Many of you from our community will know Romal, have followed his story and may have donated to support him. We now have the wonderful news to report that he has finally been granted asylum after 10 years of adversity. He left Afghanistan at the age of 13, had a horrendous journey to the UK, has suffered inhumane treatment by various European authorites (including the UK), and had his asylum application rejected a few times.

To be frank, we were all pretty worried about the outcome of Romal’s final appeal, especially when he started a family with his girlfriend Amber. Their gorgeous daughter Layla was born in early 2020.

Everything changed when the Home Office accepted his Human Right to a Family Life (after getting DNA evidence of fatherhood and other evidence that he is in a genuine relationship) in March. This meant that he could get a(n expensive) visa to stay here, and could at last work. Simultaneously, his asylum appeal case was ongoing. After an online hearing in September and a wait of a few weeks, he heard that he had been granted asylum. It was too soon to get excited though – the Home Office had two weeks to appeal the decision. We held our breaths. Their October deadline arrived; nothing from the Home Office. So after a decade of waiting, Romal had been granted asylum! We were all so relieved, none moreso than Romal and Amber who can at long last start to build their and Layla’s futures together.

Now he’s just waiting for his Biometric Residency Permit, granted in March… When he receives that he will be able to work. You can read more about this situation in Roger Pask’s new article on the immigration system.

Congratulations Romal! Thank you for perservering and remaining so incredibly positive and patient despite everything you have been through and all the worry and disappointments – we really don’t know how you did it.

Thank you to all those of you who have supported Romal and his new family in various ways. What a wonderful outcome!

Special thanks to Roger for the moral support he has given Romal, the support he gained from others, his determination to see justice for Romal and the countless hours of letter/email writing it all took.