‘Strabane people would welcome Afghan refugees’

THE people of Strabane and district would relish doing their part in re-homing some of the 20,000 at-risk Afghans the UK has promised to take in, a local community activist has said.

Kamini Rao, of Strabane Ethnic Community Association (SECA) was speaking as the dire situation worsens in Afghanistan on a daily and nearly hourly basis.

This week US President Joe Biden said the US is “on pace” to meet a August 31 deadline for evacuations, despite previous appeals from allies for an extension.

So far, almost 80,000 people have been airlifted from Kabul, which fell to the Taliban just ten days ago.

“All groups that are representing ethnic minorities would have to come together and come up with a planned procedure,” Kamini Rao explained. “We would also need to have the political support and all the political parties would have to come together collectively.

“Of course it is heartbreaking. You can see what’s going on there at the minute. And everything that we’re seeing, it’s all the men fleeing the country. Where are the women and children? That’s very worrying too.”

Kamini believes too that all the work which has been achieved in Afghanistan over the past two decades has been undone in a matter of days.

“If refugees could be brought here, it would be great,” she continued.

“People in Northern Ireland are very welcoming. It’s a great place to live and grow up in. We have progressed a lot since the Troubles. And without a doubt, people in Strabane would definitely take refugees in. People here are so welcoming and I think partly because of the work SECA has done, it has helped open people’s minds.

“It’s just a mad situation but the way all that work in Afghanistan has been destroyed in couple of days, it’s unbelievable.”