'I feel free' - LGBT Afghan refugees arrive in UK

Rindfleisch
Published on Oct 31, 2021
I feel like "a human being for the first time" in my life, a gay Afghan man has said after arriving in the UK with 28 others from the LGBT community.

The man - who the BBC is not naming for safety reasons - fled Afghanistan, fearing for his life under the Taliban.

The hard-line Islamist group returned to power in August, after US-led troops left at the end of a 20-year presence.

On Friday, a Taliban spokesman told Reuters news agency that the group would not respect gay rights.

"Everything collapsed after the fall of Kabul," the man told the BBC. "I was very depressed. I was counting my days to die.