An Afghan intelligence analyst who played a “key” role in helping the British military in Kabul is facing deportation to Rwanda for a second time after a Home Office blunder.
The man, who gathered information to help coalition forces in their war against the Taliban, came to the UK on a small boat because he feared for his life and could not wait for help through official routes after the West’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He applied for the Ministry of Defence’s Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, for those who worked with or for the UK government, two years ago but has not heard anything back.
The Independent first revealed that he had been threatened with deportation to Rwanda in August this year, but a week later, Home Office officials started to progress his asylum claim and sent him a questionnaire to fill out. The questionnaires are sent to applicants from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen and take the place of an interview. These nationalities all have high asylum grant rates so the analyst believed he was safe to stay in the UK.
But Home Office officials have now admitted they started progressing his claim in error and it has been paused pending his potential removal to Rwanda.
Rishi Sunak has pledged to send asylum seekers to Rwanda despite the Supreme Court finding the plan illegal— (Getty)
The analyst’s work alongside the armed forces in Afghanistan was described by one British RAF adviser as having “a meaningful and positive effect on the UK’s national security interests”. Another RAF colleague said he had “undoubtedly furthered the UK’s military and national security objectives”.
In an email sent in November, an officer at Asylum and Human Rights Operations told the analyst: “We have made an administrative error and you are not eligible to complete a questionnaire. Your case currently remains in the Third Country Process.”
He was then told in an email from the Asylum Case team that his application was being considered but no further details were given. He is calling for his asylum claim to be processed and for the government to end his limbo.
Speaking to The Independent from a government hotel in the Midlands, he said: “This unfairness by the Home Office is putting a huge amount of pressure on my mental health. I am living in an unknown situation and it is extremely difficult.”
Charity workers have anecdotally reported that other asylum seekers have been told that they received their questionnaires in error, but the scale of the reversals is not known.
The Supreme Court ruled last Wednesday that flights to Rwanda will not be able to go ahead because of flaws in the Rwandan asylum system. In a unanimous ruling, the judges agreed that there was a “real risk” asylum seekers would be returned to their home countries to face persecution, breaching the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Despite this, Rishi Sunak has pledged to strike a new treaty with Rwanda to address concerns raised in the court judgement. He has vowed to bring in emergency legislation to give the treaty parliament’s stamp of approval. But that is likely to take many months to pass through the House of Lords and could face months of legal challenge after this.
Steve Smith, CEO of refugee charity Care4Calais which is supporting the analyst, said: “At a time when the UK has a record asylum backlog, thousands of asylum seekers, like the Afghan analyst, have had their asylum claim put on hold through this government’s inadmissibility policy with no realistic prospect of them being removed to a third country.
“The only sensible response to last week’s Supreme Court ruling would be to readmit these asylum seekers back into the UK asylum system and get on with processing their claims.”
A government spokesperson said: “Those who fear persecution should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach and not put their lives at risk by making unnecessary and dangerous journeys to the UK.
“The number of people risking their lives by making illegal and dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable. That is why we have introduced legislation which will ensure those arriving in the UK illegally may be detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.”
