A minister has been urged to correct the record on the number of Afghans seeking safety in the UK, after he incorrectly claimed that “hundreds of thousands” of applications had been made.
In the Commons this week, defence minister James Heappey refused to give a lifeline to an Afghan air force veteran who served alongside British forces and is facing deportation to Rwanda after arriving in the UK by small boat. When he was grilled by MPs on the “scandal” raised by The Independent, Mr Heappey said that the “vast majority” of those who had applied to the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) scheme would not be eligible because they had not worked in “direct support” of the British military.
