An Afghan who worked with the British Council and is applying to go to the UK has been told to retrieve documents from the Taliban or risk rejection, despite assurances earlier this month that such demands would end.
The British Ministry of Defence apologized on March 18 after an investigation found that applicants to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme were required to provide birth and marriage certificates in English and bearing stamps from Afghan government departments.
However, 10 days later, applicants to another government scheme for Afghan people who had worked with the UK armed forces or authorities were asked by the British government for documents signed by the Taliban-led government.
Photo: EPA
An applicant who was forced to leave Afghanistan for fear of reprisals was told that to qualify to live in the UK under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), claimants must retrieve passports, birth certificates and marriage certificates signed by “local authorities.”
“The marriage certificate should clearly [be] stamped by the local authorities,” a British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office e-mail to an applicant said.
The office insists the e-mail does not reflect its policy and plans to contact the recipient to “clarify the process.”
It comes amid deepening concerns that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has failed to uphold promises made by former British prime minister Boris Johnson to support Afghans who worked and fought alongside the UK in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, the British government announced that from next month, Afghans who have been forced to live in cramped conditions in hotels could be given three months’ notice and could be registered as homeless.
The case emerged after it was raised with a Liberal Democrat lawmaker by an ACRS applicant who was a contractor for the British Council in Afghanistan. They originally applied to go to the UK under the ARAP scheme, but did not receive approval before August 2021 when Western governments withdrew from Afghanistan, leaving Kabul to fall to the Taliban.
After several months of waiting, they were informed they must apply under the ACRS scheme, and have since received initial approval. As part of the verification process, they have been asked to provide a marriage certificate stamped by local authorities, which are the Taliban.
“The Afghan resettlement schemes have been a complete and utter shambles. These are truly brave people who risked everything to help us. We are now abandoning them through departmental incompetence and political ignorance,” Liberal Democrat lawmaker Wera Hobhouse said.
In April 2021, before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the British government launched the ARAP scheme and opened ACRS in January last year, which it says would allow up to 20,000 refugees to settle in the UK.
More than 24,000 Afghans had arrived in the UK as of December last year. Of those, more than 21,000 had been resettled under refugee schemes, the government said.
Operation Warm Welcome was launched in August 2021 to aid the full integration of Afghans into British life after the UK followed the US in withdrawing from Kabul.
“We will never forget the brave sacrifice made by Afghans who chose to work with us at great risk to themselves,” Johnson said at the time.
“This message does not reflect departmental policy. We do not expect Afghans eligible for resettlement under the ACRS to provide every document requested,” a British government spokesperson said.
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