Afghans who have worked for the British military and government will be able to move to the UK permanently, the Home Office announces
Those Afghans who are eligible will be given indefinite leave to remain, rather than the previously offered five-year residency.
The UK has evacuated more than 8,000 people who were eligible for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy from the 13th of August.
But the Labour Party has said that more needed to be done for the many Afghans whose lives are still at risk after being left behind in their home country.
British troops left Afghanistan over the weekend, which saw an end the UK’s 20-year military involvement within Afghanistan.
This comes after, while the UK had finished its withdrawal from the nation of Afghanistan the day before, the head of the Royal Air Force said to The Daily Telegraph that the UK could be involved in strikes against the Islamic State Khorasan; also known as ISIS-K.
Dominic Raab, the UK’s Foreign Secretary said that he couldn’t give a “definitive” figure for the number of people who were eligible to come to the UK who currently remain in Afghanistan.
Announcing more details of its new plan, called Operation Warm Welcome, the UK’s Home Office has said that it wanted to ensure that Afghans arriving in the UK received the necessary help to rebuild their lives.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK owed an immense debt to those who worked with the armed forces in Afghanistan.
“I am determined that we give them and their families the support they need to rebuild their lives here in the UK,” he said.
“I know this will be an incredibly daunting time, but I hope they will take heart from the wave of support and generosity already expressed by the British public.”
Victoria Atkins, who has been appointed Afghan Resettlement minister, told BBC Breakfast that Operation Warm Welcome would help people “join our society”.
Speaking about people who are in hotels, she said: “We would like to be able to put them into permanent accommodation, but we have to be realistic that the scale of this task is such that we simply don’t have permanent housing available.”
This comes after the United States military has completed its withdrawal from the nation of Afghanistan after the last of American C-17 planes has departed from the Kabul airport.
She said a third of councils had given “firm offers” to help refugees, and that the government was “in conversation with many, many more”.
“It’s right that we’re fair to people who are very welcome in our country, who have worked hard for us in Afghanistan, but we also have to do this in a way that is fair to the British people – so we want people to integrate as quickly and as well and as soundly as possible,” she added.
“This is going to take time; I don’t want to pretend that we’re going to be able to do this over days or weeks.”
The government currently has two schemes to resettle Afghans. It is still developing the other, the Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme, which is set to take in up to 20,000 Afghan refugees over the coming years, focusing on women and children and religious and other minorities.
