EALING Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq met with 11-year-old Arash Mehran who fled from Kabul last month amid the Taliban takeover.

Arash was reunited in hotel quarantine with his father who worked for the British Army, after he and his mother were evacuated on a UK military aircraft to Dubai in August, before arriving in Acton.

The youngster said he'd taught himself English on the internet, and was happy to be back with his Dad, though he added "London is much colder than Kabul."

Arash appeared alongside Rupa Huq on ITV London News, where he voiced concerns for friends left behind in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. 

Huq met Arash at a meeting with the Society of Afghan Residents in the UK (SAR UK), which has been based at West Acton Community Centre since 1982.

Huq said: "It was an honour to meet Arash and the volunteers at the Society, who have been working tirelessly to support Afghans of all religions and none.

"He was such an impressive young man with a wise head on young shoulders."

She added: "My staff have been working around the clock to support the Afghan diaspora community in Ealing, Acton and Chiswick, fielding calls and emails.

"We have processed the details of well over a thousand individuals, many of whom are still stuck in Afghanistan, sometimes going house to house in hiding from the Taliban.

"The Government has failed the people of Afghanistan, and has failed to provide Ealing Council with the support it needs to house Afghan refugees.

"I will continue to press the Government to take in its fair share of refugees, provide safe passage for asylum seekers, support local authorities, and ensure that all the gains made in human rights in Afghanistan in the past 20 years aren't needlessly lost."

The meeting was also attended by Cllr Aysha Raza of Ealing Council.

Three families from Afghanistan are currently being supported by Ealing Council, and more are understood to currently be in hotel quarantine in the borough.

The Government has pledged to rehome 5000 Afghan refugees this year, which Huq said was, "merely a drop in the ocean."

See Rupa and Arash's interview from ITV News, Here.