Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many Afghan refugees have been admitted to the UK under the UNHCR Resettlement Schemes since August 2021; and how many further applications they expect to approve in the first quarter of 2023.

Earlier this summer, we began receiving referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of vulnerable refugees who have fled Afghanistan for resettlement to the UK under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) Pathway 2.

UNHCR has the global mandate to provide international protection and humanitarian assistance to refugees, and with whom we already work in resettling refugees under our flagship UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), Mandate and Community Sponsorship Schemes. UNHCR will refer individuals in accordance with their standard resettlement submission criteria, which are based on an assessment of protection needs and vulnerabilities. Under both our current and previous resettlement schemes we have accepted and resettled a number of Afghan refugees in third countries. Historic and current operational data in relation to the UK’s resettlement schemes, including broken down by nationality, can be found at: Gov.UK

We are also pleased to have now welcomed the first families (four individuals) under ACRS Pathway 2. On 24th November the latest Immigration Statistics publication included data on Pathway 2 arrivals for the first time and this can be found using the same link. We anticipate receiving referrals from UNHCR for up to 2,000 refugees during the first year of this pathway, although this number will be kept under review. We will continue to receive UNHCR referrals to the scheme in coming years.