Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to support eligible Afghan nationals under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy who cannot get (a) passports and (b) Pakistan visas for (i) financial and (ii) security reasons.

The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme was launched on 1 April 2021 and has been one of the most generous relocation programmes in the world. It is not time-limited and will endure, facilitating the relocation of eligible Afghans and their families.

Relocating eligible Afghans without passports or other documents continues to be challenging, but we are working with third countries to negotiate routes that can be used for their relocation to the United Kingdom. The security situation in Afghanistan remains dynamic and therefore I am afraid we are not able to share any additional details of our plans for supporting those ARAP personnel in their bid to leave Afghanistan.

To date, 9,200 eligible individuals have already been safely relocated to the UK under the ARAP scheme and we continue to work at pace to support and facilitate the safe evacuation of eligible ARAP personnel and their families through a range of third countries.