Omar, 31, who arrived in a small boat from Calais last August, was concerned about the prime minister’s distinction between those who come to Britain by legal means and those who do not, noting that for many people who leave from war zones there are no legal avenues that can be followed to seek asylum in the UK. He fled Afghanistan after escaping an assassination attempt. A human rights journalist who had also worked for the Foreign Ministry under the old regime, Omar believed he would continue to be targeted, so he flew to Turkey, drove to Calais and was helped across the Channel. – smugglers. He left his wife and two young sons in Kabul. He is currently waiting for his asylum application to be processed, staying in a hotel in London with about 120 other asylum seekers, many of whom have been waiting 14 months for their applications to be evaluated. His brother, a former British embassy staffer, was admitted to the UK resettlement program in Afghanistan last August, but Omar had left Afghanistan earlier and there was no legal way to seek refuge in the UK. The two faced similar threats in Afghanistan, but only one was given access to the resettlement program. “The system needs to be reformed, but that is not the answer. “It’s a very political announcement,” he said. He did not feel that the announcement was aimed at saving lives or fighting human trafficking gangs. “There are many other ways to prevent people from dying in boats. They could create a more flexible visa regime for people leaving Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. I had no choice but to take a boat – there was no way I could come here legally. “How will the government distinguish between people who are economic migrants and those who are genuine asylum seekers?” This process is taking more than a year now. “ He suggested a better solution would be to divert money spent by the government on new facilities in Rwanda to hire more staff in the UK to work on clearing the current overcrowded asylum and removing people from hotels. “Or they could create a big processing campus for them here, to speed up the process there.” He was unsure whether or not it would prove deterrent. “Smugglers will tell people that the rules will not apply to them, they will tell them that everything will be fine. “They will continue to charge people 4. 4,000 to .000 10,000 to pass.” Omar speaks fluent English and has a family in the UK, so it seemed like the obvious place to come. He dismissed the implication that because he is a young man, he should be classified as someone who is more likely to be a financial immigrant than a refugee. “People are gambling their lives when they cross the English Channel, you are ready to sacrifice everything for the chance to live in a peaceful society in the UK. It was not something I did for fun. “I came to this country to save my life.”
