How The UK Has Failed The People Of Afghanistan

• Law Firm: Latitude Law
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Government, Public Sector, Immigration, Health & Safety, Constitutional & Administrative Law, General Immigration, Work Visas
• Author: Olivia Brooks
• Published date: 04 April 2023

In the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the world needed to react fast. By summer 2021, British forces had been in Afghanistan for over 20 years, with Afghan employees serving alongside them from the beginning. The British government were aware that once their troops were withdrawn, many of the Afghan staff and employees they left behind would be at high risk of torture and persecution from the Taliban. Anyone who worked for the British would be left seriously vulnerable. Announced twenty months after the signing of the Doha agreement, the Home Office introduced the UK government's Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy on 1 April 2021.

The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy

The ARAP scheme is aimed at Afghan citizens who worked for or with the UK government in Afghanistan; this includes roles such as military personnel, intelligence officers, army medics, and interpreters. Unfortunately, the speed of the Taliban takeover was unprecedented and it was clear that the British government had made drastic errors in their contingency planning. The British Council contacted a number of Afghan employees in sensitive job roles to advise them to apply for ARAP. However, due to the failures by the British government to ensure knowledge of the scheme was widespread, many individuals were just applying during the heat of the evacuation. There are currently still thousands of eligible Afghan citizens whose fate has been left in the hands of the Taliban.

BBC File on 4 recently undertook an investigation into those people who have been left behind. Their findings demonstrate that the UK government seriously failed the Afghan teachers employed by the British Council. Many of these teachers had worked out in the field but they were not told about the ARAP scheme in the lead up to Operation Pitting. Yet in contrast, British Council office staff were not only told, but given assistance in applying for the scheme. It soon dawned upon the teachers that they were going to be left behind. It was then decided that they didn't qualify for the scheme, despite being in a public facing role and at a higher risk of Taliban retribution than any of the office staff. The Taliban have been outspoken in their views of British Council teachers, who they see as the embodiment of anti-Afghan and anti-Muslim values. Based on this, the teachers should have ranked highly on any proposed evacuation lists.

A British Council whistle-blower suggested to File on 4 that the office...