UK must not abandon commitment to Afghan refugees
While the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan may no longer dominate news bulletins, the Government must honour its commitments to those promised safe passage to the UK under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), writes John Baron MP.
Having opposed the morphing of the Afghan mission into one of 'nation-building' once we had rid the country of al-Qaeda, I feel a particular sense of shame as to how we are now treating those 200 or so British Council contractors (and others) who remain in Afghanistan in fear of their lives because of FCDO and Home Office bureaucracy.
The fall of Kabul precipitated a 'Fall of Saigon' moment, as foreign nationals and their Afghan allies crammed themselves into every available aircraft out of the country. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee's excoriating report into the British Government's chaotic handling of this affair, in which the saving of dogs and cats took precedence over people seemingly without any documented authorisation, concluded that planning for such an event was sorely lacking. However, this error is now being compounded by further incompetence – not one contractor has been brought to the UK this year.
The Government did come up with schemes to enable Afghans who had worked closely with Britain to get out of Afghanistan, but in the tearing haste there were a significant number who fell between the cracks. One such example were those Afghans who had worked as contractors for the British Council. Though employees of the British Council were included in the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), it was less clear for the contractors and the vast majority did not make it out of Afghanistan in the summer of 2021.
As chair of the British Council All-Party Parliamentary Group, I began to be contacted by the contractors directly, as well as by those in the UK working on their behalf. I first raised their plight in November 2021 at Defence Questions, when I alerted the Defence Secretary that the contractors had described lives in hiding, moving from house to house, all the time being hunted by the Taliban. Although they had not officially worked for the British Council, the Taliban saw no distinction and, provincial Afghanistan in particular being quite a small place, the locals know who had 'collaborated' with the foreigners.
The Defence Secretary offered to assemble a cross-departmental meeting, including the FCDO, MoD and Home Office, in order to address the situation of the contractors. However, this meeting did not materialise, so I raised a Point of Order a month later on 14th December. Matters did not much improve in the New Year; I had a meeting with the Armed Forces Minister in January, and a virtual meeting with the relevant Home Office Minister courtesy of the Afghanistan All-Party Parliamentary Group, neither of which substantially moved the matter on. After a lot of correspondence, I finally got to meet the Refugees Minister in May.
The one hopeful event over this time was the launch of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) in early January, which was set to address the gaps in ARAP and also to enable at-risk Afghans with no links to Britain to escape Afghanistan and make new lives here. Quite early on it was established that the contractors would be eligible under this scheme, but the system seemed to be ponderous and slow-moving. Meanwhile, I continued to receive correspondence from contractors who described their desperate situation.
This slowness was all the more frustrating because the FCDO, as the British Council's sponsoring department, categorised many of the around 200 contractors remaining in Afghanistan as being at 'very high' or 'high' risk. There was also a fear amongst Government lawyers of possible legal action, which seemed quite remote, in the case that someone was accidentally not informed that they were eligible under a British Government scheme. It seemed far more likely that the family of someone who was assessed by the Government as being at 'very high risk' would have some sort of recourse against the Government for not moving quickly enough if they had been injured or killed.
Progress came in June, when it was announced that the contractors could apply for a place under the ACRS in application window open until August. This felt like a big step in the right direction, albeit one year on since Operation Pitting, and given the danger faced by the contractors I was pleased when the Government agreed to process applications as they came in, rather than waiting until the window closed and processing them all then. The British Council worked at pace with the FCDO to winnow out the genuine applications, and all seemed set fair.
Unfortunately, since then there appear to be more blockages. Around 90 of the contractors were informed in September that they had a place under the ACRS pending a security check; they have heard nothing since. Meanwhile, at least half of the contractors have heard nothing at all since they submitted their applications over the summer.
Last week the Speaker granted me an Urgent Question on this matter, during which I raised that 16 months after Operating Pitting 200 contractors and their families were still in grave danger. Ministers highlighted, including in FCDO questions the following day, that the Government was working hard through the applications. However the inconvenient truth that in 2022 it seems not a single Afghan has made it out of Afghanistan under the ACRS. January 2023 will be anniversary of its launch.
I hope that by the time this is published there might have been some good news for the British Council contractors and their families – it should not be beyond the Government's ability to process 200 applications quickly. Britain owes these people a debt of gratitude for furthering our aims in Afghanistan – let us hope that unedifying talk of quotas is not providing further headwinds.
John Baron is the former Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay and a former Shadow Health Minister.
