A group of 47 British Council contractors forced to live in hiding since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan have cleared the penultimate hurdle for being accepted on to a scheme designed to relocate them in the UK.
The group was said to have passed security checks and been invited to provide biometrics at a visa centre, after which they would have to have a final set of security checks.
However, the UK government dashed the hopes of those who have spent 18 months moving between safe houses in Afghanistan while being “hunted” by Taliban soldiers.
The Foreign Office was forced to row back and correct a series of claims by the Europe minister, Leo Docherty, in parliament.
Docherty initially said it was right that about half of the contractors had been told to “head for the border”, to travel to Pakistan before making arrangements to fly to the UK.
It was seen as a partial breakthrough, given the scheme to help the contractors relocate from Afghanistan to the UK was launched more than a year ago, on 6 January 2022. About half of them are believed to have been contacted last autumn and told that their applications had been accepted. But a lengthy wait for security checks – believed to have been led by the Home Office – has led to further delays.
The contractors are seen as having helped Britain’s diplomatic mission by teaching English and offering education opportunities to Afghans.
Of the 190 contractors it is estimated that roughly 85 were classified as being at “very high risk”, while a further 90 or so were deemed at “high risk”.
This week Docherty said that about half the contractors had been cleared and given permission to go to Britain under the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme (ACRS).
In addition, he told a Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday night that 300 of their family members had been granted clearance to go to the UK and 47 other former British Council contractors had recently been contacted to start the process.
Although there are only 1,500 initial places on the ACRS reserved for British Council contractors, GardaWorld contractors who provided protection at the British embassy in Kabul, and alumni of the Chevening scholarship, Docherty said the figure was a “measuring tool”, not an “upper limit”, as more places would become available later in the year.
After the Guardian reported Docherty’s comments, the Foreign Office said he had made a number of errors. It said in a correction that no British Council officers had yet been given the green light to go to the UK.
Ninety officers have been told they are eligible “in principle”, of whom 47 have passed security checks and have been invited to attend a visa application centre, according to the new Foreign Office statement. “We have starting notifying eligible individuals that have passed security checks and are advising them on next steps,” it said.
Doherty’s claim that the 1,500 people allowed into the UK through the scheme was not an “upper limit” was also removed from the soon-to-be corrected record. Instead of his claim, that another cohort would be established later this year, the statement declined to give such an emphatic promise and simply said: “There has not been any publication on the timing of this.”
John Baron, a Tory MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on the British Council, has led the campaign for the contractors to be relocated as quickly as possible.
“If 200 people and their families helped us – and it’s the same with GardaWorld and Chevening – then we need to reach out and help those 200. The time to put this right is now,” he said.
After the government’s U-turn, Baron added: “If it does intend to withdraw many of the minister’s assurances given to me in the debate, then it is highly unusual and extremely disappointing.”
The MP previously spoke in parliament about those left behind living “in constant fear for their lives, moving from safe house to safe house as they are hunted by the Taliban”.
Neil Jameson, director of the UK Welcomes Refugees charity, said: “There are many more Afghans who have fled Afghanistan since the Taliban arrived who also need rescue and sanctuary in the UK, in return for the loyalty, support and protection for UK interests in Afghanistan that they gave for many years.”
Jameson said there were 9,000 Afghan refugees, similar to those who might be helped by the ACRS, who have been stuck in hotels across the UK for more than 13 months.
• This article was amended on 12 January 2023 to add a number of corrections from the Foreign Office regarding the information provided by Leo Docherty.
