LONDON
\nMore than 4,000 Afghans who supported the British military during the August evacuation of Kabul remain stranded as the UK redirects resources toward the Ukrainian refugee crisis.
\nArmed Forces Minister James Heappey admitted that 1,000 people eligible for the UK\u2019s Afghan Relocation Assistance Programme, along with their families, remain in Afghanistan, with charities saying the total number exceeds 4,000.
\nOne ARAP applicant told The Independent he was \u201cfearing for his life\u201d and had been forced to remain in Afghanistan despite UK approval.
\nThe 27-year-old said: \u201cWe live in fear, in hiding. If we need to buy food, we need to have someone else go out for us. We try to protect ourselves, but this won\u2019t continue. The Taliban have more and more facilities to track us. I feel like we\u2019ve been forgotten.
\n\u201cI know the UK is paying most attention to the Ukraine war, but it must please keep its promises to us. We protected and supported you; it is your turn to help us.\u201d
\nSarah Magill, director of Azadi Charity, which has been supporting ARAP applicants, told The Independent that resources had been \u201csignificantly depleted due to the government redeploying ARAP team members to the invasion of Ukraine.\u201d
\nMagill added: \u201cThere is an obvious need to expand the ARAP task force urgently without depleting the secondment of resources to Ukraine, and we ask the government to ensure that action is taken urgently before more lives are lost.\u201d
\nHowever, a Ministry of Defence source described the processing of ARAP cases as an \u201cabsolute shambles,\u201d with a lack of communication from government leaving Afghans \u201cafraid for their futures.\u201d
\nThe source added: \u201cThe government communications (situation) is terrible. Afghans who are in vulnerable situations \u2014 some high risk \u2014 will send details and paperwork, and they don\u2019t even get a holding email. It\u2019s just stony silence. Army colleagues are appalled.\u201d
\nCompounding the failings, said the source, is the seeming arbitrariness of the scheme, with some cases being considered far quicker than others.
\nIt is \u201calmost a completely arbitrary process\u201d with \u201ca total lack of transparency,\u201d the source added. \u201cWhen you\u2019re dealing with people\u2019s lives, this is not how it should be. These are often life and death situations, but the political will is not there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON More than 4,000 Afghans who supported the British military during the August evacuation of Kabul remain stranded as the UK redirects resources toward the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Armed Forces Minister James Heappey admitted that 1,000 people eligible for the UK\u2019s Afghan Relocation Assistance Programme, along with their families, remain in Afghanistan, with charities saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2114,6212,6211],"class_list":{"0":"post-256620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-afghans","9":"tag-stranded","10":"tag-uk-military"},"yoast_head":"\n