Hamid (not his real name) worked for the Afghan national police special unit alongside the British military and has received threats from the Taliban after his identity was revealed by a Ministry of Defence leak. Despite his service, the UK has refused his application for resettlement under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) scheme.
Service and Leak
Hamid received certificates for his work signed by senior British figures praising his “dedication, unparalleled service and leadership”. His details were included in an accidental 2022 leak by an MoD official that identified 18,700 Afghans who had worked with or for the British government.
Hamid said he had received a number of threats from the Taliban, including a video he shared with the Guardian in which a man cradling a rifle and sitting below a Taliban flag threatens to pursue him and cites knowledge of his previous movements.
Rejected Application
The MoD rejected his application for resettlement under Arap. His most recent rejection, received on 31 July, stated that Hamid had not provided evidence of “working alongside, in partnership with or closely supporting a UK government department”. It gave him 28 days to appeal.
Hamid said: “This is extremely painful because I have already submitted every document available to me proving my service. Furthermore, many of my former colleagues who served in exactly the same department and performed the same duties have already been relocated to the UK through the Arap scheme.”
Ongoing Risk
Hamid’s plea for help comes five years after the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021. The UK government launched the Arap scheme on 1 April 2021 and closed it to new applications on 1 July last year. Pre-existing applications continue to be processed.
Under Arap, high risk of death or serious injury are only taken into account if the rest of the criteria are deemed to have been met, which they have not in Hamid’s case. “Must I wait until I am captured, tortured or killed by the Taliban before my service and the danger I face are finally recognised?” he said.
Impact and Response
Hamid lives in hiding and says the emotional impact has been ‘devastating’. He has no reliable income and relies on his wife, who supports the family by doing small jobs from home. “This is our family’s only source of income, and even then we struggle simply to survive,” he said.
An MoD spokesperson said: “Each application is considered on a case-by-case basis, assessed against the evidence provided, such as how they supported the UK mission in Afghanistan, and in line with the publicly available eligibility criteria. Since the Taliban takeover, the UK has resettled almost 39,000 Afghan men, women and children through Afghan resettlement schemes.”
