The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been accused of “preventing the escape” of Afghans who were promised sanctuary in Britain, after the government halted evacuation operations. Defence minister Luke Pollard insisted that the UK can still “entirely complete our obligations” to eligible Afghans, despite instructing them to leave Taliban-controlled Afghanistan independently.
End of Evacuation Support
Last month, the MoD informed nearly 9,000 Afghans eligible for relocation to the UK that they would “need to make their own way to a third country when they are able to do so.” The government will provide housing and visa support in that third country until 2028. Tan Dhesi, chair of the defence select committee, questioned Mr Pollard about this policy on Tuesday. He highlighted a contradiction: “On the one hand, the secretary of state is saying that he is going to honour that commitment to bring back the remaining Afghans, while in reality we are actually preventing their means of escape because we’ve stopped helping the Afghans, by stopping the third-party assistance.”
Minister's Response
Mr Pollard replied that there has been a “large increase in the number of people who are self-moving, who are themselves relocating from Afghanistan legally to a third country. We are then providing the support from the third country to the UK.” He added, “We are still able we believe to entirely complete our obligations, but use a different route about how we deliver that.”
Background on Resettlement Schemes
The Afghan resettlement schemes closed to new applicants in July last year, shortly before it was revealed that the MoD had been responsible for a massive data leak of applicants’ details. The department admitted that this breach had put thousands of lives at risk. The MoD used an unprecedented super injunction to keep the leak secret, fearing that news of the breach could endanger Afghans. A review by former deputy head of defence intelligence Paul Rimmer concluded that, while the Taliban does commit reprisals against former Afghan security forces, being identified from the dataset was unlikely to be the sole reason for targeting.
Families are eligible to come to Britain either because of their previous support for UK forces in Afghanistan or because their data was breached.
Parliamentary Scrutiny
Mr Pollard told the defence committee on Tuesday that the super injunction was “pretty unpalatable for me as a parliamentarian.” When asked what he would tell Afghans waiting for UK relocation if he could speak to them directly, he said: “We will honour our obligation in full to eligible Afghans. We roughly have 9,000 left to relocate... We know that the vast majority in the remaining application backlog will probably be found ineligible, based on the trends that we are having at the moment, but we will continue to support those individuals that are eligible.” He added that “honouring the commitment to Afghans is an important part, personally for me, and for this government,” but stressed that “it can’t be an open-ended commitment.”
The Independent reported last month that two Afghans approved for UK relocation are challenging the MoD at the High Court over the failure to help them flee Afghanistan. The MoD has pledged to end all help and relocations for Afghans by December 2028.
