Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether there is a target for each of the three referral pathways under the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme.

The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK over the coming years. The scheme opened on 6^th January.

Further details on how the scheme will operate can be found in the policy statement on Afghanistan resettlement and immigration on 13 September and my statement to the House here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/oral-statement-on-the-afghan-citizens-resettlement-scheme

As set out in September 2020, those eligible for the scheme include individuals evacuated during Operation Pitting.

The Government has already evacuated thousands of women and girls from Afghanistan - for example female judges, women’s rights activists and a girls’ football team. As each ACRS pathway opens, those at most risk, including women and children and minorities will continue to be prioritised. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) will refer refugees most at risk to the ACRS, including women and girls as per their vulnerability criteria.

The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) will continue to offer current or former locally employed staff who are assessed to be under serious threat to life priority relocation to the UK. During the first year the Government will offer ACRS places to the most at risk British Council and GardaWorld contractors, and Chevening alumni. These cohorts played a key role in supporting the UK mission in Afghanistan, and it is right that we honour our commitments to them.

In the first year of the ACRS the Government plans to exceed our initial aim to resettle 5,000 people. In addition to those already in the UK, we are working with the UNHCR to receive referrals of vulnerable refugees in need of protection in year 1 of the ACRS, and we will continue to receive referrals to the scheme in coming years. Beyond the first year of the ACRS, we will work with international partners and NGOs to welcome wider groups of Afghans most at risk.