Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of resettling any of the Afghan women who were evacuated by the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute to Greece.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The first to be resettled through the ACRS will be some of those who arrived in the UK under the evacuation programme, which included individuals who were considered to be at particular risk.
Eligible people will be prioritised and referred for resettlement to the UK as set out in the policy statement published on gov.uk on 13 September, available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement
The ACRS will be focused on people affected by events in Afghanistan, who are located in Afghanistan or in the region.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to urgently expedite the applications of (a) staff employed by Adam Smith International and (b) others employed by the UK government’s implementing partners that worked across Afghanistan and in ministries to deliver UK funded aid projects who are being targeted as UK employees by the Tailban, under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It is not appropriate to comment on individual cases in a response to a written parliamentary question
The Home Office remains committed to processing applications approved by the Ministry of Defence as quickly as possible and we are working across Government and with international partners to bring approved applicants to the UK.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, how many applicants were (a) accepted, (b) called forward to Kabul International Airport, (c) evacuated by 28 August, (d) rejected, (e) appealed, and (f) have not yet been processed for (i) current or past locally employed UK government staff; (ii) private companies implementing UK government funded programmes; (iii) NGOs and non profit organisations implementing UK government funded programmes; (iv) Afghan government partners (including MPs, ministers, justice officials, etc); (v) Afghan media and civil society organisations, and (vi) other categories that the UK government recognised.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Afghan relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) was launched on 1 April 2021. Since this date, around 7,000 former Afghan locally employed staff and their families have been relocated to the UK, including those relocated as part of HMG’s evacuation from Afghanistan.
The specific information requested is not held in a published format and to gather it would require a disproportionate cost.
The Home Office does publish quarterly updates on immigration statistics. Information relating to arrivals under ARAP will be published in these statistics in due course. The most recent published migration statistics can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
Guidance relating to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghan-relocations-and-assistance-policy
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and the special cases applications, how many applications were from (a) current or past locally employed UK government staff, (b) private companies implementing UK government funded programmes, (c) NGOs and non-profit organisations implementing UK government funded programmes, (d) Afghan government partners, (e) Afghan media and civil society organisations, and (f) other categories that the Government recognised.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Afghan relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) was launched on 1 April 2021. Since this date, around 7,000 former Afghan locally employed staff and their families have been relocated to the UK, including those relocated as part of HMG’s evacuation from Afghanistan.
The specific information requested is not held in a published format and to gather it would require a disproportionate cost.
The Home Office does publish quarterly updates on immigration statistics. Information relating to arrivals under ARAP will be published in these statistics in due course. The most recent published migration statistics can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
Guidance relating to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghan-relocations-and-assistance-policy
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have submitted an application to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme including applicants and their family members between 1 April and 14 September 2021; and how many and what proportion of those applications have been (a) accepted, (b) rejected and (c) received but not yet processed.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Afghan relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) was launched on 1 April 2021. Since this date, around 7,000 former Afghan locally employed staff and their families have been relocated to the UK, including those relocated as part of HMG’s evacuation from Afghanistan.
The specific information requested is not held in a published format and to gather it would require a disproportionate cost.
The Home Office does publish quarterly updates on immigration statistics. Information relating to arrivals under ARAP will be published in these statistics in due course. The most recent published migration statistics can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
Guidance relating to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghan-relocations-and-assistance-policy
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government has allocated funding to the University of Huddersfield for the provision of that university's PhD in human rights; and whether that PhD course is planned to be reserved for Bahraini nationals.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not provide funding to the University of Huddersfield for the provision of a PhD in human rights in Bahrain and therefore holds no information on the detail of any courses.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the meeting of 25 May 2021 between the Rt Hon Member for Witham and the Bahraini Minister of Interior, whether her Department held discussions with the University of Huddersfield on the establishment of a PhD in human rights.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The government is committed to supporting Bahrain as it continues to make important security, police and justice reforms. We will continue to work closely together to promote security and stability in the Gulf region and across the world. This support includes work between a range of organisations including police forces, government and academic institutions.
The Home Office has not discussed a PhD in human rights with the University of Huddersfield and this did not form part of the Home Secretary’s meeting with the Bahraini Minister of Interior.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the destitution of some highly skilled migrants without indefinite leave to remain who have not been issued with immigration bail letters granting them the right to work or benefit from Section 3C leave.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2021 to Question 157144 on Emergency Services Network: Strathconon, for what reason the activation of extended area service sites cannot be accelerated on sites where both the passive infrastructure and electricity are already in place.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We expect the contract for connecting all 292 EAS masts to the network to be awarded in Autumn 2021. We do need to follow government procurement processes fully in this award and are unable to accelerate this aspect of the process. Each site has to be individually designed, with planning approval granted, built and then integrated into the EE/ESN network. By default, EAS masts are in the most remote and rural areas of the country, situated in difficult terrain and with accessibility issues. After the award of the contract we anticipate that a survey of each site will result in activation timelines varying depending on the work involved. We will then complete the physical work to connect the mast to the network and, separately, activate the mast. Although we cannot give firm dates for the final activation of masts at this stage, we expect this work to commence in 2022 and complete towards the end 2024.
Asked by: Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party - Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department took to establish mechanisms to receive tax return data of Highly Skilled Tier 1 (General) Migrants from HMRC for indefinite leave to remain decisions.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office and HMRC have an agreed sharing protocol.
Section 40 of the UK Borders Act 2007 provides a statutory gateway to allow HMRC to share data with the Home Office for immigration and nationality functions as set out in the legislation.