Operation Warm Welcome is the cosy name for the British effort to help thousands of terrified Afghans after they won sanctuary in the UK following the Taliban takeover of their country five years ago.
asserted
they → help → country
We were told that those rescued during a dramatic airlift included interpreters and other loyal Afghans who, for 20 years, had worked for British forces first dispatched to fight the ‘War on Terror’ after the 9/11 attacks.
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who → tell → attacks
The West’s battle against the Taliban was lost when the Americans abruptly pulled out.
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Americans → lose → Taliban
In Britain, people from all walks of life prepared to do their bit for the newly arrived Afghans who were hosted over two years in 82 hotels as they waited for free houses.
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they → prepare → houses
Many volunteers would have read about their plight through the Daily Mail’s award-winning Betrayal Of The Brave campaign, which focused exclusively on those courageous Afghans who had helped British forces.
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who → read → forces
Yet now a shocking picture is emerging about Operation Warm Welcome.
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picture → emerge → Welcome
It is a dismal portrait of gross Whitehall profligacy, naivety, carelessness and even blatant cheating, which has not only cost the British taxpayer billions of pounds and will continue to burden us financially for decades to come, but has also made it more difficult for those Afghans who helped Britain in Kabul to claim asylum legitimately.
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who → cost → asylum
Our investigation has revealed that many of the incoming Afghans were not vetted properly during the hectic evacuation from their country or upon their arrival in the UK.
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many → reveal → UK
The Daily Mail has learned that, far from all being loyal interpreters, countless numbers had no connection to the British Armed Forces but invented a back-story or paid local officials a going rate of $5,000 (£3,700) to get a place on the flights.
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numbers → learn → flights
Then, courtesy of the Government’s Operation Warm Welcome, an umbrella title for the various Afghan resettlement schemes, they were allowed to start a new life here.
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they → allow → life
Astonishingly, some of the rescued Afghans, presumed to be arriving for the first time, already had homes in Britain.
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some → rescue → Britain
They were resettled (and given second houses) after cannily rushing to Afghanistan before the capital Kabul fell to the Taliban.
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capital → resettle → Taliban
There, we are told by our sources, they coolly collected up family members before the entire clan was flown to Britain in the airlift.
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clan → tell → airlift
The Daily Mail has been told that some Afghan families routinely rejected offers of a free house from the Home Office because they ‘didn’t fancy’ the area it was in
A hotel manager, Jamie Rossiter, has sensationally estimated that just two families among the 160 he got to know personally over two years at his Buckinghamshire hotel had ‘provable’ links to British forces.
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he → tell → forces
He made it his job to befriend and talk to his Afghan guests after they arrived in 2021.
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they → make → 2021
‘That low number is based on what they told me.
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they → base → me
They said they were painters and decorators . . . photocopier repair men, or in random jobs [unconnected to the British operation in Afghanistan],’ he has revealed in an explosive video interview with social commentator and former charity worker Nick Buckley, which is now online and has been watched by thousands.
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which → say → thousands
Jamie, 48, who reported his concerns to the Home Office at the time, adds: ‘We were told [by the Government] they were translators, guides, people that had worked with the British forces . . . so we were quite happy to welcome them.
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we → report → them
It took a little time for my staff to come to terms with the idea that most of these people didn’t need help and were often richer than them.
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most → take → them
During our own investigation, we have spoken to members of the British Afghan community and those who worked in hotels scattered across the Midlands and southern Britain that took in the newcomers.
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that → speak → newcomers
They have pointed to gaping holes in Operation Warm Welcome, which one hotel manager described ‘like a gold rush from start to finish’.
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manager → point → finish
Everyone involved seemed to be thinking ‘how can we make money out of this’, from taxi drivers taking Afghans to appointments who were then reimbursed by the Government to local councils that received special grants to settle the new arrivals, and the guests themselves.
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that → involve → arrivals
We have been given a window into the ugly side of Operation Warm Welcome.
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We → give → Welcome
One whistleblower revealed that some Afghan wives were kept in purdah by their husbands from the moment they arrived.
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they → reveal → moment
‘They stayed in their rooms, were not allowed to share communal areas or eat in the hotel restaurant with their menfolk in line with customs they imported from their homeland.
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they → stay → homeland
Some of the women I never saw at all during their entire stay.
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I → see → stay
They even took their meals in the bedrooms,’ an informant told us.
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informant → take → us
Racism reared its head, too.
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Racism → rear → head
We have learned that Indian heritage cleaners were upset when Afghans at one hotel told the management that they only wanted a ‘white woman’ tending their rooms.
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they → learn → rooms
In another case, Afghans demanded the sacking of the entire hotel security team because they were Pakistani – ‘an ethnicity they looked down on,’ said a whistleblower.
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whistleblower → demand → team
Police were called to some hotels to investigate incidents of sickening domestic abuse against wives by husbands, while ‘feral’ teenagers ran amok as their Afghan fathers shrugged their shoulders, telling staff, police and child social workers: ‘There is nothing we can do to control them because we cannot hit our children in your country.’
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we → call → country
We have heard reports of bored Afghan men whiling away time by buying porn videos, alcohol and gambling scratch cards in breach of their Islamic faith.
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men → hear → faith
Others used free taxi rides to the JobCentre, where they were meant to be searching for work, to peel off to the nearby shopping mall.
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they → use → mall
Social commentator and former charity worker Nick Buckley revealed in an interview that many Afghans were unconnected to the operation in Afghanistan
‘They abused British generosity.
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They → reveal → generosity
After a while, the penny dropped at the Home Office and free taxi rides for guests were restricted in most hotels,’ said an Afghan interpreter whom we contacted after being told he had regularly visited the guests to help them with English.
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he → drop → English
Upon arrival, all the Afghans were granted indefinite leave to remain, which allowed them from day one to claim benefits and to work.
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them → grant → benefits
Local JobCentre staff were sent into the hotels to help them seek tax-paying employment.
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them → send → employment
‘They preferred the black market, taking shifts as taxi drivers or for food delivery firms.
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They → prefer → firms
At my hotel, a black van would pick them up in the morning and return them in the evening,’ said one manager, who was surprised to open his front door and find one of his guests, working as a food courier, handing him the takeaway meal that he had just ordered.
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he → pick → that
To add insult to injury, the Daily Mail has been told that some Afghan families routinely rejected offers of a free house from the Home Office because they ‘didn’t fancy’ the area it was in or because they could save up benefit payments by staying put in the hotel for as long as possible.
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they → add → hotel
…and 37 more, not listed.
The Aporia
