Some Afghans brought to the UK could be 'radicalised' here, ministers are warned - as the numbers expected to present as homeless are feared to be worse than previously thought
The fears were set out in the Government's internal review of the scheme to rescue thousands from the clutches of the Taliban.
The review also revealed that, amid the UK's housing crisis, more Afghans could end up homeless than previously thought.
Local authorities struggling to find homes for the new arrivals may also face a funding shortfall, ministers were warned.
Whitehall officials have been outlining the potential consequences of the Government's secret Afghan airlift – Operation Rubific - for many months. Last October, when Labour ministers agreed to spend £7billion, they were told that 10 per cent of the incoming migrants were anticipated to 'enter the homeslessness system' and that there could be threats to 'community cohesion'. Pressures on local education and health services were also cited.
In his internal review of Operation Rubific, Paul Rimmer, a retired civil servant who interviewed more than a dozen experts including from the Home Office 's homeland security group, stated: 'Several…expressed concern around the risk that resettled Afghans could be radicalised in the UK.'
Mr Rimmer, who interviewed officials from across Whitehall, said: 'There is a risk of a growing gap between resettled Afghans' expectations, and the reality of what ever-more stretched domestic services can deliver. Some also highlighted concerns around the extent to which Afghanistan is becoming a base for a wide range of terrorist groups.'
Mr Rimmer noted that the 'UK domestic housing system is under acute pressure' and said there were 'record levels of homelessness', with pressures adding to 'risks to community cohesion'. He said these were 'all key areas for public debate', but the Government's super-injunction had 'stopped this scrutiny being possible'.
The news blackout was imposed in August 2023 after the Daily Mail discovered the British military had put 100,000 people 'at risk of death' by losing a database of Afghans who had applied for UK sanctuary. Since then, the Government has been running a secret immigration scheme to rescue thousands of them.
After ministers were warned one in 10 of the new arrivals was expected to 'enter the homelessness system', a new Whitehall briefing paper, seen by the Mail, now says it might be even worse.
The paper states: 'There are concerns this is overly optimistic.' Officials said uncertainties over the scheme, which relies on many Afghans being able to find their own private accommodation, meant the true numbers 'presenting as homeless' after their nine months of free accommodation could be higher than 10 per cent.
The review noted that while the average Afghan family was five people, about 10 per cent of Afghan families consisted of eight or more people, making it especially difficult to find them suitable accommodation.
In Bracknell, Berkshire, where 300 Afghans are being accommodated in a hotel, locals have said they welcome the Afghans who fought alongside British forces and deserve British help, but also said many local veterans have struggled to find homes themselves.
The Government's decision to embark on the scheme without MPs or the public having any say has so far triggered four parliamentary inquiries.
A Government spokesman said: 'As with all those arriving to the UK, all those found eligible for the ARR have to undergo robust security checks, including for national security. If they don't pass these checks, they are not granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
'We are working with local authorities to ensure housing solutions meet the needs of the UK population, as well as Afghans who are resettling here. This includes through the Local Authority Housing Fund, which supports English councils to obtain temporary accommodation for those owed a homelessness duty.'
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New Statesman
33 minutes ago
- New Statesman
One year on, tensions still circle Britain's asylum-seeker hotels
In the Park Hotel car park, a little boy bounced around in the drizzle as his mother watched on from the foyer door. This was his makeshift playground: kids' bikes on a rack, a basketball net furring with moss. Families including 34 adults and 46 children live at this hotel – in the centre of Diss, a small market town in Norfolk – contracted by the Home Office in 2023 to house asylum seekers. They have come from Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia and Eritrea. When I visited, they were in limbo in more ways than one: not just waiting for refugee status or a permanent home, but to find out if they would be replaced by a group of asylum-seeking single men. Imposed by the Home Office with little notice, this plan sparked a protest on 21 July. Around 150 people turned up to oppose the hotel's use, chanting, 'We want our country back.' It turned aggressive, when some crossed the road to confront counter-protesters. Local politicians accused out-of-town activists of stirring up trouble. Two men were charged with public order offences. A Norfolk reporter said the crowd had 'turned on' him and warned me to be careful as I wandered up the quaint high street of wool shops and stalls of fresh fish and hog roast. 'We used to have lovely Christmas dinners there,' recalled Martyn Thorndyke, 34, who works nights at a factory and often went for a pint at the hotel. 'But I guess they don't celebrate that there now, do they?' A 36-year-old woman suggested sheltering asylum seekers in tents. 'If it was me and I had to flee, I'd absolutely flee. But there's no housing for them here.' A fisherman, testing out some equipment in the lake, had another idea: 'They should have great white sharks patrolling Dover.' As the rain hung eyelash-thin and seagulls eddied above, the town tensed up. Police parked around the corner from the hotel. Further protests had been scheduled. The hotel owners were in a stand-off with government, threatening to close if they had to take solely men. 