Imagine this: you’ve escaped persecution in your own country. You arrive somewhere new and you don’t’ know a soul. You don’t speak the language and you can’t even read the letters of the alphabet.

After decades of conflict, Afghanistan is experiencing one of the fastest-growing humanitarian crises in the world. Here are four things the UK government should do to help Afghan refugees. 

The much-anticipated Global Compact for Refugees (GCR), expected in late 2018, together with the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), promise to revitalize refugee response through a multi-stakeholder “whole of society” approach. At a time when the international community is grappling with fundamental questions such as the equitable sharing of responsibility for refugees, the views and opinions of citizens in East Africa are invaluable in charting new directions. East Africa has a long history of hosting refugee populations. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have experienced large influxes of displaced people from numerous conflicts around the region over the past decades. These three countries currently host more than 2.2 million refugees, with Uganda hosting 1.4 million, followed by Kenya (just under 500,000) and Tanzania (over 350,000).