Twenty years ago, the UK gave my Afghan family a second chance. Those trying to get here today face a very different reality
I arrived in the UK with my family 23 years ago, when I was eight. My parents, baby brother, younger sister and I arrived in the back of a lorry, having endured a perilous and frightening journey fleeing the terror of Afghanistan’s Taliban.
Back then, like now, there were no official or safe ways for us to get here. When the UK Border Agency opened the doors of the lorry, we had lost consciousness due to lack of air. But they offered us medical attention and care, and a bed for the night. The next day, we went straight to the Refugee Council, who helped us find a place of shelter. There were five of us in a one-bedroom flat, but we felt lucky to have a home after enduring Taliban rulein Afghanistan, where as a girl I would not have had the opportunity to go to school or enjoy the freedoms I have today. We sought refuge here because both my parents were academics and my father was a political activist. Had we remained in Afghanistan, it is safe to say the Taliban would have targeted us and we may not have been alive today. Britain gave us a second chance in life, and for that we are eternally grateful.
Shabnam Nasimi is a former adviser to the minister of Afghan resettlement and the minister for refugees, and the founder and executive director of the Conservative Friends of Afghanistan
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