Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will hold discussions with her counterpart in Turkey on (a) reports of deportations from Turkey of Afghan nationals who have fled the Taliban to Afghanistan and (b) establishing a mechanism to allow undocumented refugees who have fled the Taliban in Afghanistan to apply for asylum in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

Turkey retains the sovereign right to decide who it admits into and deports from the country and has no obligation to explain its decisions to other governments. Deportations are conducted either to deportees' own countries or to another country considered safe by Turkey.

Through Pathway 2 of the UK Government's Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), we are able to receive referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of vulnerable refugees who have fled Afghanistan, for resettlement to the UK. Through the ACRS we will resettle up to 20,000 people at risk from Afghanistan and the region.