Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to help ensure the safety of Afghans who worked for the UK Government.

The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) is for Afghan citizens who worked for or with the UK Government in Afghanistan in exposed or meaningful roles and may include an offer of relocation to the UK. The ARAP scheme launched on 1 April 2021 and remains open. The MOD is the lead department for the ARAP scheme, but the FCDO assesses eligibility for a small number of applicants who state that they worked for or alongside the FCDO. FCDO missions overseas support through providing accommodation in third countries until eligible persons (EPs) travel to the UK. To date, the UK has relocated over 12,000 ARAP EPs and their families to the UK, including over 5,000 since Operation PITTING concluded at the end of August 2021.