Born in Afghanistan’s central highlands of Hazarajat, Roh Yakobi arrived in the UK in November 2004 as a refugee, with no English and no connections, after fleeing captivity and torture at the hands of the Taliban as a 12-year-old child. Before leaving Afghanistan, he survived a Taliban imposed blockade during which he lost a baby brother to malnutrition. Prior to arriving in the UK, he lived as a refugee child labourer in Iran and Pakistan, working on construction sites, in sweatshops, and in factories.
After settling in the UK and learning English – mostly through conversing at his warehouse and factory jobs as well listening to BBC Radios, Roh studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the Open University, which led him to a career as a political and security analyst with a focus on international affairs, development, counter-extremism, and refugee rights. He has worked with and advised senior political leaders, NGOs, and think tanks, including government Ministers, MPs, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and the International Rescue Committee. He has written for and appeared on national and international media outlets.
A high-profile Labour Party parliamentary candidate in the 2024 General Election, Roh was named one of Labour’s “ten brightest” new candidates by New Statesman magazine. He was also profiled by The Times newspaper, Tortoise Media, The Mirror, and others. Through his influential podcast, Afghanistan with Roh Yakobi, he has interviewed a wide range of senior figures, including former US National Security Adviser General H.R. McMaster – and other senior American figures, British government ministers, journalists, historians such as Dame Mary Beard, and others.