts his three-month, 10,000-mile trek from northeastern Afghanistan to this English seaport.

A teenage girl died along the way. Police in Iran, Turkey and Bulgaria robbed him of his belongings and his cash. But the eeriest moment came when he was placed inside a coffin, a Kurdish identity card slapped on the lid, and smuggled by truck through southwestern Turkey.

"I have already died once," he said. And now, he said, he just wants to live.

But Nazir's journey is not over yet. Like thousands of other Afghan refugees, he has arrived here just as the authorities are beginning to close the gates to people like him. Britain has removed Afghanistan from its list of unstable nations and will no longer automatically grant Afghans permission to remain here. Officials have launched a program of voluntary paid repatriation, while at the same time pledging to speed the process of review for those who qualify for asylum here -- and to deport those who don't.

more at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54780-2002Sep8.html