To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the effectiveness of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.
Answered on
20 September 2023
I said to the House in May that we aimed to process all outstanding initial ARAP applications by the end of August. We now have just over 1,800 complex cases remaining from more than 93,000 principal applications received. We have issued over 58,000 decisions to applicants in the past three months alone, giving them the clarity they deserve. We continue to move at best pace to process the remaining applications.
We also continue to move eligible Afghans from Afghanistan to the safety of third countries at best pace and have relocated over an estimated 12,200 people to the United Kingdom.