The UK’s emergency evacuation of Afghan civilians ends today, ahead of the 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan. Where does that leave Afghans hoping to escape the Taliban for safety in Britain? That’s the subject of this episode, in which I’m joined by two lawyers with extensive experience in this area: Jamie Bell of Duncan Lewis Solicitors and Sarah Pinder of Goldsmith Chambers.
We discuss the two
existing resettlement programmes for Afghans with ties to the British government; what we know about the additional
Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme announced on 18 August (not much); and what happens to those already in the UK with pending asylum cases (the Home Office is adopting a “wait and see approach”, for now, with a pause on decision-making). As ever, once more information emerges on the issues that remain uncertain, we’ll cover it on the website and/or the
weekly newsletter.