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Afghanistan: Refugees

Question for Ministry of Defence

UIN HL1237, tabled on 23 June 2022

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many former Locally Employed Staff have made applications for relocation or other assistance under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy; how many of these applications have (1) been processed, and (2) are waiting to be processed; what is the average length of time for an application to be processed; and how long they expect it will take to clear any backlog.

Answered on

7 July 2022

Since January 2022 we have received approximately 3,000 ARAP applications per month. Given many of these are speculative or duplicates, we cannot provide precise data as to processed or waiting to be processed numbers.

Application processing times can vary given the complexities of individual circumstances such as, but not limited to, their ability to respond to requests for information, their location, access to IT or employment checks.

However, the speed of decision making in HM Government does not solely determine the speed of evacuation. Many ARAP applicants are undocumented and cannot leave Afghanistan through any official route. We are bringing them out at the speed our partners in the region will allow.

To date, we have relocated over 9,600 eligible individuals and their dependents and we estimate that there are 8,000 (inclusive of their dependents) ARAP eligible individuals still to be relocated to the UK. This figure is subject to change as we continue to work through the outstanding applications.