To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people who are eligible for the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme.
Answered on
18 July 2022
The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) will provide up to 20,000 women, children, and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK over the coming years.
The capacity of the UK to resettle people is not unlimited and difficult decisions have to be made on who will be prioritised. However, we will exceed our initial aim to resettle 5,000 people through the ACRS in the first year.
Those eligible for the ACRS will be prioritised and referred through one of three pathways as set out in a Statement to Parliament on 6 January 2022:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/oral-statement-on-the-afghan-citizens-resettlement-scheme
There are around 6,500 people in the UK who have been brought to safety through and after the evacuation and who are eligible for the ACRS. They include women’s rights activists, journalists, and prosecutors, as well as Afghan families of British Nationals.
Under pathway two, we anticipate receiving referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (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.
Under pathway three, in the first year we will offer resettlement places to up to 1,500 people from the three identified cohorts (British Council and GardaWorld contractors and Chevening alumni).
Beyond the first year of pathway three, the government will work with international partners and NGOs to welcome wider groups of Afghans at risk.
Resettlement figures for the ACRS will be published in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.