Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the news story entitled Bespoke resettlement route for Afghan refugees announced, published by her Department on 18 August 2021, whether the 20,000 Afghan nationals who will be resettled in the UK will include Afghan staff and volunteers who have worked for or with international NGOs to support efforts to extend democracy or education in the last twenty years.

On Wednesday 18 August, the Government announced the launch of a new bespoke Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), to welcome up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghans to the UK. The scheme will focus on those most at risk and in its first year will resettle up to 5,000 vulnerable Afghans. This scheme delivers on the Government’s commitment in the New Plan for Immigration to create safe and legal routes for those in fear of persecution and oppression in their home country. The Government is working urgently to open this route and further details will be announced in due course on gov.uk.

The new route is separate from, and in addition to, the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which offers any current or former locally employed staff who are assessed to be under serious threat to life priority relocation to the UK.