Meet the Afghan refugee turned Tory politician who got here to Britain behind a lorry

RT speaks to the previous refugee who’s bidding to change into a participant in UK politics and surprisingly, it’s for the social gathering of the elite, the Conservatives.

Darius Nasimi got here to Britain huddled inside a refrigerated container and is now a Conservative candidate in subsequent yr’s native elections, within the London Borough of Hounslow. What’s putting is that regardless of being a local Farsi speaker, shut your eyes and he sounds a bit like BoJo. Open them and he has a number of the similar mannerisms, it’s nearly spooky, however maybe that’s what they train you at Conservative Marketing campaign Headquarters lately. 

Nonetheless, when it comes to how they got here to politics, they may not be extra disparate. Whereas Prime Minister Boris Johnson went to unique non-public college Eton and Oxford College, having fun with a lifetime of institution luxurious, Nasimi’s household endured a nine-month overland trek fleeing the Taliban in 1999. And he says it was this real-world expertise that attracted him to the Conservative Get together.

“I consider of their values of innovation, creativity and utilizing the alternatives obtainable to realize one thing. The concept of particular person liberty, democracy and British values; these are the values I want to symbolize,” mentioned Nasimi.

These ethics have been crystallised by life in Lewisham, South East London, the place his household was allotted a home after arriving with nothing however the garments on their backs. It’s a Labour space, the standard social gathering of the working class.

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Nasimi mentioned: “It’s a really sturdy Labour space however sadly I haven’t seen a lot progress in Lewisham. I went to New Cross a few weeks in the past and I might see the scenario has worsened, the world remains to be very disadvantaged. The Labour councillors haven’t been capable of enhance the native space, to make it extra rich, extra profitable, extra affluent, appeal to extra enterprise and assist extra folks discover employment.”

He recounts a neighbour who arrived from Iran 20 years in the past and spent all of that point, other than the final three years, unemployed.

“He was caught at house and going through quite a lot of psychological well being issues with despair and loneliness. When the Conservatives got here to energy, they inspired him to discover a job. Finally he began working in New Cross Gate prepare station as a safety guard. After one yr he got here to me and mentioned ‘Darius, I’m so happy I’ve a job, my psychological well being is best, why did I spend 17 years at house receiving advantages?’” Nasimi mentioned.

“For folks like myself coming from migrant backgrounds or coming as a refugee, I believe the perfect social gathering for us is the Conservative social gathering. We had 12 years of Labour, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, throughout which areas corresponding to Lewisham continued to be disadvantaged. In Hounslow, we’ve got areas like Chiswick which is a Conservative space and I can see the standard of lifetime of the folks is a lot better than different components of Hounslow that are Labour areas.”

For a lot of, that jars with the mainstream narrative, however the ace within the pack is that Nasimi has lived what he’s speaking about. He isn’t counting on well-meaning commentators or statistics.

“It was a really, very harmful journey, it took us 9 months to get to the UK,” he defined. The household ultimately made it to Belgium. “We have been put inside a refrigerated container behind a lorry. I used to be solely 4 months previous on the time, my dad and mom have been additionally there and my sisters. They used their cigarette lighters for a short while till they completed so we might see one another’s faces. The container was full of cheese and dairy merchandise.”

After 9 hours, the doorways burst open they usually have been within the UK. “That’s one of many causes we survived. There was an identical case within the information when 52 Chinese language migrants died making the identical journey we took in 2000. They have been useless, as they have been inside for 36 hours.”

His dad and mom knew it was a danger however they’d no different possibility, their homeland had became a totalitarian state. Nasimi mentioned, “It was unattainable for my dad and mom to proceed to reside in Afghanistan, they’d studied exterior of Afghanistan and had a liberal ideology and it was unattainable for folks like them to reside in a society the place the Taliban have been in energy. Finally we reached Dover and the UK Border Drive opened the doorways of the container, they usually allow us to out and known as the ambulance as we have been in a really unhealthy state medically.” 

They have been processed at a refugee centre earlier than being allotted a home in Lewisham.

“We have been in all probability the primary Afghan folks once we arrived. We could not converse a phrase of English, we did not know the way to enrol on the GP or at college, we didn’t know learn how to entry language courses, learn how to discover employment and learn how to navigate the British system,” he mentioned. 

Nonetheless, Nasimi has nothing however reward for a way he and his household have been welcomed. They felt supported and he doesn’t converse of being marginalised. 

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He mentioned: “The folks have been very welcoming and understanding of the plight of my household. I want to thank the British folks for his or her hospitality, the UK has a really constructive historical past of welcoming refugees and offering a brand new life for them. They confirmed a big quantity of sympathy and solidarity to myself and my household for escaping the Taliban and making the troublesome journey to the UK.”

