Refugees: Afghanistan

(asked on 31st January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the policy of pursuing constrained Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and Afghan citizens resettlement schemes at the same time as seeking to implement reform of the asylum and immigration system under the terms of the Nationality and Borders Bill.


Answered by
Victoria Atkins Portrait
Victoria Atkins
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This question was answered on 23rd February 2022

The UK has a proud track record of helping those who need our protection – and this will continue.

The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) launched on 1 April 2021. More than 7,000 people have been relocated under ARAP so far, with more continuing to arrive.

The ARAP scheme remains open to eligible applicants.

The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) is separate to ARAP and commenced on 6th January, providing up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.

Alongside our response to Afghanistan, the UK continues to welcome those most at risk, including refugees through the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), Community Sponsorship and Mandate Resettlement Schemes. Since 2015, we have resettled more than 26,000 refugees through safe and legal routes direct from regions of conflict and instability - around half of whom were children.

The Nationality and Borders Bill is the most significant overhaul of our asylum system in over two decades with the aim of promoting safe and legal routes. Only by tackling illegal migration can we effectively help those in greatest need. It will bring in a new, comprehensive, fair but firm long-term plan, which seeks to address the challenge of illegal migration head on, and to take down the serious organised criminals exploiting people and profiting from human misery.

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