TAVISTOCK MP Sir Geoffrey Cox is calling for a meeting with the Home Office to bring a threatened Afghan couple to safety in Tavistock.

Responding to an appeal from local humanitarian group Tavistock Welcomes, he has pledged to do all he can to help.

The young married couple, both journalists, are currently in hiding in Pakistan.

Their visa has run out and they could have to return to their home country, where they are wanted by the Taliban for campaigning for women’s rights.

Tavistock Welcomes, an organisation backed by the town’s Quaker community, has had three offers of accommodation for them and can meet the costs of transport to bring them to Tavistock and settle them in.

However the group says they have been met by a wall of silence from the Home Office over asylum and have turned to Sir Geoffrey to intervene to get things moving.

In a statement this week, the MP for Torridge and West Devon said: ‘I have been in communication with Tavistock Welcomes, and completely understand the genuine nature and urgency of this case. Consequently, I have raised the matter with my ministerial colleagues at the Home Office, and I am awaiting a response. I am also in discussions with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whose help will be important, to arrange a meeting as soon as possible.’

The hope is to allow the couple to come to the UK Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.

This is intended to grant asylum for those whose lives are at risk for opposing the Taliban.

However, it has come under heavy criticism for failing to resettle at risk Afghans not already in the UK since its launch a year ago.

The couple, whose real names cannot be revealed because of threats to their safety, are continuing to be vocal on social media against the outrages perpetuated by the Taliban, who have now banned women from higher education.

Neil Jameson, from Tavistock Welcomes, said: ‘They fled to Islamabad in Pakistan a year ago and have been living in hiding there ever since but they are still courageously using social media and underground press to lobby for girls and women in Afghanistan to be allowed back to work and school. Their visas to live in Pakistan expired in September and try as they have the Pakistani government is not renewing visas! The Government has just confirmed that anyone without an up-to-date visa will either be imprisoned or deported back to Afghanistan. Landlords have been told that they can no longer house Afghans with no visas is they are about to be made homeless.’  

Tavistock Welcome want to arrange for the couple to come to the UK under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, launched a year ago by the British Government, which has pledged to resettle up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghans in the UK. This was intended to resettle Afghans who acted as interpreters to help the UK armed forces in fighting the Taliban, and those exposing Taliban actions in their own country.

‘So far only four people have benefitted from ACRS!’ said Neil. ‘We cannot find out why so few when so many are in danger – especially our friends Mohammad and Mena — but received no response from UNHCR or the Home Office itself.’