Over 100 Afghans who entered the UK under the Government’s relocation scheme have been flagged as “Cases of Interest”

A response to a Freedom of Information Act request reveals that under the ARAP scheme, over 100 Afghans entered the UK who were flagged as “Cases of Interest,” including 28 violent criminals and one person referred to the terrorism prevention programme PREVENT.

The Afghanistan Relocations and Assistance Policy (“ARAP”) scheme was set up by the UK government to relocate thousands of Afghans to the UK. It was one of three schemes being used by the Government to resettle Afghans in the UK. The third scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route (“ARR”) – was a secretive scheme established in December 2023 following the discovery of a data breach in 2022 of ARAP applicant names.

In December 2024, the existing Afghan resettlement schemes were combined into a “single, efficient pipeline” called the Afghan Resettlement Programme (“ARP”). On 1 July 2025, the UK government formally closed all major resettlement pathways for Afghan nationals – including the ARAP, the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (“ACRS”) and the ARR – to new applications. But those who had already applied would be processed and, as with those already in the UK, would continue to receive government (i.e. taxpayer) support under the schemes....<<<Read More>>>...