Afghanistan: How many asylum seekers has the UK taken in?
Afghanistan: How many people has the UK evacuated?
(about 1 month later)
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The former Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has been defending the UK's handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Kabul in August.
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It follows claims from a whistleblower, Raphael Marshall - who worked at the Foreign Office at the time - that the government's response to the crisis was chaotic and dysfunctional.
Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport as people try desperately to flee
How many people were evacuated by the UK?
In the lead-up to the withdrawal of US and UK forces, there were chaotic scenes at Kabul airport as desperate people tried to flee Afghanistan. How many have been evacuated to the UK and what will happen to them?
Mr Raab said 15,000 people were evacuated by the UK from Afghanistan from 15 August to the end of that month.
Afghan workers and interpreters
He said it was a larger number than by any other nation except the US.
The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme, launched on 1 April, was designed to resettle interpreters and other people who worked for the UK in Afghanistan.
At the time, the government said the 15,000 people included 5,000 British nationals, 8,000 Afghans and 2,000 children.
Afghans who worked for the British military and UK government will be able to move to the UK permanently, rather than getting five years' residency as was previously offered.
Some Afghan nationals had already arrived in the UK for resettlement before that date.
According to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab the UK has evacuated 17,000 people since the beginning of April. Of those, 15,000 were taken out between 15 August and the end of the month. The Home Office said 8,000 of those were ARAP claimants.
The Foreign Office told us that since the end of August, a further 3,000 people have been helped to leave Afghanistan. This included more than 1,100 UK nationals.
Just over 1,000 people have also been resettled in the UK since 2013 under a previous scheme called the Ex-Gratia Policy.
In written evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Marshall said he estimated that between 75,000 and 150,000 people in Afghanistan had applied for evacuation to the UK in August.
But not all who previously applied to the scheme were accepted, according to the Sulha Alliance, which campaigns for the rights of Afghan interpreters.
He estimated that 5% of these received assistance.
A 2018 Defence Committee report found: "British forces were supported by some 7,000 Afghans, known as locally employed (or engaged) civilians (LECs)."
What about other countries?
How many are left?
The US evacuated the largest number of people from Afghanistan in August.
Dominic Raab said that the number of British nationals remaining in Afghanistan was "in the low hundreds" but would not give a more precise figure.
From 14 August to 28 August, it got 113,500 people out of the country.
He told a committee of MPs that nearly all the people in Afghanistan with single UK nationality and accompanying documentation have been brought back.
Afghans wait to be processed after arriving in the US on an evacuation flight
But it has proved harder to estimate the number of dual-nationality Britons remaining in Afghanistan. The example he provided was that some large families may have one or more people that were documented, but it was unclear what the status of the rest of the family was.
Other countries evacuated much smaller numbers over that period, according to official statements and press releases
Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins told BBC News that the number of British nationals remaining included some, such as journalists, who were not trying to leave the country.
Germany - more than 5,300
We do not know how many people in total might be trying to leave Afghanistan hoping to come to the UK but there have been some estimates.
Italy - more than 5,000
Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy wrote a letter to Dominic Raab saying Labour MPs had been contacted by 5,000 people, "including British nationals, high profile public figures, people with serious disabilities and children separated from their families".
Canada - more than 3,700
Resettlement schemes
France - around 3,000
In addition to ARAP, the government has said the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will allow a total of 20,000 to settle in the UK in the long-term.
Since the end of August, some countries have continued to carry out occasional evacuations. France evacuated 258 people just last week.
It will focus on women and children as well as religious and other minorities in greater danger from the Taliban.
How many British nationals are left?
Resettling Afghans in UK will take time - Patel
In August, Mr Raab said that the number of British nationals remaining in Afghanistan was "in the low hundreds, " although he would not give a more precise figure.
Afghan refugees: Those who worked for UK can stay permanently
The Taliban took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, in August this year
Immigration lawyer Sarah Pinder said resettlement schemes were often too slow for crises such as the one unfolding in Afghanistan.
Mr Raab told a committee of MPs that nearly all the people in Afghanistan with single UK nationality and accompanying documentation had been brought back - but it had proved harder to estimate the number of dual-nationality Britons remaining in Afghanistan.
The example he provided was that some large families may have one or more people that were documented, but it was unclear what the status of the rest of the family was.