'We don't know what will happen, it's up to the Home Office,' said an employee. Another told me the hotel residents – who have cooked for people in Diss, taken English lessons at the library and sent their children to local schools – were distressed. Locals spoke, some unprompted, about the 'young, fit men' due to arrive. Emma Lummis, 47, a school worker, had banned her 13-year-old daughter from going out in the town centre, or wearing a short skirt. 'You just don't know who these people are. We're not racist. It's not about whether you're white or not; it's about whether you're a wrong 'un.' A 55-year-old woman who had collected donations and organised craft events for the families told me they had 'integrated' and 'Diss is a very welcoming town' – just not the place for young men. 'Just like the 'professionally unemployed' British guys drinking in the park, they would have nothing to do here but hang around.' When the riots hit last summer, she said police warned her to keep her activities at a 'low profile'. There are 210 hotels housing 32,345 asylum seekers across the UK – a drop since the height of 400 housing 56,042 in 2023. This July, protests spread through Diss, Norwich, Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Leeds, London's Canary Wharf and Epping in Essex. Far-right figures have attended and coordinated protests via social media. Stand Up to Racism counter-protesters rally in response. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe The asylum hotel policy could be a parable for all that is wrong with the British state. The Conservatives under-resourced asylum claim processing. Channel crossings rose despite government promising the reverse. Ministers commandeered much-loved venues at short notice, cancelling wedding receptions and birthday parties. And this was all contracted out to private providers such as Serco, costing the taxpayer £15bn. It is a tired tale of cuts, broken pledges, neighbourhood neglect and poor-value outsourcing. But a subplot fraught with rumour and racism is darkening the story. Reporting around England in recent years, again and again I have encountered the same fears: that these newcomers might assault women and girls. Riots in Southport and Ballymena over the past two years had the same trigger: charges of attacks on young girls. The Best Western Brook Hotel in Bowthorpe, Norwich – a site of recent protests – was home to a man now imprisoned for raping a woman, and another for asking a 14-year-old boy to send naked pictures. At Epping's Bell Hotel, there have been both violent clashes and peaceful protests after one resident, now in custody, was charged with sexual assault for allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl (which he denies). Such cases have led to the demonisation of young male asylum seekers as potential criminals and sex offenders. The memory of working-class white girls groomed by British-Pakistani gangs pulses through these suspicions. Victims then were ignored by authorities, partly down to political correctness – a fact that emboldens some people to voice Islamophobic generalisations about the attitudes of certain men towards women. Police National Computer data suggesting Afghans and Eritreans are more than 20 times more likely to be convicted of sexual offences than British citizens are widely shared. Officials warn, however, that this data neither accounts for gender nor for how much younger these ethnic groups are than the British average (young men generally are more likely to commit crime), that it is 'not reliable for nationality' as it omits dual nationals and that it doesn't reflect the number of repeat offenders. After violence outside the Bell Hotel, where officers were injured and 17 protesters arrested, Keir Starmer warned of a second summer of riots. Unrest last year followed the murder of three girls in Southport. The perpetrator, born in Britain to Rwandan parents, was falsely said to be a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived on a small boat – disinformation that led to rioters attacking a mosque and setting an asylum hotel on fire. Anger is not just confected online in bad faith. At one Epping protest, I was struck by the dissonance between mums waving suffragette flags and grandmas Sharpie-ing 'Protect Our Kids' on to M&S bags for life, and the presence of ex-British National Party councillors and a member of Homeland, a far-right splinter group of the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative. Wearing a T-shirt with the slogan 'Save Our Children', the vice-chairman of Reform UK's Epping Forest branch, Orla Minihane, described this wave of protest to me as a '#MeToo moment'. 'Women won't go out for runs, they're getting their husbands to pick them up from the station, they're scared to walk their dogs,' she said. 'I'm sure most of the men in there are good, decent people – but we don't know.' She waved a suffragette flag among the rippling St George's Crosses. 'When we walk past a woman with a child, she pulls the child behind her as if we are going to take them – it is so painful to see,' said Khadar, 20, a Somali asylum seeker living at the Bell Hotel who crossed the Channel three months ago. 'We are not here to hurt you. It was very good here before the incident. Now we feel uncomfortable and there is a lot of tension; people treat us like we're criminals and say insulting words.' Another young Somali man at the Bell Hotel, who preferred not to be named, had been chased by a group of men while shopping. Even as warm sunshine soaked the tree tops of Epping Forest opposite, he pulled a thick black jacket around him and glanced around as we spoke. 'I was very scared.' 'Sexual violence and crime impacts all communities and involves perpetrators of all races,' said Georgie Laming, of the anti-fascist campaign group Hope not Hate. 