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Written question asked by Julian Lewis (Conservative) on Friday, 29 August 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 3 September 2025 (named day). It was answered by Luke Pollard (Labour) on Wednesday, 3 September 2025 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Afghanistan: Resettlement

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate his Department has made of the numbers of Afghan (a) interpreters and (b) other personnel, who assisted UK armed forces and remain at risk from the Taliban whilst stranded in (i) Afghanistan and (ii) neighbouring countries, following the closure of UK resettlement schemes; and what legal routes will continue to exist for such individuals to seek safety.

Answer

The Government does not hold an estimate of the total number of people who may have been eligible for ARAP but did not apply. ARAP is a well-known scheme amongst the Afghan communities and has seen over 190,000 applications since it was opened in April 2021. Our assessment that the majority of those likely to be found eligible had already applied has been deduced from the fact that over the past two years, 95% of applications to the ARAP scheme have been found ineligible. The period following the first 12 months after Operation PITTING in Aug 2021 saw ineligible decisions begin to significantly overtake eligible ones. This trend has continued consistently to July 2025, when the ARAP scheme was shut to new applications.

Individuals wishing to relocate to the UK can find further information online.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/illegal-migration-bill-factsheets/safe-and-legal-routes#what-safe-and-legal-routes-does-the-uk-offer

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
70284
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Taliban Afghanistan Interpreters Resettlement Home country nationals
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk