Letter: We Should Consider Carefully the Plight of the Afghans

Published on: 23 Aug, 2021
Updated on: 23 Aug, 2021

From: Valerie Thompson

In response to: GBC ‘Already Working with the Defence Ministry to House Afghan Refugees’

My grandfather and his brother were refugees from the pogroms in Belarus in the late 19th century. The rest of their siblings emigrated to the US.

He was one of the lucky ones to get out safely, settling in the East End of London, together with many Jews, also relocating because of oppression. He worked hard as a furniture designer, while his sons became tailors and teachers, using their skills to give something worthwhile to their new host country.

The situation in Afghanistan, having become equally intolerable to the educated, and especially to educated women, should make the British think carefully about criticising this country’s policy of offering a home to some of these unfortunate people.

As a keen student of genealogy, I have discovered my own roots range from Scandinavia, through Russia, Germany, Italy and Spain, to name just a few places. All British people are almost inevitably a similar melange of nationalities, blending blood from invaders and refugees.