Afghan refugee, 11, who has been stuck in France for EIGHT months

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Pictured: Afghan refugee, 11, who has been stuck in France for EIGHT months waiting to be reunited in UK with family after they were separated in Kabul airport bombing

  • Qamar Jabarkhyl, 28, said his ‘heart melts’ when Obaidullah calls him crying
  • Obaidullah and his parents fled Jalalabad during the Taliban takeover last year
  • A 22-year-old Afghan refugee is looking after Obaidullah in a flat in Strasbourg

This is the picture of an 11-year-old Afghan boy who has been stranded in France for eight months after getting separated from his parents in the Kabul airport bombing.

Qamar Jabarkhyl, a 28-year-old UK citizen, said his ‘heart melts’ when his young cousin, Obaidullah, calls him crying every day from the tiny flat where he is staying in Strasbourg.

Obaidullah and his parents, along with his twin brother and older sister, fled his home city of Jalalabad during the Taliban takeover last summer.

They wanted to catch a flight to the UK to stay with Mr Jabarkhyl, but were thrown apart as they waited to board a plane when a bomb was detonated outside the airport on August 26.

Mr Jabarkhyl said: ‘It sounded like complete chaos from what Obaidullah told me. He was holding hands with his twin brother and they ran one towards the (airport) gates and their family ran the other way.’

This is the picture of 11-year-old Afghan boy Obaidullah (left) who has been stranded in France for eight months after getting separated from his parents in the Kabul airport bombing

He believes the brothers were flown to Doha, where, exhausted from the journey, Obaidullah fell asleep and got lost when his twin went to the toilet.

The youngster, then 10, was woken up and ushered in a different direction by strangers who promised him that he would be reunited with his brother on the plane, his cousin said.

But he was mistakenly put on a separate flight to France, where he has been stuck ‘unhappy and scared’ for the last eight months, Mr Jabarkhyl, an engineer, said.

A 22-year-old Afghan refugee living in a studio flat in Strasbourg has taken Obaidullah under his wing, but works long hours and cannot afford to care for him full-time.

In March, a family reunion visa application was made for Obaidullah on the advice of the Home Office, which promised it would be dealt with swiftly, Mr Jabarkhyl said.

The same month, Obaidullah had his 11th birthday, thousands of miles away from his loved ones for the first time.

Afghans struggle to reach the foreign forces to show their credentials to flee the country outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan

At least 13 people including children were killed in a blast outside the airport on August 26. The blast occurred outside the Abbey Gate

‘It was really hard. I asked the guy he lives with to buy him a birthday cake but he said he was crying all day long. He didn’t even want to cut his own cake,’ Mr Jabarkhyl said.

‘It just melts your heart when an 11-year-old boy is calling 20 times a day just to say “hello” and “hi”.  

‘He’s not the same boy I would talk to on the phone in Afghanistan years ago, telling me hundreds of stories about his friends, what vegetables his family is growing in their garden.’

Four months later, the family say the Home Office has still failed to confirm whether Obaidullah will be able to stay with them in the UK.

‘I just feel the Home Office don’t even care, with these empty promises Priti Patel makes about letting people from Afghanistan settle in the country,’ Mr Jabarkhyl said.

Obaidullah’s parents and sister could not be evacuated and have moved to a rural area of Afghanistan after Jalalabad was overtaken by the Taliban, while his twin made it safely to the UK, the cousin said.

The family has accused Priti Patel (pictured) of making ‘false promises’ over safe routes into the UK

It comes after Mr Jabarkhyl’s constituency MP, Bob Blackman (above), raised Obaidullah’s case in the House of Commons, describing the bureaucracy surrounding biometric cards and applications as ‘a nightmare’

The youngster is desperate to be reunited his brother and eventually the rest of his family, but his mother is terrified she may never see either of her sons again, according to Mr Jabarkhyl.

‘She thinks that she will never see them again. She thinks she will be killed or they will be killed,’ he said.

It comes after Mr Jabarkhyl’s constituency MP, Bob Blackman, raised Obaidullah’s case in the House of Commons, describing the bureaucracy surrounding biometric cards and applications as ‘a nightmare’.

Up to 20,000 refugees are expected to arrive under the ACRS, with individuals and families who were brought to safety under Operation Pitting – the initial British military rescue mission – prioritised in the first part of the scheme.

The two remaining routes will include allowing at-risk British Council and security contractors to be resettled in the UK and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to also refer refugees for resettlement.

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.

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