The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is embroiled in a legal battle over the evacuation of former Afghan special forces commandos to the UK.
Hundreds of Afghan soldiers who fought alongside British special forces troops are being brought to safety in the UK – after a campaign by The Independent and Lighthouse Reports revealed that many had been wrongly denied sanctuary.
The Ministry of Defence is undertaking a review of some 2,000 resettlement applications after we revealed dozens of cases of former commandos being tortured, disappeared or killed by the Taliban.
The commandos were members of two units, CF 333 and ATF 444 (also known as the Triples), who were paid, trained and fought alongside UK special forces in Afghanistan.
Armed forces minister Luke Pollard has pledged to bring an estimated 500 to safety following the review, with campaigners fearing that many more could be left to the mercy of the Taliban.
Now it has emerged that the government is facing legal action over the way the review is being carried out.
A former senior member of the Triples, who is now in the UK, is bringing the challenge on behalf of commandos still in Afghanistan, the BBC reported.
Lawyers will argue that the review is unlawful because of a decision not to inform Afghans living in limbo whether their case is being looked at, unless they write to the MoD. The review also hasn’t disclosed the criteria used to select people for relocation to the UK.
Dan Carey, a partner at Deighton Pierce Glynn, said: “Our client’s focus is on his soldiers left behind in Afghanistan, some of whom have been killed while they wait for these heavily delayed protection decisions.
“As things stand they have a right to request a reassessment of a decision they haven’t even been told about. And there are others who think they are part of the Triples review when the secret criteria would tell them that their cases aren’t even being looked at.”
In recent weeks, applicants to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap), the MoD’s resettlement scheme, have been receiving emails out of the blue telling them that they are not part of the Triples review.
It comes as the MoD continues to evacuate thousands of people with links to the British armed forces as part of an ongoing mission to bring allies to safety – with numbers arriving in the UK increasing over the past year.
Thousands of Afghans have been quietly moved into military bases around the UK, including to sites in Leicestershire, Wiltshire, South Wales, Inverness and Dorset. The Afghan families are sent to some of these bases on a transitional basis before being moved to temporary homes in other barracks, hotels, or more permanent homes usually ring-fenced for those in the forces.
Armed forces minister Al Carns said that more than 5,600 Afghans were in temporary or long-term accommodation as of mid-December.
New data obtained by The Independent through freedom of information laws shows that 1,015 service family accommodation homes were being used for Afghan allies as of 1 January 2025.
These homes are available to families for up to three years.
Separately, some Afghans who qualified for relocation because of their close links to UK forces have been moved into hotel rooms because the MoD has run out of space.
More than 15,000 people were brought to the UK in 2021 directly following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, under the MoD’s scheme for those who worked alongside British troops.
These numbers dropped substantially in 2022 and 2023, but relocations are now increasing again, with a sevenfold increase year-on-year. In the year ending September 2024, 6,443 people were relocated, up from 880 in the year up to September 2023.
The number of Afghan refugees brought through the Home Office’s Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), for vulnerable people or those who supported British values, has also increased – from 201 people relocated in the year ending September 2023 compared to 2,591 in the same period for 2024.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “We remain fully committed to delivering on our pledge to relocate and resettle eligible Afghans and their families to the UK through our Afghan resettlement schemes.
"Each resettlement application is decided and scrutinised on its own merits against the criteria outlined in the Arap and immigration rules, which are published online. All eligibility decisions are made against published policy considering the individual circumstances of the applicant in line with UK Immigration Rules.”
