Afghanistan

The Triples: Ex-Afghan special forces who served with British troops to be allowed to live in UK

Former Afghan special forces, who fought alongside British troops, will be allowed to resettle in the UK with their families after initially being wrongly turned down for asylum.

The Ministry of Defence has been reviewing the original decision-making process which led to Afghans who served with the elite Commando Force 333 (CF333) and Afghan Territorial Force 444 (ATF444) units, known collectively as the 'Triples', being refused relocation to the UK following the British withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Defence Minister Luke Pollard told the House of Commons the MOD was in the process of looking at around 2,000 cases, as part of a review started by the previous Conservative government.

Applications from the Triples were initially found ineligible for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) because they hadn't worked directly for the UK Government, but it's these decisions that are now being revisited.

Mr Pollard said: "Officials have now confirmed that there is evidence of payment from UK Government to members of Afghan specialist units including CF333 and ATF444 and that for some individuals this demonstrates a direct employment relationship.

"This is, of course, contrary to the position reported to parliament by the previous government that no such evidence of direct employment existed."

Mr Pollard said independent case workers have already looked at three-quarters of relevant applications.

He said he expected around 25% of those claims which were originally rejected to now have that decision overturned.

"We have unblocked progress and that eligible former Triples and their families will now rightly receive the sanctuary that their work in support of our troops in Afghanistan deserves," the defence minister said.

Millions of Afghans, including those who have served alongside the British, had fled to Pakistan in the wake of the Taliban's recapture of the country three years ago.

However, hundreds of thousands were then told to leave Pakistan after its government cracked down on foreigners in the country without papers, with many being under threat once they returned to Afghanistan.

Mr Pollard said it was a "source of deep regret and concern" over how long the review had taken.

He said: "Many members will have concerns of the welfare of former Triples who might be Arap-eligible and still remain at risk.

"Despite sharing their deep frustrations, I hope it is of some comfort to colleagues across the House that if a decision is overturned as part of this review, applicants are informed immediately, and the relocation process can then start.

"I have already begun signing eligible decisions to relocate eligible former Triples to the UK."

Mr Pollard said the oversight was not an attempt by previous ministers or department officials to deliberately mislead the public or impede or delay the process, but he believed it to be due to the nature of "challenging record keeping" following the 20-year operation.

However, he made it clear he felt "this sort of system failure was not good enough".

The minister criticised the Arap scheme which he said "should have been led with more competence and grip to ensure these mistakes were caught and managed more quickly".

He assured the House the Government will now "continue this work at pace so that we can close this chapter in our history, knowing that we did right by those who served shoulder to shoulder with our Armed Forces".