The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been accused of “preventing the escape” of Afghans promised sanctuary in Britain after the government stopped evacuating eligible families.
Defence minister Luke Pollard insisted the UK can “entirely complete our obligations” to Afghans offered relocation, despite telling them they must flee Taliban-run Afghanistan themselves.
Last month, the MoD told the nearly 9,000 Afghans eligible to come to the UK that they will “need to make their own way to a third country when they are able to do so”, with housing and visa support available there until 2028.
Tan Dhesi, chair of the defence select committee quizzed Mr Pollard about the decision on Tuesday. He said: “On the one hand, the secretary of state is saying that he is going to honour that commitment to bring back the remaining Afghans, while in reality we are actually preventing their means of escape because we’ve stopped helping the Afghans, by stopping the third-party assistance, would you say that that is a complete contradiction there?
Mr Pollard replied: “We’ve seen a large increase in the number of people who are self-moving, who are themselves relocating from Afghanistan legally to a third country. We are then providing the support from the third country to the UK.”
“We are still able we believe to entirely complete our obligations, but use a different route about how we deliver that,” he added.
The Afghan resettlement schemes closed to new applicants in July last year, just before it was revealed that the MoD had been responsible for a vast data leak of applicants’ details that the department said had put thousands of lives at risk.
The MoD used an unprecedented super injunction to keep the leak a secret, out of fear that news of the breach could put Afghans in danger. A review by former deputy head of defence intelligence Paul Rimmer ultimately concluded that, while the Taliban does commit reprisals against former Afghan security forces, being identified from the dataset was unlikely to constitute sole grounds for targeting.
Families are eligible to come to Britain due to their previous support of the UK forces in Afghanistan, or because their data was breached.
Mr Pollard told the defence committee of MPs on Tuesday that the super injunction was “pretty unpalatable for me as a parliamentarian”.
Asked what he would tell Afghans waiting for UK relocation if he could speak to them directly, Mr Pollard said: “We will honour our obligation in full to eligible Afghans.
“We roughly have 9,000 left to relocate... We know that the vast majority in the remaining application backlog will probably be found ineligible, based on the trends that we are having at the moment, but we will continue to support those individuals that are eligible.”
He added: “Honouring the commitment to Afghans is an important part, personally for me, and for this government”, but said “it can’t be an open-ended commitment”.
The Independent reported last month that two Afghans, approved for UK relocation, are challenging the MoD at the High Court over the failure to help them flee Afghanistan.
The MoD has pledged to end all help and relocations for Afghans by December 2028.
