Home Office slammed over ‘chaotic’ handling of Afghan refugee crisis

Thousands of Afghan asylum seekers who have already arrived in the UK are stuck in a “nightmarish limbo” amid mounting pressure to grant them the right to stay in Britain permanently.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said on Monday that the Conservatives’ “chaotic handling” of Afghanistan evacuation “has put lives in danger and their resettlement scheme does not meet the scale of the challenge.”

“As the situation in Afghanistan deteriorates even further, the Home Office needs to urgently publish clear new guidance for people who have arrived in Britain and are currently in the asylum process,” he added.

After deleting key guidance documents used to decide refugee status for Afghans, the Home Office is now declining to clarify whether it has halted the processing of 3,000 living Afghans’ asylum applications.

The government explained the reason for document deletion as being “no longer relevant to the current situation,” after the Taliban retook power in Kabul.

Meanwhile, several MPs have joined humanitarian groups in urging the government to grant amnesty to those who are already in the UK.

Speaking in a parliamentary debate on the Taliban takeover on Monday, Home Affairs Committee Chair Yvette Cooper called on the government to “recognize the position of those who are currently here, whose applications for asylum may have been turned down before circumstances escalated.”

Home Office statistics show that 2,881 Afghan asylum seekers are awaiting a preliminary decision on their applications, while another 236 cases are under review.

The UK government has rejected more than 32,000 Afghan asylum seekers since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Home Office figures show Afghans make up the fourth largest group of asylum seekers in Britain.