Hundreds await resettlement from Afghanistan

Almost two-thirds of people eligible to come to the UK under a scheme for those who supported the British and international community’s efforts during the war in Afghanistan are stuck there or in other countries awaiting resettlement to the UK, the Foreign Secretary has said.

When Taliban militants returned to power in summer 2021 after western forces, including the UK and US, withdrew following a 20-year occupation, the British government announced legal routes for those “most vulnerable and at risk” to come to the UK.

They committed to welcome up to 20,000 people under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, but campaigners have criticised the process for being slow, and there has been ongoing concern about eligible Afghans being stuck in other countries as they try to make it to the UK.

Some who fought alongside UK forces in Afghanistan later fled to Pakistan, but have since been threatened with being deported back home. Their plight was raised last month in the House of Lords.

Pakistan had announced it was expelling Afghans who took refuge there as part of an ongoing crackdown on people without valid papers.

In a letter to Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Alicia Kearns, Lord Cameron said “almost all of the most vulnerable undocumented EPS [eligible persons] will have left Pakistan” before December 31, 2023.

He said: “Plans are in place to bring the remainder of those now in third countries to the UK early in the New Year, leaving only those still in Afghanistan, of which our estimate is there are less than 700.”