UK special forces blocked resettlement of Afghan soldiers

By Joseph Tulloch

British special forces intervened to block Afghan troops they had once fought alongside from resettling in the UK, it has emerged.

This finding – part of a BBC investigation released earlier on Monday – is the latest in a series of revelations about the way the UK has handled resettlement requests from former Afghan collaborators.

The UK government launched the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy in April 2021, promising to bring Afghan citizens who had worked with the UK – and whose lives were therefore now in danger in their home country – to safety in Britain.

Many, however, saw their applications rejected. In November 2023, an investigation suggested that some of these ex-UK collaborators denied relocation have been beaten, tortured and killed in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

A "conflict of interest"

The new BBC investigation, released today, shows that UK special forces were given a veto over relocation requests made by the Afghan soldiers they had fought alongside.

This power was exercised at a time when the UK was carrying out a public enquiry into allegations that its special forces had committed war crimes while serving in Afghanistan.

Some of the Afghan soldiers whose relocation requests were denied are alleged to have been present when these war crimes were carried out. Had they been in the UK, they might have been asked to provide evidence to the enquiry.

“It's a clear conflict of interest," one former UK Special Forces officer told the BBC. "At a time when certain actions by UK Special Forces are under investigation by a public inquiry, their headquarters also had the power to prevent former Afghan Special Forces colleagues and potential witnesses to these actions from getting safely to the UK."

Church response

Speaking to Vatican News, a spokesperson for the UK branch of the Jesuit Refugee Service said: "There are vanishingly few safe routes for people to seek sanctuary in the UK. Today’s troubling reports highlight that even these are failing to offer protection for those who need it.”

Catholic bishops have also spoken out on the issue. 

In July 2023 Bishop Mark J. Seitz, the Chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Migration, wrote to American legislators urging them to provide more support to Afghan citizens who had worked with the US mission in Afghanistan.

In the same year, Bishop Paul McAleenan, Lead Bishop for migrants and refugees for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, joined senior UK faith leaders in condemning the British government’s plan to deport an ex-member of the Afghan Air Force.

Moreover, in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban takeover in 2021, Bishop McAleenan was one of the signiatories of a letter urging the UK government to “go further in helping at-risk Afghans”, saying that “as a nation, we should not be led by a quota, but by the need and pain before us.”