One year on from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Scottish Refugee Council is calling for the UK Government to step up and meet the commitment it made to the people of Afghanistan.
We call on the UK Government to:
- Revive the Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme, which is currently dormant, to bring people at risk of violent reprisals to safety in the UK
- Fast-track the asylum claims of people from Afghanistan whose reasons for claiming asylum could not be clearer
- Scrap rules around inadmissibility, which deny protection to people based on the route they took to reach the UK
Sabir Zazai, Chief Executive of Scottish Refugee Council said: “The UK Government has frankly failed the people of Afghanistan who are still living under horrendous circumstances.
“Last year the Government announced it would commit to bring 20,000 people from Afghanistan to safety in the UK. This simply has not happened.
“The majority of people who were able to reach safety in the UK from Afghanistan did so through the ARAP programme which evacuated people who had worked with the UK Government in Afghanistan.
“The Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme, a separate programme which promised to help those who did not work with the UK Government, has helped a vanishingly small number of people. This means that there is no safe route out of Afghanistan for women, girls or other at-risk groups. This is simply unacceptable.
“Senior members of the Cabinet paid lip service to protecting Afghans and offering them sanctuary in the UK. But the reality has been a dormant resettlement scheme and harsh rules which treat who seek safety in the UK off their own backs like criminals.
“We know that this is not the response people in Scotland want to see. We received an incredibly generous response to the Afghanistan crisis from members of the public who made kind offers of support from every corner of Scotland. We saw a similar response following the crisis in Ukraine. It couldn’t be clearer that Scotland wants to welcome refugees.
“Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak must recognise this moment as one to take action and change the UK Government’s course so that more people can reach safety from Afghanistan.”
Scottish Refugee Council’s Afghan Citizens’ Advice Service provided support to Afghans in Scotland on a range of issues, including employability, education and community integration. Information sessions were also delivered to over 1,000 Afghans.
Scottish Refugee Council is a signatory to a full parliamentary briefing on Afghanistan, and what action needs to be taken, from Human Rights Watch.