After discovering their toes, his father started the Afghanistan & Central Asian Affiliation charity. Its mission is to assist folks like themselves, so it supplies language courses, ladies’s teams, gives recommendation on learn how to navigate the British system and provides refugees a platform to construct on. The organisation has gone from energy to energy and has performed an enormous half in receiving the brand new wave of Afghans who fled following the Taliban’s return to energy in August.

“Our workplace turned like Kabul airport, day by day 500 folks queuing from 6am within the morning to get some recommendation on learn how to evacuate their relations from Afghanistan to the UK,” he mentioned. “We had an enormous staff of 75 volunteers offering recommendation and steering, writing letters for them, contacting their MPs so they may converse to the Residence Workplace on their behalf and offering an replace.”

Nasimi works as a fundraiser on the charity, and he feels that can make him a potent elected official.

“I wish to use the expertise I’ve, the talents and data of engaged on a grassroots stage, to empower folks in our society and to convey a few constructive change to folks’s lives,” he mentioned. “Extra must be achieved, the federal government must assist these refugees and assist grassroots charities who’re engaged on a frontline stage to offer the correct providers.”

Recriminations are enjoying out over whether or not the UK and US governments dropped the ball over the withdrawal from Afghanistan and successfully handed energy again to the Taliban.

It was that miscalculation that resulted within the heartbreaking scenes of Afghans hanging onto aeroplanes as they raced down the runway, such was their desperation to go away.

A British whistleblower has revealed Johnson’s authorities mismanaged the exit of individuals and lack of assets led to “folks being left to die by the hands of the Taliban”.

For Nasimi, the autopsy isn’t what issues. He stresses the necessity to assist these left behind.

“I believe the precedence now’s to suppose ahead, what ought to we do to any extent further? There are thousands and thousands of individuals in Afghanistan who’re struggling as a result of they’re going through excessive poverty and starvation, they don’t have entry to fundamental provides as a result of the worldwide neighborhood are reconsidering how they will assist Afghanistan in gentle of the truth that the federal government is now run by the Taliban.”

In echoes of what occurred in Iraq and Syria, the strange individuals are bearing the brunt for what their leaders do. Though the Taliban, after all, staged a coup and have been by no means elected.

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“The folks don’t wish to reside below the Taliban’s rule and the Taliban doesn’t symbolize the folks of Afghanistan,” added Nasimi. “The worldwide neighborhood has the cash, however they don’t know who to provide the cash to. They don’t wish to give the cash to a authorities that’s run by the Taliban to allow them to use it for their very own functions. We have to have a correct debate and dialogue to keep away from any human catastrophe in Afghanistan, the folks have suffered conflict for the previous 42 years and there’s a want for worldwide organisations just like the UN and the World Financial institution and the British authorities to return collectively to create a brand new plan for Afghanistan’s future.”

A part of that imaginative and prescient for Nasimi is the return of overseas troops, he doesn’t see any approach else issues could be resolved. 

“Army presence on the one hand I believe is important, as a result of Afghanistan isn’t a rustic that needs to be left alone. The Afghan authorities wants the assist of the worldwide neighborhood, the capability to run and handle a rustic isn’t there.”

It might be that at some point, Nasimi takes BoJo’s present place and may very well be making these requires actual. He after all understands that’s a great distance off, however doesn’t thoughts entertaining the dream.

“The ambition in the long run is to get entangled in British politics, after all you need to begin someplace. On the age that I’m, prime minister will probably be a long-term purpose, first I’ve to get entangled at a neighborhood stage, and hopefully I win the election subsequent yr.” 

He does add, nonetheless, that it displays what he associates with Britain and the probabilities it gives. “It might be so good to have the British prime minister who got here as a refugee within the UK behind a lorry and comes from Afghanistan. Due to the hospitality and the alternatives obtainable in Nice Britain, individuals are capable of obtain what they need and construct a profitable life.”

Whether or not he will get to 10 Downing Avenue stays to be seen, however Nasimi needs to be an instance even when he by no means goes past the native council. It’s about shining a light-weight to a pathway that he is aware of would by no means have been attainable if his household had remained in Afghanistan.

And it’s additionally to shatter the British concept that to be within the Conservatives means you will need to hail from blue blood and wealth. 

“I wish to break that stereotype, it’s for everybody who has a dream and needs to realize one thing and is considering innovation. There are quite a lot of alternatives for folks like myself and we have to work very arduous to be a catalyst for change and a job mannequin for hundreds of different people who find themselves in an identical place that we have been in, once we got here to the UK.”