UK draws line under Afghan resettlement schemes and shuts out new applications

Resettlement schemes for Afghans to come to the UK after the country was taken over by the Taliban are to be closed under new changes to immigration rules.

The changes laid before Parliament aim to end the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy to new applications from 1 July.

The scheme was designed to help Afghans who had worked with the UK, and their families, and 21,316 people have been resettled to the UK since the Arap scheme was launched in April 2021.

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The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), which was designed to help vulnerable people and those who assisted the UK efforts in Afghanistan to legally come to safety in the UK, will also be closed.

That scheme opened in January 2022 with a pledge by the then-Conservative government to resettle up to 20,000 people over the coming years.

More than 12,800 people have been resettled through ACRS, with children making up more than half the arrivals, and women accounting for a quarter.

The closures come after Defence Secretary John Healey said in December that the schemes could not be an "endless process".

A Home Office paper said Mr Healey now considered the Arap scheme to have fulfilled its original purpose and could be closed.

Resources redeployed

It explained how "defence efforts and resources can be focused where they are most needed – on our nation's security, to combat the acute threats and destabilising behaviour of our adversaries".

The document said Arap's closure to new applications was the first step to completing Afghan resettlement, and the Government aims to have "successfully honoured its obligation" to complete resettlements by the end of this Parliament.

Applications made under Arap before the closure will still be considered, the Home Office document added, as the Ministry of Defence currently has a backlog of 22,000 decisions.

Referrals made under ACRS's Separated Families pathways will also still be considered where decisions have not yet been reached.

BFBS Forces News has contacted the Ministry of Defence for comment.