Lives of fear for Afghans left behind despite valid UK refuge status

ABDULLAH and his family survive in the confines of a safe house in Kabul, their days broken only by food deliveries or news of progress on their application to flee Afghanistan, which is few and far between.

His young children are trapped in a state of limbo with no place to call home.

Each morning the pair, aged five and seven, ask him why they can’t play outside with him and the other children. “It’s such a big pain for me as a parent,” he said.

“They ask us too many questions and are so restless these days.”

After almost a year in hiding, Abdullah is running out of answers.

A former employee of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), he is among many officials from the former government still trapped in the country – their lives “hanging in the balance” as they exist in secret – despite having valid claims to refuge in the UK.

Like tens of thousands of people, he submitted applications to the government to appeal for resettlement under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which offers relocation or other assistance to those who worked alongside British forces. Just 10,000 have been resettled so far.

Others left behind include Mehdy, who worked as an intelligence operative within the NDS and was paid a monthly bonus by the UK alongside his salary from the Afghan government, making him eligible for ARAP.

Since appealing for help last year, he has received no reply.

Behrooz, who served in president Ashraf Ghani’s government as deputy head of security for Kabul, was told he would be evacuated during the airlift from Kabul last year but was ultimately overlooked.

In December, he was told to make another application under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), launched to give a path to safety for those who “stood up for values” including democracy, women’s rights, freedom of speech and rule of law, as well as people categorised as vulnerable.

That too failed to result in evacuation and, in March, after six months in hiding, he gave up and paid a smuggler to get him into Iran.

General Sir John Mccoll, a former UK Special Envoy to Afghanistan, said that there was “absolutely no reason” why Afghans like Behrooz could not have been evacuated under the ARAP scheme.

He called the ACRS scheme an “unnecessary bureaucratic distraction” adding that “after a year these applications continue to be ignored”.

“The capacity of this government to say one thing whilst doing another defies belief,” he said.

“Lives continue to be lost.” “The contrast with the tremendous and deserving support given to our Ukrainian friends is stark. The UK should, and must do better,” Gen Mccoll added.

The Home Office, which oversees ARAP and ACRS, did not respond to requests for comment.