Dear Colleague,
Operation Warm Welcome
As the year draws to a close, I write to update you again on the progress the Government has made in relocating people from Afghanistan, the warm welcome we are giving to our new citizens and plans for the commencement of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme. I will update the House on the launch of the ACRS upon our return from recess.
Evacuation
The Government responded swiftly to the fast-moving and challenging events in Afghanistan, including supporting the biggest and fastest evacuation in recent history. We can be proud as a country that we helped over 15,000 people to safety from Afghanistan in August and we continue to do all we can to enable those who are eligible to relocate to the UK.
We have continued to bring people to the UK since the evacuation, with around 1,500 people helped to enter the UK, including people under the ARAP scheme, LGBT Afghans, female judges and human rights defenders.
Warm Welcome
This Government is providing a warm welcome to Afghans arriving in the UK, ensuring that families have accommodation, integration support and healthcare and that their c.6,000 children are able to attend school. In the six months since June, we have moved or are in the process of moving over 4,000 people into homes. By way of comparison, we re-settled 5,000 people a year under the Syrian resettlement scheme; this is therefore tangible progress in the unprecedented circumstances of Op Pitting.
We are providing a funding package for local authorities of more than £20,000 over three years for each person for whom long term accommodation is secured to support their integration and enable them to thrive in the UK. There is also additional funding for schools, healthcare and language support. Over 300 local authorities across the UK have pledged their support enabling more Afghans to settle in their new homes, and we are working with local authorities to translate those pledges into new homes and new starts for Afghans across the UK. We do however need more offers, so I would encourage you to speak with your Local Authority about what more they can provide.
I have endeavoured to be frank with colleagues, however, about the challenges facing us in this work. The Government is now supporting over 12,000 people in temporary hotel accommodation, whilst we work with local authorities to secure longer term housing. Sourcing properties in the numbers and sizes required is a large, complex task and is taking time. We want to move people as quickly as possible out of temporary accommodation and are supplementing our usual methods of sourcing properties with new approaches:
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We will explore piloting a new 'jobs first' approach, working with evacuees to identify skills and match them to employment offers, overcoming barriers to self-sufficiency;
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We have launched a bespoke housing portal on gov.uk [Afghanistan housing portal - offers of support - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)] to enable members of the public to offer homes under Op. Warm Welcome;
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We are working with Rightmove to identify properties in the private rental sector.
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We will open the community sponsorship scheme further to allow community groups to play a direct role in supporting the resettlement and integration of people in need from
Afghanistan.
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who have fundraised to provide warm clothes and children's toys, to bridging hotels offering their residents employment. We are also working with charities, councils and local agencies to introduce new citizens to UK laws, rights, responsibilities and shared values so that they can settle quickly and smoothly.
ACRS
In August, the Government rapidly worked up and announced the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) which will see us resettle up to 20,000 people at risk. This scheme is in addition to the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) for current and former Locally Employed Staff directly employed by, or working closely alongside, Her Majesty’s Government and assessed to be at serious risk of threat to life in Afghanistan.
As the Government has set out, the ACRS will prioritise those who have assisted the UK efforts in Afghanistan and stood up for values such as democracy, women’s rights and freedom of speech, the rule of law; and vulnerable people, including women and girls at risk, and members of minority groups at risk. The ACRS and ARAP together provide a comprehensive offer to those at risk in Afghanistan and demonstrate the Government’s commitment to safe and legal routes for those in need.
The capacity of the UK to resettle people is not unlimited, and therefore difficult decisions about who will be prioritised for resettlement will have to be made. People will be referred onto the ACRS through one of three referral pathways. This blended approach will allow the UK to effectively respond to the unique and unprecedented circumstances in Afghanistan, aligning with and complementing our evacuation effort and the ARAP scheme, and the response of our international partners.
Many of those who arrived in the UK through the evacuation effort will be the first to be resettled under the ACRS. The process of granting these individuals indefinite leave to remain under the ACRS is underway and the scheme will therefore open in January 2022. As part of this, the Government will honour its commitments to resettle those British Council contractors, GardaWorld contractors and Chevening Alumni who are at risk. I will update the House on the launch of the ACRS upon our return from recess.
Safe and legal routes
Alongside our response to Afghanistan, the Government continues to offer safe and legal routes to people in need of international protection. Since 2015, we have resettled more than 25,000 refugees through safe and legal routes direct from regions of conflict and instability - around half of whom were children. The UK continues to welcome refugees through the global UK Resettlement Scheme and Community Sponsorship Scheme.
In addition to our resettlement schemes and ARAP, we have granted over 39,000 visas since 2015 through our refugee family reunion route, and over 88,000 British National (Overseas) status holders and their families have taken up the offer of a visa route for those affected by draconian laws restricting rights and freedoms in Hong Kong.
The ACRS demonstrates the Government’s New Plan for Immigration in action, which will see us create capacity to continue providing safe and legal routes for those in fear of persecution and oppression in their home country, by reducing illegal immigration.
I am confident the ACRS will go on to symbolise the best of Global Britain, building on the success of Operation Pitting and the UK’s other safe and legal routes, by offering sanctuary to people in their time of need.
I would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and happy new year.
A copy of this letter will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
