Refugees deserve our welcome, says MP Goodwill

The MP for Scarborough and Whitby, Robert Goodwill, has praised the efforts of The Rainbow Centre as they collected donations for Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban.

Mr Goodwill said: “It just shows how welcoming the Scarborough community have been to these Afghan refugees who have left, in many cases with nothing more than the shirts on their backs.

“They will have gone through a very traumatic process to even get to the airport and now they have arrived in Scarborough. For many people, the consequences of not getting out of the country would be certain death.”

Mr Goodwill visited the Yorkshire Regiment in Afghanistan as part of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme when they were deployed in 2008/09. He visited Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, as well as Kandahar and Camp Bastion.

“It’s so sad that everything has so quickly returned to the situation that was unfolding before we went in with the Americans,” he said.

The temporary housing of refugees in Scarborough drew some criticism from residents. Mr Goodwill said a clear distinction needs to be made between genuine refugees from Afghanistan and those arriving illegally in Dover and Kent who have been trafficked by people smugglers, who “in many cases, they’re not fleeing oppression and possible death but just looking for an economic improvement to their lives,” he said.

Mr Goodwill said the refugees arriving in the UK who worked in counter-narcotics operations in Afghanistan and as interpreters for British Forces “deserve every little bit of the welcome that they’re getting”.