More than 200 Afghans who applied for sanctuary in UK waiting two years for decision

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More than 200 Afghans who applied for sanctuary in the UK have been waiting two years for a decision from British authorities, The Independent can reveal.

The Afghans, who applied for assist primarily based on their claims they helped the British armed forces, have been left “in limbo”, with many dwelling in concern for their lives, campaigners stated.

Armed forces minister James Heappey confirmed 2,125 folks have been nonetheless waiting on a decision as of Tuesday, with 10 per cent of those waiting for two years.

The numbers waiting on a decision are up from 2,026 functions in September 2023, regardless of the Ministry of Defence pledging to chop the backlog to zero by the tip of summer time.

Ministers have confronted criticism over their dealing with of functions to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, designed for these who labored alongside the British forces in Afghanistan.

In a joint investigation with Lighthouse Reports and Sky News, The Independent revealed that the circumstances of Afghan particular forces who have been paid and educated by the UK authorities had been wrongly rejected for assist.

The authorities has now dedicated to reassessing some 2,000 functions from these with credible hyperlinks to Afghan specialist items.

Afghans who had confirmed hyperlinks to the British armed forces have been additionally deserted in inns in Pakistan for months on finish after Rishi Sunak determined to restrict the usage of inns in the UK.

Those waiting for a decision in Afghanistan will face an extra wait for relocation even when they’re discovered eligible, with restarted MoD flights now transferring folks from Pakistan to the UK.

Of the two,125 Afghans who are nonetheless waiting on a resettlement decision, 207 have been waiting two years, 333 for a 12 months and 268 have been waiting for 18 months, authorities figures present. 750 of the circumstances are new, whereas the remainder are complicated, the MoD stated.

Labour’s shadow armed forces minister Luke Pollard stated that authorities’s remedy of Afghans “has been a shameful saga of failure”. He added: “Ministers have failed to deal with the backlog of Arap applications, left Afghans who served alongside our forces in limbo and thousands are still waiting for decisions on their eligibility to relocate to the UK.”

Sarah Fenby-Dixon, Afghanistan advisor on the Refugee Aid Network, stated that the actual fact extra than 2,000 folks have been nonetheless waiting on an Arap decision “is evidence that the government has failed to understand the gravity of the situation for those Afghans left behind and at risk”.

She added: “Many of these people face serious and immediate threats because of their previous work with HM government. Just today, it is reported that the Taliban are again carrying out house-to-house searches in Kabul and many Arap applicants face torture and death if they are found.”

She known as on the federal government to get the backlog cleared “as quickly as possible”.

One Afghan former intelligence analyst, who supplied letters of assist from his RAF colleagues, has been waiting on his Arap decision for over two years. He fled to the UK on a small boat, is now dwelling in a Home Office resort, and has been threatened with removing to Rwanda.

He stated he had written quite a few occasions to the MoD’s resettlement scheme pleading with them to evaluate his case. He added: “What the MoD is currently doing is complete betrayal and unfairness. I’ve written to them ten times but I get no response at all. It seems like they have completely closed Arap and left everyone out.”

An MoD spokesperson stated: “We are honouring our commitment to those brave Afghans who supported the UK mission in Afghanistan, and those granted settled status.

“We continue to process every Arap application at pace and the vast majority have been processed. The small number remaining are mainly a mixture of new cases or very complex cases.

“So far, we have brought around 24,600 people to safety from Afghanistan, including over 15,600 people from the Arap scheme, which is one of the most generous of any country, and thousands of Afghans are eligible for our resettlement schemes.”