A family in hiding in Afghanistan who are eligible for sanctuary in the UK but are unable to escape because they can’t get biometrics done in their home country have taken their case to the high court.
The case highlights the differential treatment given to those fleeing conflict in Ukraine and Afghanistan over biometrics requirements.
When Russia invaded Ukraine the Home Office initially said Ukrainians applying for visas had to provide their biometrics – unique facial data held on a chip in passports – before being able to come to the UK.
However, after public outcry this requirement was relaxed in mid-March and Ukrainians with passports were permitted to do their visa applications entirely online and get biometrics done after reaching the UK.
But the Home Office has not relaxed the rules for Afghans eligible to come to the UK.
The family bringing the legal challenge consists of a father who is a British citizen, his wife and the couple’s five children, aged between seven and 17.
They were unable to be airlifted out of Kabul last August due to a lack of space on evacuation flights. It is thought that many more families in the same situation are in hiding in Afghanistan.
The father was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2010, and later British citizenship. He lives and works in the UK and spends part of the year in Afghanistan with his wife and children. He was with his family when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last August.
He made the difficult decision to leave his family in hiding in January of this year in Afghanistan and return to the UK alone because he believed that as a British citizen he would put his wife and children’s lives at greater risk if the Taliban found them. As a British passport holder it was possible for him to get a flight out of Afghanistan to the UK.
The family members still in Afghanistan are in a Catch-22 situation of not being able to come to the UK until biometrics have been done, but not being able to get biometrics done as there are no British visa processing centres open in Afghanistan.
Chris Buttler QC, acting for the family, said that the same rules should be applied to Afghans as have been applied to Ukrainians.
The nearest place the family could get biometrics done is at a visa office in Pakistan, 300 miles from where they are. The journey would be a dangerous one, passing through many Taliban checkpoints en route.
“The secretary of state has imposed an impossible condition on them applying,” Buttler told the court on Wednesday.
The home secretary’s rationale for insisting on biometrics being done before family members of British citizens can come to the UK is to protect national security and immigration control.
Representing the home secretary, David Blundell QC told the court that the situation on the ground in Afghanistan at the time that the Taliban took over was extremely difficult. He said the wife and children bringing the case along with the husband and father did not fit into any of the special evacuation categories.
Blundell said it was an unimaginably difficult situation for the family and an extraordinarily difficult situation for the government at the time of the Taliban takeover.
The case continues.
