Safe Passage and Together With Refugees have coordinated a letter from over 150 organisations published in the Times, demanding the UK Government urgently helps Afghans to reach safety in the UK and reunite with their loved ones.

Here’s the letter:

It is one year today since Kabul fell to the Taliban and despite the initial evacuation efforts, the government has since only delivered broken promises to get others to safety – betraying so many vulnerable groups of Afghans whose lives continue to be at risk.

Those who were evacuated to the UK have been left feeling abandoned, with thousands of families still living in hotels unable to rebuild their lives. The promised safe routes for those left behind are too slow and too restrictive, meaning that Afghans fearing for their lives are forced to take dangerous journeys to reunite with loved ones and find safety here. And now, those who make it to the UK are cruelly threatened with banishment to Rwanda.

The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme was heralded by the government as ‘one of the most generous resettlement schemes in our country’s history’, yet one year on it is failing to deliver what was promised. The government must urgently help those already here and ensure Afghans can safely reach the UK and their family, as it has rightly done for Ukrainian refugees.