On 7 December, the Prime Minister's special representative for Afghanistan, Nigel Casey, told MPs there were about 200 British nationals still in Afghanistan.
How are Afghans resettled in UK?
The UK government has a scheme to resettle Afghans - the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which was launched on 1 April.
Under the scheme, Afghans who worked for the British military and UK government (for example, as interpreters) are able to move to the UK permanently, rather than getting five years' residency as was previously offered.
The Home Office says there have been 7,000 people relocated under the ARAP scheme since its launch.
Before the ARAP scheme, the Home Office says 1,400 former staff and families were relocated since 2013 under a previous scheme called the Ex-Gratia Policy.
In addition to ARAP, the government has said the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) will allow a total of 20,000 to settle in the UK.
It will focus on women and children as well as religious and other minorities in danger from the Taliban.
A fact-sheet released about it in September said it would welcome 5,000 Afghans in the first year, although the scheme is yet to open.
Immigration lawyer Sarah Pinder said resettlement schemes are often too slow for crises such as the one in Afghanistan.
"The idea that people can queue up to make an application by staying put... in reality, it's difficult to put into practice," she said.
"The idea that people can queue up to make an application by staying put... in reality, it's difficult to put into practice," she said.
And their criteria were often narrow, leaving people "stuck in a loop" between different schemes.
And she said the schemes' criteria were often narrow, leaving people "stuck in a loop" between different ones.
One of Ms Pinder's clients, an Afghan interpreter, had his application refused under an earlier iteration of the schemes because he had already left Afghanistan - but he had fled the country only because working for the UK had left him in danger.
What about other Afghans seeking asylum?
Zoe Gardner, policy lead at charity the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said resettlement schemes could be "life-changing" but must "only be a part of the system".
Outside a small number of official resettlement schemes, the main way to settle in the UK is to seek asylum once within the country's borders.
She too was critical of the government's focus on resettlement schemes over the usual routes of asylum which often involve people turning up unplanned.
In 2020, 1,336 people from Afghanistan applied for asylum, out of 29,456 total applications from around the world, and 580 were granted it. But not all of those granted asylum had applied in the same year.
"When people are fleeing persecution, it just happens in a messy way," she said. "People will be coming off their own steam. They won't be waiting in a non-existent queue."
They were much larger numbers of Afghans applying for asylum last year in some EU countries, such as Greece, France and Germany.
Funding for councils
This year up until September, there were 1,974 asylum applications in the UK from Afghan nationals - an increase of almost 40% over the previous year.
As part of what the government are calling Operation Warm Welcome £5m has been made available to local authorities to "provide a top up to help meet the costs of renting properties".
It is not clear how many councils have volunteered to accommodate refugees so far. Victoria Atkins, the Minister for Afghan Resettlement, told BBC Breakfast that "at least a third have given firm offers. We are very much in conversations with many, many more."
Under normal circumstance, a refugee's resettlement costs are paid to local authorities by central government. Local authorities are currently entitled to £20,520 per-refugee, staggered over five years with £8,520 paid up-front for the first year.
Seeking asylum
Outside a small number of official resettlement schemes, which generally have narrow criteria for eligibility, the main way to settle in the UK is to seek asylum once within the country's borders.
In 2020, 1,336 people from Afghanistan applied for asylum, out of 29,456 total applications from around the world, and 580 were granted it - not all of those granted asylum had applied in the same year.
As of 31 March 2021, there were 3,117 people from Afghanistan with an asylum application pending an initial decision and 70% of them (2,220) had been waiting for more than six months.
The government is yet to announce a policy for what should happen to these cases, although it has said failed applicants will not be returned.
Ms Pinder said they - and anyone from Afghanistan recently refused asylum - should now have their cases urgently reviewed.
Under international law, there is nothing to say people must seek asylum in the first safe country or arrive through official channels.
But the Nationality and Borders Bill currently before parliament would make knowingly arriving in the UK without permission a criminal offence.
A Home Office official said: "The numbers we resettle will be kept under review, particularly as we recover from Covid... focusing on those in need and will be guided by the capacity of local authorities, central government and community sponsor groups to provide places and support refugees to integrate into their communities and thrive."
Between 2008 and 2019, the UK deported 15,755 people to Afghanistan according to Eurostat, more than any other European country.
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