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Original insights into major news stories and topical investigations

The current affairs series combining original insights into major news stories with topical investigations

The Report: Afghan Sikhs

Afghan Sikhs

04/09/2014

BBC Radio 4 - The Report, Afghan Sikhs

Melanie Abbott explores the journey Afghan Sikhs make to build a new life in the UK.

After 35 Afghan Sikhs were found in a container at Tilbury docks, Melanie Abbott asks why they were so desperate to get to the UK, and meets the community they were to join.

In August, a man died after 35 Afghan Sikhs were found in a container at Tilbury docks, trying to enter the UK. The case shone a light on the lengths some Afghan Sikhs will go to as they seek to escape persecution in their homeland.

Melanie Abbott asks why they were so desperate to get to the UK and gets to know the community of which they were to become a part. In Southall, she finds a thriving community of Afghan Sikhs and learns about how it absorbs new arrivals. She also hears from lawyers and academics about the plight of Sikhs in Afghanistan and the challenges in claiming asylum in Britain. And she meets a lorry driver in Dover to hear how and his colleagues are facing an ever harder task to prevent immigrants from entering the UK as stowaways on their vehicles.

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