Up to 50 people a day are signing up to offer help to Afghans who fled the Taliban
The UK’s largest refugee befriending scheme has closed applications in London following a meteoric rise in sign-ups amid the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Until recently HostNation, a befriending programme set up in 2017 to connect asylum seekers and refugees to locals, received about 10 applications a month – but as news of the Afghan crisis flooded screens, volunteer inquiries surged to more than 50 in just one day.