Hundreds of Afghans waiting more than a year for UK resettlement

UNHCR expresses concern over the fate of Afghan refugees whose transfers could be further delayed

A family arrives at Melsbroek military airport in Belgium from Kabul after the Taliban retook took control of Afghanistan. Reuters

As the Taliban’s deadline for evacuations from Afghanistan fast approaches, thousands of Afghans still seek an escape from life under the hard-liners' control.

Amid a desperate scramble on the ground, refugee agencies raised concerns that the UK is already lagging behind promises it made to refugees more than a year ago.

Hundreds of Afghans who were accepted on resettlement schemes to Britain have been waiting in refugee camps for more than 18 months to be transferred to the UK, The Independent reported.

About 200 Afghan refugees were accepted by the UK Home Office before March 2020, but had their cases put on hold because of the pandemic and have yet to be transferred. According to the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR) the refugees are living in camps and informal settlements in countries such asTurkey, Iran and India.

Last week, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced a new Afghan resettlement scheme that would offer homes to 20,000 people over five years, with 5,000 expected to arrive in the first year.

UNHCR spokeswoman Laura Padoan told The Independent she was worried the new scheme would further delay the transfer of hundreds of already displaced Afghans. There are also concerns over the status of hundreds of other refugees from around the world who were accepted on previous schemes.

“At the moment we don’t have any details about whether the Afghan resettlement scheme will see the UNHCR identify refugees in a traditional resettlement model way, or whether the government is proposing something different. We really hope to get clarity on that,” Ms Padoan said.

“But something that can be done now is to resettle the Afghans who have already been identified as being in need of resettlement and are due to come to the UK.”

Applications for the new Afghan resettlement scheme have not yet opened. In March 2021, the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS), which committed to welcoming 20,000 refugees from Syria between 2015 and 2020, came to an end. A new global resettlement scheme aimed at resettling 5,000 refugees a year was announced to replace the VPRS once it ended, but the Home Office later scrapped the target under its new immigration plans.

“Around the world there are hundreds of thousands of refugees who need to be resettled. We don’t have a commitment from the UK, and we desperately need it to come forward and offer places to those people in need,” Ms Padoan said.

“It can’t all be done on an ad-hoc basis. It’s absolutely necessary for the government to work with the UNHCR, who are identifying the refugees, and also local authorities and charities offering support services in the UK.”