Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the safety of people in Pakistan who (a) have previously had an application to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme rejected and (b) are waiting for their application to be reconsidered.

The UK Government has had constructive and ongoing conversations with the Government of Pakistan to take steps to prevent the deportation Afghans eligible for UK resettlement schemes from Pakistan.

I have instructed MOD officials to raise awareness of this issue with the Pakistani authorities so that protection from deportation can be extended to those individuals within scope of the forthcoming reassessment of decisions taken on ineligible applications from former members of Afghan specialist units.