Thousands of Afghans who worked for the UK have been abandoned and remain at risk from the Taliban a year after the evacuation from Kabul, a coalition of human rights groups has said.
In a parliamentary briefing, nine expert groups on Afghanistan criticised the British government’s resettlement schemes as “unjustifiably restrictive”. They said it was deeply concerning that the government is currently not offering a safe route for many Afghan women and girls or to oppressed minority groups.
The government has opened two programmes, the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap), which has brought 10,100 eligible Afghans to the UK, and the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme (ACRS), which will allow up to 20,000 to settle here.
But the failures of the schemes, the report said, have forced Afghans to use dangerous unofficial routes. During the first three months of 2022, people fleeing Afghanistan were the largest group risking their lives crossing the Channel.
“A year since the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the [Arap] scheme is still not functioning properly and is marred by ongoing substantive and procedural problems,” says the briefing, compiled by Human Rights Watch, the Sulha Alliance – which represents Afghan interpreters – the Azadi charity and a group of former civil servants called the Afghanistan Diplomacy and Development Alliance, among others.
Their concerns were echoed by British organisations that worked with Afghans to deliver the stated aims of the UK mission in the country, and which criticised the implementation of the resettlement schemes as arbitrary and needlessly mean.
Of the 250 former staff at Adam Smith International who worked on UK projects in Afghanistan and applied for Arap, just 24 received clearance for relocation to the UK. Not one application has been granted since the evacuation from Kabul ended in late August 2021.
Daniel Pimlott, a director at Adam Smith International, said: “Most people we’ve been in touch with have heard little or nothing from the UK government, and a small minority have had their applications rejected.”
He questioned the seemingly irrational nature of who was granted resettlement under Arap. One individual was told he was “ineligible” despite doing a similar job to seven colleagues whose applications were all successful.
Pimlott added: “It is shameful that the UK has left these people behind in Afghanistan to God knows what future.”
Among those who remain abandoned in fear of their lives are a group of 109 teachers who worked for the British Council in the country delivering lessons on diversity and promoting values of toleration and openness.
Despite being granted immediate permission by the UK government to apply online to come to Britain, the teachers have no idea of how to escape safely or a date by which they will be extracted from Afghanistan.
Joseph Seaton, former English manager and deputy director of the British Council Afghanistan between 2016 and 2020, said the failure to help the teachers had “soured” the legacy of its efforts in the country.
“A lot of the work we did really benefited the local people, and was contributing to the gradual improvement of Afghanistan. Yet the failure of the British Council and UK government to ensure the safety of their teachers has massively tarnished its great work in country,” said Seaton.
One of the teachers, Mahmoud, described how his work as a full-time British Council employee in eastern Afghanistan reinforcing “British values of democracy including equality, diversity and inclusion” had left him in hiding.
Even before the emergency evacuation from Kabul – which began on 14 August 2021 – Mahmoud had been sent two threatening letters by the Taliban, one warning that he was a “spy of the UK government” and that his “assassination was legitimate”.
He said: “Since then the Taliban raided my house and I have moved 11 times. The Taliban whipped my then eight-year-old daughter to get her to say where I was.”
The parliamentary briefing said it was alarming that Afghan women and girls and oppressed minority groups who were ineligible for Arap and could not access ACRS immediately had to wait until after the deadline on 15 August for “expressions of interest” under the so-called pathway three element of the ACRS programme “while their situation further deteriorates”.
It recommends expanding the Arap scheme, ensuring the UK speeds up safe passage for eligible Afghans out of Afghanistan and expanding ACRS beyond the current cap of 20,000.
Concern also surrounds the plight of many Afghans in the UK who managed to escape the Taliban takeover. About 10,500 are currently living in hotels almost a year after arriving.
The Human Rights Watch briefing warns that large numbers of Afghans trapped in temporary housing are suffering serious mental health problems.
One man evacuated from Afghanistan, who worked on the UK aid programme and who has spent almost a year living in a hotel in north-west England, told the Observer: “We have been completely forgotten about.”
He added: “Having worked for many years for the British government in Afghanistan, I’m heartbroken and ashamed their flagship resettlement policies have failed so badly.
“One year on, we have received no communications from the government on what happens next, and remain in a hotel. I often ask myself whether I would have been better off remaining in Afghanistan, and facing my destiny at the hands of the Taliban.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it and, through the new ACRS, up to 20,000 people in need will be welcomed to the UK.
“ The ACRS will prioritise those who have assisted the UK efforts in Afghanistan and stood up for values such as democracy, women’s rights and freedom of speech, as well as vulnerable people, including women and girls and members of minority groups who are at risk.”
A statement from the British Council read: “We know our former colleagues are living in increasingly desperate circumstances. We are incredibly concerned for them and for their families’ welfare and we continue to be in direct touch with them on a regular basis.
“The Afghanistan relocation schemes are run by the UK government. We have been pushing for progress with senior contacts within the UK government to ensure the earliest consideration of our former contractors’ relocation applications.”