'It's clear from Epping how an arrest, an allegation or a rumour can quickly take hold, be whipped up and racialised by the far right.' Rumours were ripping through the protests outside the Bell Hotel. I was told repeatedly that Essex Police had bussed anti-racism activists towards the demonstration – a story the force denies but which is all over social media and has been repeated by Nigel Farage. Numerous protesters also told me hotel residents were shoplifting from Tesco, but the police had no reports of this, and the local Tesco had no knowledge of it either. Since 2020, the year asylum seekers moved into the Bell, instances of rape, reports of antisocial behaviour and the number of robberies have dropped in the area. There is also misapprehension that the hotels are five-star experiences for their new guests. 'They're fed and watered, have hot showers, for free,' said an Epping local of 45 years. 'But for us living here, the town has gone downhill.' In Diss, the school worker I met said: 'We're working our arses off and they're given a lovely hotel, clean sheets every morning, it's plush.' In reality, those with knowledge of the Park Hotel talked of breakfast running out, children going hungry and women asking for donations of buckets and mops because of uncleanliness. At another hotel, I've seen a four-year-old scarred from bed-bug bites and families falling sick from undercooked chicken. I've also heard of young people forced to share rooms with adult strangers. The children's commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, found a 'troubling' lack of safeguarding at these hotels. Such details don't resonate, though, when the world outside the hotels is one of low wages, housing shortages and a crumbling public realm. 'You've got to look after your own first,' said the factory operative. 'We need stuff given to English people, they haven't got houses themselves,' said the school worker. 'This town is empty, it's dead; people haven't got money to shop anymore. I worry about my future grandchildren: life is shit now, what will life be for them?' Deprivation and social dislocation, not levels of immigration, were the most common factors in riot-hit areas last summer, according to a report shared exclusively with the New Statesman that has been read in No 10. 'This Place Matters', by Citizens UK, UCL Policy Lab, and More in Common, finds no consistent correlation between high immigration to an area and low social cohesion. Rather, integration is what counts. The constituencies that experienced unrest all have populations where more people feel 'disconnected' than 'connected'. While financial insecurity is one of the strongest predictors of disconnection, the report identifies other alienating trends: neglected high streets and town centres, the decline of in-person socialising, and a loss of 'associational life' – fewer communal spaces where people interact, remote working and even self-checkouts. In a town of shuttered shops and fly-tipping – where children's centres and social housing and the municipal fireworks display are just a memory – it is little wonder you look up less from your phone. And when that screen is full of lurid innuendo, shared by politicians and activists who have no beguiling slogans for public service reform or community renewal, it only takes a spark to light the tinder. 'In Somalia, I couldn't work because I was in a rural area ruled by militia. I wanted to come to England for a better life, to contribute, not to depend on government, and it took ten hours on the boat – so long and painful with people suffocating,' said Khadar of the Bell Hotel. 'I thought England was a good place, more welcoming than Europe, and would help a lot. Now it feels like a hostile land.' [See more: Can Starmer and Trump come to an agreement on Gaza?] Related
ITV News
an hour ago
- ITV News
Rise in foreign states silencing dissidents in UK going 'unchecked', MPs warn
Foreign states are becoming bolder in their attempts to silence dissidents in the UK and the government must take stronger action, parliamentarians have warned. In a report published on Wednesday, the Joint Committee on Human Rights said transnational repression had increased in recent years, with foreign states using online harassment, lawsuits and physical violence to intimidate people in the UK. MI5 investigations into threats from other states have increased 48% since 2022, the report said, while committee chairman Lord David Alton warned the rise was 'going unchecked'. He said: 'This risks undermining the UK's ability to protect the human rights of its citizens and those who have sought safety within its borders. 'We have seen prominent cases of Hong Kongers with bounties placed on their heads, Iran intimidating journalists – but evidence submitted to the inquiry suggest this may be the tip of the iceberg.' The warning comes amid rising concern about transnational repression, including reports that China has offered rewards for people turning in pro-democracy Hong Kong activists based in the UK. Last month, Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee warned that Iran had attempted to kidnap or murder at least 15 UK-based people since 2022. Meanwhile Russia has also targeted dissidents including the attempt to kill Sergei and Yulia Skripal with Novichok in 2018. While the cross-party human rights committee said China, Russia and Iran were the 'most flagrant' perpetrators of transnational repression in the UK, it highlighted evidence suggesting a string of other countries including India, Rwanda, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain had sought to target people in Britain. MPs and peers said they had also received 'substantial' evidence of intimidation by the Eritrean government, including surveillance of anti-government activists and infiltration of community groups and churches in an effort to isolate opponents of the regime. The committee went on to criticise Interpol, saying the organisation had refused to acknowledge misuse of 'red notices' – international requests for an arrest – to harass dissidents or take any steps to address this. Almost half of the 6,550 public red notices currently in circulation have been issued at Russia's request. Lord Alton said: 'We want to see a two-pronged approach from the government. More needs to be done to give support and protection to the individuals and communities most at risk of transnational repression. 