Nearly as many Afghan nationals arrived in the UK irregularly across the English Channel as through official routes in the year to march, the latest figures show.

A total of 5,662 Afghans came to the UK having crossed the Channel in that period. According to the Home Office, an additional 350 Afghans arrived via insufficiently documented air arrivals, marking a total of 6,012 people.

Around 758 unaccompanied Afghan minors applied for asylum after crossing the Channel, the German news agency DPA reported. Of the 2,762 unaccompanied children recorded applying for asylum in the UK having crossed the Channel in this period, Afghans were the most common nationality with a total of 758.

Meanwhile, a total 6,042 Afghans were resettled in the same period under the official government schemes following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. 

What is the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS)?

A total of 1,854 Afghan nations arrived via the UK's Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), which is divided into three pathways. Established in January 2022, the ACRS prioritized people who had assisted UK efforts in Afghanistan as well as vulnerable people, including women and members of minority groups considered to be at risk.

The number resettled under 'pathway one' (eligible for those deemed "vulnerable and at-risk," people who arrived in the UK during the evacuation program in 2021 and those who were eligible but not able to board a flight at that time) was down 91 percent year-on-year from 434 in the year ending March 2023, to 40 in the year ending March 2024.

Then immigration minister Robert Jenrick said in October that one route related to 'pathway one' would allow eligible people to refer one partner and dependent child for resettlement, and that the government was aiming for referrals to that route in the first half of 2024 "if not sooner."

Arrivals via 'pathway two' (for refugees deemed vulnerable referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) increased to 623 in the year ending March 2024, from 40 the previous year.

Numbers settled under 'pathway three' (for women and girls at risk and those who supported the UK and international community effort in Afghanistan) increased to 1,191 in the year ending March 2024, from 16 the previous year.

Urgent calls for safer pathways

The UK's launched its Arap scheme in April 20221 to assist Afghans who worked for the British government in Afghanistan.

Arrivals under this scheme rose by a quarter to 4,188 in the year to March 2024.

Wanda Wyporska, chief executive officer at Safe Passage International, warned that the UK urgently needs to provide safe routes for refugees and for the family reunion rules to be fixed, "as has been done before for those fleeing the war in Ukraine…Children's lives depend on it."

With DPA