To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support her Department provides to Afghans with UK visas in travelling to the UK.
Answered on
10 February 2022
The Government responded swiftly to the fast-moving and challenging events in Afghanistan, including supporting the largest and fastest evacuation in recent history. We can be proud as a country that we helped over 15,000 people to safety from Afghanistan in August 2021 and we continue to do all we can to enable those who are eligible to relocate to the UK.
We have continued to bring people to the UK, with 1,500 people helped to enter since the evacuation, including people under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme, LGBT+ Afghans, female judges and human rights defenders.
People in these groups who were evacuated to the UK will now be granted indefinite leave to remain; where such people were called forward for evacuation but did not make it out of Afghanistan they will be prioritised for inclusion in the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).
The UK is working with international partners to secure safe routes out of Afghanistan as soon as they become available.
Those who were not called forward, and who hold a UK visa, are expected to make their own arrangements to travel to the UK.