An Afghan asylum seeker who arrived in Britain after working for the Taliban has been jailed for kidnapping a seven-year-old girl and sexually assaulting her inside a taxpayer-funded hotel where he had been housed while his claim was processed.
Afsar Safi, 30, lured the child away from her mother with an apple before dragging her down a corridor by the arm at the asylum hotel in Acton, west London, in September last year. The girl managed to escape by alerting security staff at the facility. She later told jurors: “I could not tell him to go away because I was too scared. He put his arms around me. It feels like he’s coming after me all the time. My nightmares feel like they are real, so I cry sometimes.”
Safi, who arrived in the UK by small boat in 2021, was convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to two and a half years in prison at Isleworth Crown Court. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for seven years. He could be released on licence in as little as six months.
The details that emerged during sentencing raised serious questions about the asylum screening process. It was revealed that Safi had stated on his asylum application that he had been involved with the Taliban since the age of ten. His application was refused and he is currently appealing that decision.
Speaking through a Pashto interpreter in court, Safi said: “I like children and she was a child. I asked her where she was going. She said she was waiting for her mother to go shopping. I kissed her to the face. I kissed her out of the love for children. Back home all the people do that.” His barrister argued that Safi had been taken by the Taliban as a slave as a child and had received only three years of education.
The case has reignited debate about the vetting of asylum seekers housed in hotels alongside families, and the circumstances under which individuals with disclosed links to proscribed organisations can continue to reside in taxpayer-funded accommodation while their appeals remain ongoing.
