Hotels used to accommodate refugees for the past two years are set to reopen to the public over the next few days.

Two Kent venues – the Hothfield Holiday Inn near Ashford and Abbots Barton in Canterbury – were taken over by the Home Office to resettle people fleeing Afghanistan during the 2021 Taliban takeover.

The government took out a long-term contract with the 92-room Holiday Inn on the A20 Maidstone Road in September 2021.

When it was originally booked out, it was thought that as many as 100 people were staying in the hotel, which will reopen on Monday.

Over the course of the two years since, Ashford Borough Council (ABC) has confirmed that a total of 300 Afghan refugees were placed in the hotel by the Home Office.

A spokesman added a total of 15 families have been resettled in the borough.

Another hotel in the borough continues to provide accommodation for asylum seekers from multiple regions.

Meanwhile, the Abbots Barton hotel, which comes under the Best Western brand, was closed to the public in August 2021 to house more than 100 Afghan men, women and children.

The gothic-style, three-star hotel is undergoing ongoing refurbishment but will be ready to welcome visitors again from today.

A notice on the hotel’s website says: “Whilst refurbish works are being carried out at the hotel, we are currently offering bed and breakfast and room-only rates.

“The restaurant and bar will be closed during the refurbishments, but we have arranged a light room service menu.”

Canterbury City Council has been working with the Home Office and hotel to support the refugees.

But the then council leader Ben Fitter-Harding insisted at the time that rehousing those seeking refuge would not be at the expense of the more than 2,000 local people already on the authority’s housing waiting list.

Council spokesman Leo Whitlock says everyone pulled together to make the process work.

"Two years ago, the Abbots Barton Hotel opened as a bridging hotel to welcome the first Afghan nationals arriving under Operation Pitting following their evacuation from Afghanistan.

"We are now at the end of this phase of support.

"During the two-year period, Canterbury City Council's Resettlement Team has supported 84 families by giving them somewhere to live, access to English language courses, healthcare, work and education before helping them to move on to what is known as settled accommodation.

"Some of those families have decided to remain in the district in the private rented sector.

"They have found jobs and their children have settled into schools and colleges.

"Our team has given up weekends and evenings to make this possible but everyone has pulled together including Kent County Council, the voluntary sector and government departments.

"Our work has been recognised and commended by the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

"We thank the staff at the Best Western Abbots Barton for their help, support and compassion over this period.

"And we celebrate the fact the hotel is once again able to provide quality overnight accommodation to those visiting the city."

During their stay at the hotel, KentOnline spoke to one of the families about the ordeal of escaping Afghanistan.

Sayed Hashemi, formerly one of Afghanistan’s top mining and commercial lawyers, arrived in England with his wife, Lida, and three young sons.

He described the “hell” of living in militarised Kabul, and as the Taliban’s grip tightened, his family attempted to gain refuge overseas.

“At that time, if I left home in the morning I really did not expect to come back home in the evening,” said Sayed.

“You would always feel that people wanted to kill you. My kids were at home all the time. It was like prison. I told them do not go out, do not open the door to anyone.”

The risk to Sayed became apparent one morning in early May, when two improvised bombs were found beneath his car.

‘At that time, if I left home in the morning I really did not expect to come back home in the evening...’

“The Taliban were killing journalists, government officials. They just wanted to create terror. I was five when I lost my father and I didn’t want this to happen to my kids,” he said.

As the Taliban gained ground, Sayed applied to refuge schemes in both America and the UK.

At the end of June, he was accepted for the UK’s Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) programme - designed to resettle thousands of Afghans who have worked with the UK Government, and their families.

Sayed recalled feeling “a mixture of happiness and sadness” when they were told their flight would leave on August 12, 2021

“Sad because I was leaving my family, my friends, my house, my life - everything I have built in the last 40 years,” he said.

Just three days later, the Taliban captured Kabul and Afghanistan’s government fell, sparking scenes of chaos at the capital’s airport as terrified people scrambled desperately for flights to safety.

“I was lucky to get out before the collapse of Kabul,” says Sayed, who watched the scenes unfold on TV from the safety of England.

"Thank God we left before that chaos. I would never, ever have been able to make it through that crowd with my family. I would have just sat at home and said ‘I can’t go through that crowd’. And I know that Taliban would definitely have come to find me.”

Sayed and his family have now safely relocated to Scotland.