Abstract
We present our experience of addressing a novel challenge of managing COVID-19 during the pandemic among Afghan nationals who arrived in the United Kingdom. Various schemes were introduced to resettle Afghan nationals who supported UK Forces in Afghanistan. The initial Ex-Gratia Scheme was expanded in December 2020 to the Afghanistan Relocation and Assistance Policy. In January 2022, the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme was launched. Many Afghan nationals were granted 5 years’ leave to enter the UK. Local authorities in England were required to organise ‘Bridging Hotels’ and provide support for 18 months, coinciding with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic from December 2020. Kent County Council established three bridging hotels, and policies were implemented to prevent and contain the spread of COVID-19. We describe how the Council and the UK Health Security Agency overcame this novel challenge with an integrated monitoring system. We also outline the successes and challenges experienced in protecting these nationals and managing outbreaks during the pandemic. Daily Lateral Flow testing was introduced, later reduced to 3 times a week. Reporting mechanisms were set up to manage positive cases and outbreaks promptly. Training was provided to staff and Afghan nationals to self-test and register the results. There were ten confirmed cases of COVID-19, five Afghan nationals and five staff members. An outbreak occurred in 2 hotels, with no hospitalisations or deaths. The challenges, included cultural and language barriers. For comparison, we briefly review the experience of resettling Afghan nationals by the United States Government. Our work has shown that close collaboration and adopting a system-wide approach, combined with technical expertise, will likely produce the best possible results even in a global emergency. We highlight the importance of leadership provided by local authority public health departments, with the Director of Public Health at the helm for such incidents.
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank various local and national agency representatives who participated in the Kent Bridging Hotel Taskforce for their leadership and contributions. We would like to thank Dr Asha Ramesh (Public Health Placement, KCC) for her interest in this work and helpful support during the revision of this manuscript.
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All authors have met authorship requirements. Specifically, all authors substantially contributed to manuscript development across the following inputs: conception and design (AG, PB), acquisition of data (AB, CT), policy analysis and literature review (AG, PB, SK) and interpretation of data (RS), drafting the article (MD, SK, HK), reviewing the article and revising it critically (AG, PB, MD). All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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This work was undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and it was part of the authors’ day-to-day duties in responding to the pandemic with specific focus on Afghan nationals. Experience of frontline professionals on COVID response has been shared extensively to expand our knowledge and help in future pandemics. The authors had no access to individual patient identifiable information, and the data was dealt in aggregate. Hence ethical approval was neither sought nor required as it is considered as routine public health work and not a research project. It is also in line with our institutional research governance framework which only requires ethical approval for original research. Our research governance framework can be accessed here. https://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council/information-and-data/research-governance.
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The Afghan nationals were receiving from the public health team as part of a supportive package which included both preventive and curative COVID 19 management. Any required consent for interventions such as vaccinations and or treatment was obtained by the clinicians as per standard National Health Service (NHS) protocols. As they were receiving services as part of outbreak management, ethical consent was neither sought nor required which is the standard procedure in managing outbreaks. All necessary NHS, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Local Authority informed consent procedures were strictly adhered to. NHS consent procedure is available. https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/consent-to-treatment/.
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George, A., Badrinath, P., Daniyal, M. et al. Responding to overlapping crises: local authority public health perspective in resettling of Afghan nationals during the COVID-19 pandemic in England. Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-06349-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-06349-8
