Bucks Council secures homes for Afghanistan refugees who assisted with UK operations

Bucks Council is moving nine Afghan families into properties within the county.

These families have been selected as they assisted with either the British Military when the armed forces were in Afghanistan.

Council officials have worked with Fairhive and the Home Office to find suitable accommodation for the people who fled from the Taliban.

Afghan families are moving into vacant Ministry of Defence properties in Buckinghamshire this week with a further six families joining them in the next two weeks.

Bucks Council has confirmed the families are eligible to move into Ministry of Defence buildings due to their work with the British armed forces.

The properties are being paid for by the families who can afford the homes via universal credit.

Afghan families who were able to escape their home country when the Taliban re-took over in 2021, during the UK’s evacuation, that ended up in Bucks are receiving support the local authority.

Families get assistance with medical needs, arranging English lessons, finding jobs, and getting children into education. Bucks Council has revealed that most of the Afghan adults are employed and the children attending local schools.

Councillor Mark Winn said: “I am really proud that Buckinghamshire Council has committed to protecting this group of people who would have been highly vulnerable due to their work supporting UK forces in Afghanistan. I have experience through working on an overseas operation myself [in the former Yugoslavia] of the type of support locally employed people gave to our military forces and therefore totally understand how exposed they would have felt had they stayed in their own country. The council is committed to keeping people safe from vulnerable situations, which is why we continue to work hard, together with our partners, to welcome and support people arriving here from Afghanistan and other war-torn countries who are in urgent need of protection.”

Fairhive acts as the landlord for these nine properties and will manage the buildings in the same way it oversees its other properties in Bucks.

Latest Government data suggest 11,600 individuals from Afghanistan have been relocated and the Ministry of Defence estimates that around 4,600 Afghans are still eligible for relocation.