Exclusive: UK backtracks on vow to reunite Afghan refugees and families

The United Kingdom has backed out of a promise to help Afghan refugees reunite with families they were forced to leave behind after the Taliban takeover, despite condemnation of their treatment. Ministers agreed to act after an outcry over the plight of Afghans — including Muhammad who, Devex has previously reported, is still separated from his wife and two infant children by a loophole in humanitarian regulations, two and a half years after his airlift out of Kabul. Parliament was told applications for family reunions would finally begin “in the first half of 2024” — but the U.K. government is now refusing to stand by the commitment, saying only that “further information will be made available in due course.” It leaves Muhammad’s family and many others who fled to Pakistan at risk of deportation back to Taliban territory as Pakistan’s authorities target the 600,000 Afghans who crossed the border after the regime’s 2021 return to power. Muhammad, who is keeping his full name private to protect his family, has been forced to travel to Pakistan himself to register his wife and children with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees — but this provides protection against expulsion for only about six months. The U.K.’s apparent U-turn has been condemned by aid NGOs and British member of Parliament Caroline Lucas, who told Devex she would question Home Office ministers as soon as possible. “The dodging and delaying we’ve got accustomed to from the Home Office is literally sentencing people to risk of death at the hands of the Taliban,” the Green Party MP said. “Whether it’s the result of incompetence or inhumanity, ministers can’t be allowed to break their promises to Afghans evacuated to the U.K. in 2021 — they must urgently publish a time frame that confirms families will be reunited, as planned and as soon as possible.” Laura Kyrke-Smith, the U.K. executive director of the International Rescue Committee, said: “For more than two years those who were brought to safety here during initial evacuations were assured that their families would follow. “They have been living in limbo, not knowing when they would be reunited with their loved ones and feeling powerless at being unable to bring them to the UK. Muhammad’s story is just one of many and highlights the devastating human impact when safe routes don’t function.” Emmeline Cassidy, families together coordinator at the Refugee Council, said: “We saw the government act quickly to reunite Ukrainian families after the Russian invasion. They must act with the same urgency to reunite Afghan families.” The council has taken up the cause of children in the U.K. whose parents are still in Afghanistan And Gunes Kalkan, head of campaigns at Safe Passage International, said: “After two and a half years of separation, it would be devastating for the children and families we’re working with to have no pathway to family reunion despite government promises.” In September, Devex reported how Muhammad, a 30-year-old civil engineer, was among around 24,000 Afghans denied full refugee status after evacuation — despite the U.K. accepting his life was in danger because he helped the invading U.S.-led forces in 2001 — and instead granted him “indefinite leave to remain,” with no family reunion rights. This means a person must prove they have accommodation and be earning £18,600 (about $23,700) a year to bring in a spouse, plus a further £3,800 for a first child and £2,400 for each additional child. However, the £18,600 threshold will, controversially, soar to £29,000 within a few months, although the additional requirements for children will then be scrapped. Muhammad won a British Council scholarship to study construction project management in the U.K. and hopes to find a job as a site manager, but fears it will take many years to earn even the lower income requirement. In October, the then-immigration minister Robert Jenrick told Parliament: “We recognize the challenges of the evacuation, which caused families to be split, and are working to establish a route to address this.” He added: “We expect to receive referrals in the first half of 2024 if not sooner.” Devex asked the Home Office this month if it stood by this statement, but it repeatedly refused to do so. Instead, a spokesperson said: “If you have been evacuated from Afghanistan under ACRS (the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme) without your immediate family – spouse or partner and children under 18 – further information will be made available in due course about options for reuniting with them.” The words are identical to a government fact sheet first issued, Safe Passage believes, as long ago as April 2022. In September, Muhammad remembered the reassuring words of U.K. officials at a chaotic Kabul airport in 2021, saying: “They told me ‘Don’t worry,’ that my family will be brought to the U.K., just relax — but it’s more than two years and I’m still waiting.” His situation is separate from the controversy over thousands of other Afghan refugees with the right to resettle in the U.K. but are left in Pakistan after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak blocked flights to save money on hotel bills. His government has declined to say if it met a pledge to fly in “approximately 2,800” people “by the end of December 2023” — having reported on Dec. 13 that “around 1,826” were still in Pakistan.