Afghan refugee relocation across the UK puts hard-working girls' education at risk

UK government under pressure to address flawed immigration system under which resettlement orders disrupt young lives

Afghan refugees at the launch of the New Afghan Diaspora Council, in Feltham, England. Getty Images

Zara arrived in the UK as a refugee in 2021 with barely a word of English after fleeing Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul.

But in about seven weeks, the aspiring engineer, who received very little education before arriving in the UK, should take ― and pass ― her GCSEs.

Except Zara might not get the chance.

Her nine-member family have been told they will be moved at the end of the month as part of a push by the government to address the crisis in the UK’s immigration system.

But local councils are under a legal obligation to provide education for children within 20 weeks, which means Zara may never get to sit her exams.

“Her work ethic is unbelievable,” Victoria Tully, the co-head teacher of Fulham Cross Girls School in London, told The National.

“Zara’s home teacher is the head of science and she was telling me the other day that Zara is always emailing her for more work, for more practice questions.

"The teachers don’t mind. If they get an email at 8pm from a kid like that who wants more work, they get more work.

“And when you put that together with living in a hotel for 18 months, no cooking facilities, no kitchen and all the work she has put in, that is incredible.

“She has gone from basically no English to she is going to pass her exams. She will pass.

“Zara wants to be an engineer. And she could well go on to be an engineer if she is allowed the chance she needs to take her exams.”

The number of asylum seekers in the UK waiting on an initial decision on their case has soared in recent months to about 166,000 at the last count.

Because of this, a huge number of refugees, including Zara’s family, are being housed in hotels.

But the government has pledged to get the costs down and address the backlog as a priority.

Migrants at immigration processing centre in Manston - in pictures

Zara’s large family, which consists of seven siblings, are among hundreds of Afghan refugees who have been told they will be moved out of London to locations further north.

The nine-member family, who have been living in a hotel for 18 months, were told about a week ago that they would be moving to Northampton after the council failed to find them something more permanent near by.

Ms Tully is trying to arrange a reprieve to allow Zara and another Year 11 pupil, who is also a refugee and being moved out of the area, to complete the school year and take their GCSEs.

They are among 13 Afghan refugees the school has taken in since the takeover of the Taliban in 2021. Three have already gone.

She is hopeful, but not confident, that she will succeed in helping Zara and her friend. The others are younger, so they have a weaker case, Ms Tully said.

“One of the girls had a bit of English," she said. "Zara’s family had less English. I know they had never been to school in Afghanistan.

"So they really value the education. Their attendance is fantastic."

The school is in a deprived area, and has many students who arrive speaking no English.

The teachers at the school are experienced in adapting their lessons, using pictures to help the children learn. The girls also had specialist English as an additional language lesson.

But they mostly learned by being taught their normal lessons in English.

“If it’s immersive, they do learn quicker," Ms Tully said. "It tends to be slow at the start and then suddenly things click into place and everything accelerates quickly."

The girls have all faced phenomenal challenges in getting to this point, both back in Afghanistan and adjusting to life in the UK.

But they are now all happy and settled at the school. And the last thing Ms Tully wants to see is them leave. Zara wants to stay at the school for sixth form.

“If we can just get her past these exams, we can cross that bridge when we get to it,” Ms Tully said.

“She said to me the other day not one child in the school has ever said anything mean to her. She has been made to feel really welcome. She is really happy in the school. It feels like family.

“But Zara thinks I have much more power than I actually have. She came to see me and said you have to stop it. Please, can you stop it?”

Ms Tully has also raised the girls’ plight in an article in The Guardian. Since then families have come forward to offer them a place to stay to allow them to sit their exams.

“But culturally, this is not a family who would let their children stay without there being a member of the family there.”

Zara’s brother, Omar, said the whole family were struggling with the thought of the move.

“Zara likes to study," Omar told The National. "She was saying she was upset because back home her education didn’t go well and we came here and this has happened. She was really eager to learn."

There are four sisters and three brothers aged between five and 21.

Omar's father and one of his brothers have permanent jobs they will have to leave.

His mother is disabled and has been waiting more than a year for an appointment for two operations.

The family found a house to rent themselves, a five-bedroom home costing £2,750 ($3,330) a month.

They wanted to pay for it themselves but the council did not accept it.

“I am working full-time and my brother and dad was working," Omar said. "I told them [the council], 'We are not going to ask for any money. We will pay for everything. We just want you to be a guarantor like you do for other people',” he said.

“They said no.”

The family feel like they are at a dead end. And it is not clear to them whether Northampton will be a permanent move, or a temporary stop. Initially, at least, it will be more of the same.

“It is another hotel,” Omar said.

Ms Tully got in touch with her local MP, the Conservative party chairman Greg Hands, who forwarded her email to the Home Office.

An official replied to say the family’s move, and that of the other two families, was definitely going ahead at the end of the month. The note also said they would be found a school place in 20 weeks.

She has also spoken to other MPs who have similar issues. And Baroness Christine Blower has vowed to raise the issue in the House of Lords.

The school has managed to secure a lawyer for the families of the girls who are about to leave.

“I am absolutely not an expert on this. But I believe that it might be illegal on the grounds that the priority of the child should come first.

“And obviously in this case that wouldn’t be true."