31 Jul Home Office Finally Introduces Scheme to Relocate Family Members of Afghan Evacuees

On 30 July 2024, under pressure from litigation, the Home Office finally introduced a scheme for relocating the left-behind family members of persons evacuated from Afghanistan in August 2021.  For nearly 3 years, evacuees in the UK have been waiting for an immigration scheme to enable them to bring to the UK the family members they left behind.  The UK government’s policy was that immediate family members (spouses and children under 18) were automatically eligible to come to the UK, but it failed to introduce a means for them to do so. That delay has now finally been remedied.

DPG’s client, DX1, has spent nearly three years separated from his wife and children.   He brought judicial review proceedings challenging the Home Office delays in introducing the relocation pathway, arguing that because immediate family members were already eligible for relocation that the delays in enabling them to relocate were unlawful. Many others are believed to have been similarly affected.  DX1 agreed to settle his judicial review proceedings only last week upon it finally becoming clear that introduction of the Home Office scheme was imminent.

The scheme reflects DX1’s case.  Immediate family members are entitled to relocation and so there is no evaluative application process that is required. The scheme also provides for additional family members to be relocated in exceptional circumstances. It is hoped that applications will now be processed very quickly to bring to an end the prolonged enforced separation of families and exposure to risk from the Taliban that has resulted from the delays.

The scheme details can be accessed here: ACRS Separated Families Pathway

The application window is time limited (it ends in 3 months on 30 October 2024). So persons in the UK under Pathway 1 of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme should lodge their applications as soon as possible.

Daniel Carey and Catherine Dowle of DPG acted for the claimant DX1, instructing Ali Bandegani of Garden Court Chambers.

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