Home Office denies visas to Afghan musicians who fled Taliban
The Home Office has rejected visa applications from 47 young musicians from Afghanistan, who were due to perform at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on March 7th.
The musicians are all part of the Afghan Youth Orchestra, the remnants of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, which was exiled after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Composed of both men and women between the ages of 14 and 20, the orchestra is in breach of the Taliban’s ban on music and on education for young women and girls.
Now residing in Portugal, the orchestra was due to embark upon a series of concerts in the UK this month, including dates in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, playing a mixture of Western and Afghan classical music. However, the British Home Office has rejected visa applications from 47 of the performers, according to Christina Lamb, the Chief Foreign Correspondent at The Sunday Times.
The leader of the orchestra, Dr Ahmad Sarmast, has shared via Lamb, “It’s so disappointing. These girls have been practising for months and it would have been so beautiful”.
This news follows repeated criticism of the Home Office over denying visas for many international artists. Last year, an investigation by The Voice suggested that the Home Office had been disproportionately targeting prominent Afrobeat artists, refusing them entry into the United Kingdom.
Nii Funny, a Ghanaian singer who had their visa denied in 2021, said, “It is not fair for them to treat us that way because the UK is our former enslavers so if we are going there to play a show, I think they have to support us.” when speaking to The Voice.
The Afghan Youth Orchestra’s UK shows were due to act as a run-up to their headline show at New York’s Carnegie Hall in August.
This is a developing story.
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