'We also want to see transnational repression prioritised in diplomatic relations and leadership at an international level to tackle the misuse and exploitation of systems of justice to silence and intimidate.' As well as pressing Interpol for action on abuse of red notices, the committee urged the government to provide more training on transnational repression for police officers in the UK and greater protection from vexatious lawsuits known as Slapps (strategic lawsuits against public participation). The committee also called for China to be placed in the highest tier of the foreign influence registration scheme that came into effect last month, saying its omission risked 'undermining the credibility and coherence' of the scheme given the extent of Chinese transnational repression. An Interpol spokesperson said: 'Every year, thousands of the world's most serious criminals are arrested thanks to Interpol's systems. "Children are saved from sexual exploitation and terrorists, cyber criminals and traffickers are brought to justice. 'Interpol knows red notices are powerful tools for law enforcement co-operation, which is why we have robust processes for ensuring that all Interpol notices and diffusions comply with our rules. 'Our constitution forbids Interpol from undertaking activities of a political, military, religious or racial character and all our databases and activities must also comply with the universal declaration for human rights.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We take the threat of transnational repression extremely seriously. "Any attempts by a foreign state to coerce, intimidate, harass, or harm individuals on UK soil are considered a threat to our national security and sovereignty, and will not be tolerated. 'The committee's review echoes many of the same findings and recommendations from the Defending Democracy Taskforce report on TNR, published in May, and we are already taking action arising from those recommendations to further strengthen our response.'
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Hedge fund tycoon Hosking says rival Telegraph bid "ready to go"
The hedge fund founder enlisted to back a bid for The Daily Telegraph says the offer is "ready to go" if a takeover of the broadsheet title involving sovereign Gulf money runs into further regulatory problems. Sky News has learnt that Jeremy Hosking, the prominent City figure who co-founded Marathon Asset Management, is pledging to inject £100m of his own money into the newspaper group if the self-styled 'British bid' of which he is part is successful. Mr Hosking, who now runs Hosking Partners, has been working with Dovid Efune, the owner of the New York Sun, in an effort to gain control of the Telegraph for several months. They have been thwarted, though, by an agreement reached with RedBird Capital Partners, the US-based investment firm, to buy the titles for £500m following a two-year battle which has plunged the Telegraph into a protracted state of limbo. RedBird's bid includes tens of millions of pounds of funding from IMI, a state-backed Abu Dhabi vehicle, which cleared a key hurdle last week when the House of Lords voted against a 'fatal motion' which would have blocked the sovereign investment. The outcome of the vote was not without fierce debate, with 155 peers supporting the ban. IMI is controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and ultimate owner of Manchester City Football Club. Speaking through Mr Efune, Mr Hosking said in a statement on Wednesday morning: "We have been following the latest developments closely and with the best outcome for all Telegraph stakeholders front of mind. "We understand from the Lords debate last week that there is now a legal requirement for the government to formally investigate all the foreign government ties that may result in influence over the current preferred buyer. "Should the buyer be deemed unsuitable, our "British Bid" is ready to go. "We believe our current capitalization is more than adequate to replace the controlling shareholder's portion of the deal. "My own personal commitment is £100m in equity capital." Further details of the financing lined up by Mr Efune's consortium remain unclear, including the level of debt attached to his prospective offer. The RedBird-led acquisition of the Telegraph remains subject to investigations by both Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority, which are likely to delay completion of the deal into next year. Sky News previously revealed that Sir Leonard Blavatnik, owner of the DAZN sports streaming platform, and Daily Mail proprietor Lord Rothermere were preparing to buy minority stakes as part of the RedBird transaction. Gerry Cardinale, the RedBird executive, who has spearheaded the latest iteration of its acquisition, has described the firm as "the right owner at the right time". RedBird said in May that it was "in discussions with select UK-based minority investors with print media expertise and strong commitment to upholding the editorial values of the Telegraph". The Telegraph titles' parent company was forced into insolvency proceedings in 2023 by Lloyds Banking Group, which ran out of patience with the Barclay family, their long-standing owner. RedBird IMI, a joint venture between the two firms, paid £600m several months later to acquire a call option that was intended to convert into ownership of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator magazine. That objective was thwarted by a change in media ownership laws - which banned any form of foreign state ownership. Some peers argued last week that a 15% threshold was too high and that the legislation to permit it was dangerously ambiguous because it could allow for more than one state investor to aggregate their holdings in British newspapers. A further statutory instrument will need to be approved in order to address this issue. The Spectator, which had also been part of the same group, was sold last year for £100m to Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund billionaire, who has installed Lord Gove, the former cabinet minister, as its editor.
