Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals evacuated under Operation Pitting and granted indefinite leave to remain have voluntarily returned to Afghanistan; and whether such travel negates a continuing need for protection in the UK.

The Home Office publishes Afghan Operational data, including information on arrivals and grants of indefinite leave to remain under the Afghan schemes. This publication is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghan-resettlement-programme-operational-data.

Data on the number of individuals evacuated under Operation Pitting and subsequently granted indefinite leave to remain who have voluntarily returned to Afghanistan are not included in and are not available at this time

Travel to Afghanistan does not automatically negate an individual's eligibility for, or benefit from, an Afghan Resettlement Scheme.

Afghan Resettlement Schemes do not prohibit individuals who have been granted settlement in the UK from travelling to Afghanistan. As with other holders of ILR, settled status will normally lapse automatically if an individual remains outside the UK for a continuous period of two years or more.