Thousands of Afghans are still stranded two years after the Home Office vowed to resettle them
A women’s rights lawyer who prosecuted members of the Taliban is among thousands of Afghans stranded in the country two years after the UK vowed to relocate them.
The lawyer is now in hiding with her husband and three young children and told openDemocracy she lives in fear of being captured.
We also spoke to a man who has been looking after his four nieces and nephews for two years because their parents are stuck in Afghanistan.
The Home Office pledged to resettle 5,000 Afghans in the first year of its Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), which launched in January 2022.
Ministers said one of the scheme’s ‘pathways’ would prioritise rescuing vulnerable Afghans, including women and girls at risk, and anyone who “assisted UK efforts in the country or stood up for values such as democracy, women’s rights, freedom of speech, and rule of law”.
But just 14 people have been resettled under the so-called pathway, according to the latest available statistics published in March.
Naailah*, who worked as a prosecutor for the Afghan Attorney General’s Office, has a warrant out for her arrest and has been in hiding for two years with her family.
She fears that if the Taliban find her, she will be executed in revenge for prosecuting dozens of its members for crimes relating to corruption, violence against women and narcotics.
Naailah said she provided the Home Office with a list of 16 of her colleagues, as well as two female judges, who have been killed by the Taliban since its takeover for carrying out the same work she did.
Despite this, the Home Office is refusing to consider her case unless she makes a perilous journey to Pakistan to register her biometrics at the British High Commission.
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https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/afghanistan-taliban-resettlement-scheme-two-years/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66461711
UK won’t resettle Afghan women’s rights lawyer being hunted by Taliban
