Afghan deported from UK killed by Taliban on return

An Afghan man who sought refuge from the Taliban in Britain before being deported and shot dead in his home town was so afraid that he bought weapons to protect himself, the family’s lawyer told The National.

Immigration campaigners now say the UK’s “deport first, appeal later” rules have claimed their first casualty.

Zainadin Fazlie lived in London with his wife and four British-born children – aged between three and 16 – from 2000 until he was deported two years ago.

He fled to Britain after the Taliban took over his home town in the central Afghan province of Maidan Wardak.

Fazlie, 47, was deported to Kabul, the Afghan capital, but returned to his home town after failing to find work.

It was there that he armed himself, fearing the Taliban would attack if they found out that he had returned.

His wife discovered last week via a Facebook post that he had been shot dead by the militants.

Nasir Ata, the family’s lawyer, told The National: “It’s a difficult time for the family.

“The Home Office deported him without reconsideration and this unfortunate incident happened to him. The appeal hearing for bringing him back was set for September 28 and we had good reasons to believe we would win it.”

“I repeatedly spoke to him. He was in a difficult situation, he said [and] for safety he was using weapons against the Taliban for self defence,” Mr Ata said.

“The moment I heard the shocking news of my husband’s death, my life halted,” said his widow, Samira, 34.

She said the shock of seeing images of his dead body confined her to bed for three days.

In his 16 years in Britain, Fazlie was accused of committing minor offences and the British authorities deported him despite the threats he faced.

Fazlie was granted indefinite leave to stay in Britain because his province was one of the most violent battlegrounds between Nato forces and the Taliban in their 17-year war.

The British authorities are under pressure for their policy of sending back Afghan asylum seekers after a United Nations report revealed the number of civilian casualties in the war-torn country last year exceeded 10,000 for the fourth year running.

Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Centre think tank in

Washington, said: “This is a cautionary tale of how problematic immigration and deportation policies in the West can result in vulnerable people being sent back to the countries they fled from, with tragic consequences.”

According to Amnesty International, 785 Afghans were returned from the UK in 2016. Between 2007 and 2015, more than 2,000 Afghans who sought refuge in Britain as unaccompanied child asylum seekers were sent back.

Fazlie was described as the first reported death from British Prime Minister Theresa May’s “deport first, appeal later” policy introduced in 2014. Amnesty’s Steve Valdez-Symonds, described the case as “an awful tragedy, yet a readily foreseeable one”.

Experts say the UK should stop such deportations and bring back the Afghans whose appeals are pending.

“Fazlie is a casualty of Theresa May’s ‘deport first, appeal later’ policy where people are removed before their appeal takes place,” Colin Yeo, a British asylum lawyer told The National.

“It sounds like Fazlie had a good chance of winning but that opportunity is tragically lost and his family will somehow have to manage without him now,” he said.