UK is ‘hostile environment’ for Afghans amid rise in refusal of asylum claims, lawyer says

A recent Home Office internal document states enforced or voluntary removals to Afghanistan are paused and ‘there is no timescale for when this will be resolved’. Photograph: godrick/Alamy

Lawyers and human rights campaigners have warned of a “hostile environment” for Afghans in the UK who have fled the Taliban amid a sharp rise in the number having their asylum claims refused.

Quarterly immigration statistics released on Thursday showed that 2,000 Afghan asylum seekers had their claims refused in the last quarter, an increase from 48 in the same quarter of 2023. The grant rate for Afghan cases has gone down from 98.5% in the last quarter of 2023 to 36% in the last quarter of 2024.