I meet 14-year-old Fatima at the Essex hotel she’s been staying in for seven months since she fled Afghanistan.
She tells me how much she appreciates being able to attend school each day. She knows that under the Taliban, girls are not allowed to attend school. Parks, gyms and swimming pools are also off limits.
But her new life in Colchester has its own problems. Her hotel food is “mainly rice and beans” and there’s little space for her parents and five siblings.
It’s Eid when I meet the refugee Afghan mums and children at a celebration they’re holding in a small grassy area behind their hotel.
