LOCAL MP IN TEARS AFTER WINNING CAMPAIGN TO BRING AFGHAN FAMILY TO SAFETY
Campaigning local MP Munira Wilson has told how she broke down in tears after winning her 18-month battle with the Home Office and the Foreign Office to ‘rescue’ five British children and their mother and bring them to safety in the UK.
The Lib Dem MP became involved with a constituent’s brother, a British citizen and former local resident who was assassinated by the Taliban in 2021. His British children, all under 18, were stranded in Afghanistan because the Home Office refused to grant their Afghan mother a visa.
Munira said: “Again and again, I raised their plight in Parliament and privately with ministers.
“I am overjoyed to tell you that last week I received a phone call saying the family had arrived safely in the UK.
“I was on the train platform at Twickenham Station when I received the news, and am not ashamed to say that I cried my eyes out then and there. Thank you to the kind constituent who asked if I was ok!
“I was honoured to be asked to their home, together with my caseworker, to meet the children and their mother in person.
“For 18 months, the children had been confined to their home in Kabul as it was too dangerous for them to leave the house. Our priority now is to provide the support and help they need as they settle into their new life in Twickenham.
“The children’s uncle told me that their late father‘s greatest wish was for all his girls to be well educated – a right that women and girls sadly no longer have in Afghanistan. We will do our best to make sure that happens by helping them get into local schools and colleges. When I asked the children what their favourite subjects were, one said maths, and another said geography and chemistry.
“The wonderful news about their arrival in the UK came as I was writing a speech to give to a local school about values like courage and perseverance.
“Truly, my constituent is the embodiment of these values, having risked his own life to help the family out of Afghanistan when Foreign Office officials said they couldn’t. On behalf of the people of Twickenham, I welcome them to their new home.”
