Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, what steps the Government is taking to assist Afghans who have themselves, or their family members, provided service to UK armed forces and who remain the country and face violence from the Taliban.

We owe a debt of gratitude to interpreters and other locally employed staff who risked their lives working alongside UK forces in Afghanistan and the Government has already supported more than 1,380 former Afghan staff and their families to create new lives in the UK.

The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) launched on 1 April 2021. It acknowledges and reflects the fact that the situation in Afghanistan has changed, and with it the potential risk to current and former locally employed staff who worked for the UK Government over the past twenty years.

Under the new policy, any current or former locally employed staff who are assessed to be under serious threat to life are offered priority relocation to the UK regardless of their employment status, rank or role, or length of time served. Locally Employed Staff who have worked in roles which could have exposed their identities and placed them at risk of reprisals as a result of their work for the UK Government are relocated to the UK by default at their request.

We are significantly accelerating the pace of relocations in parallel with the military withdrawal, but our commitment to those who are eligible under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), and the process to deliver it, is not time-limited and will endure.