This briefing examines the migration of Afghan asylum seekers and refugees to the UK. It presents statistics on the number of Afghans arriving via small boat, and those given protection in the UK under the three resettlement schemes for Afghans – the Afghan Relocation Route (ARR), the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). The UK government closed the Afghan resettlement schemes to all new applicants in July 2025.
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Key Points
- Around 35,700 people had been resettled under the three Afghan schemes by 30 June 2025. The third scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – was established in December 2023 following the discovery of a data breach and kept secret until July 2025.
More… - The number of Afghans arriving in the UK by small boat increased significantly after the fall of Kabul. Afghan was the second most common nationality among small boat arrivals in the first half of 2025, after holding the top spot in the previous two years.
More… - The grant rate for Afghan asylum seekers fell from 99% in 2023 to 38% in the first half of 2025. With the exception of 2021, the UK received many more asylum applications from Afghans than the number of people resettled under the humanitarian schemes.
More… - The South East, London, and the West Midlands received the most people under the Afghan schemes. Crawley, Birmingham, and Leeds were the local authorities that received the most Afghan refugees.
More… - As of June 2025, 89% of Afghans resettled under the Afghan schemes were either in local authority accommodation (74%) or other government-provided transitional accommodation (15%). The remaining 11% of arrivals had moved into privately rented accommodation.
More… - Around half of Afghans who arrived under the humanitarian visa routes were children. Adults arriving under the schemes were balanced in terms of gender. This is similar to other resettlement schemes but contrasts with asylum seekers, who are predominantly adult men.
More… - The UK became less likely to grant protection to Afghans than many other European countries in 2024. This was a reversal of previous trends. In 2024, the UK ranked fifth in Europe in the number of asylum applications from Afghan nationals.
More… - Over 10 million Afghans were displaced globally in June 2025, with 90% in Afghanistan, Iran or Pakistan. The UK ranks seventh globally by the number of Afghan refugees hosted.
More…
- Around 35,700 people had been resettled under the three Afghan schemes by 30 June 2025. The third scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – was established in December 2023 following the discovery of a data breach and kept secret until July 2025.
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Understanding the Policy
Click to read more.On 1 July 2025, the UK government announced the closure of the Afghan resettlement pathways to new applicants. Officials said the programmes were being closed since they had largely met their goal, and recent applications had very high rejection rates. Around 95% of ARAP applications were found ineligible, although the reasons and exact time frame were not specified. The government stated that the sudden closure was designed to prevent an influx of last-minute or ineligible applications that would further strain the backlog. Applications that remained pending would still be processed and assessed in line with existing guidance.
There were six main routes through which displaced Afghans were likely to end up living in the UK following the fall of Kabul. Three were the now-closed humanitarian visa schemes for Afghan nationals and their family members. The remaining three routes, still open today, apply to people of any nationality. These broader channels have long formed a core part of the UK’s protection system:
- Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). Launched in April 2021, this was for Afghan citizens and their family members who worked as interpreters or other staff who worked for the UK in Afghanistan and were hence at risk of reprisal from the Taliban. Many of these were evacuated from the country during Operation Pitting. People were able to apply online.
- Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). Opened in January 2022, the ACRS comprises three pathways. They cover people who came to the UK under the evacuation in summer 2021 (Pathway 1), and other vulnerable Afghans who are at risk in Afghanistan or have already fled to neighbouring countries (Pathways 2 and 3). Under Pathway 2, the UN selects Afghan refugees for resettlement. Pathway 3 resettles British Council contractors, employees of GardaWorld, a security contractor, and alumni of Chevening, the UK government’s international scholarships and fellowships programme.
- Afghanistan Response Route (ARR). Opened in December 2023, this route was created in response to a data leak which exposed the personal details of 33,000 people, including Afghans who applied for resettlement to the UK and their British contacts who supported their applications. The scheme was kept secret until July 2025 under an unprecedented superinjunction granted by a judge to preserve the safety of those affected (see details in the first section below).
- Asylum system. Some Afghans make their own way to the UK and claim asylum through the normal asylum process, which requires making an in-country application.
- Other resettlement routes. Afghan nationals can also come to the UK through resettlement routes open to all nationalities, such as the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), Mandate scheme, or the Community Sponsorship Scheme. However, the number of Afghans using other resettlement routes has remained very small since the launch of the dedicated schemes.
- Family migration and refugee family reunion. Some Afghans enter the UK as close family members of an Afghan national already in the country. People resettled by the UN or granted asylum or humanitarian protection used to be eligible for refugee family reunion, which did not have an income requirement or visa fees. The government suspended refugee family reunion in September 2025, and a new system will be put in place in 2026. Refugees continue to be able to bring family to the UK under the same rules and requirements that apply for British nationals.
People given status in the UK under the Afghan schemes were granted settlement on arrival. This grants the right to study, work, use public services such as the NHS, and claim benefits. After five years in the UK, those given status under these routes will be entitled to apply for British citizenship, under the usual existing rules and subject to the normal application fees.
How were Afghans selected under ARAP?
ARAP was uncapped and targeted at Afghan citizens who worked with the UK in Afghanistan and face threats of Taliban reprisal. It also included the partner and dependent children of the main applicant and, in some circumstances, additional family members. Afghan citizens who thought they meet the scheme’s eligibility criteria had to apply to it directly.
There were several categories of people eligible for relocation under ARAP. These included people who were employed by the UK Government in Afghanistan on or after 1 October 2021; those who were contracted to provide linguistic services for the UK’s Armed Forces in Afghanistan; and those who worked with a UK Government department.
Once an applicant’s eligibility was checked and approved by the relevant government department (MOD or FCDO), they had to attend a visa application centre (VAC) to enrol their biometrics. There are no VACs in Afghanistan, which means that people had to travel to Pakistan instead. The security and validity checks were completed by the Home Office, which considered whether the applicant posed a potential risk to the UK.
How were Afghan refugees selected under ACRS?
ACRS prioritised two categories of people: (1) those who assisted UK efforts in Afghanistan and “stood up for values such as democracy, women’s rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law” (for example, judges, women’s rights activists, academics, journalists); and (2) vulnerable people, including women and girls at risk, and members of minority groups at risk (including ethnic and religious minorities and LGBT people). ACRS beneficiaries were referred for resettlement to the UK under one of three pathways:
Pathway 1. This was for people who arrived under the UK’s evacuation programme, Operation Pitting, in August 2021. These were the first people to be resettled under ACRS. People who were notified that they were eligible for evacuation but who were not able to board flights were offered a place on the scheme if they later came to the UK. On 30 July 2024, a new route was added to Pathway 1: ACRS Pathway 1 Stage 2: Separated Families. In cases where a person arrived in the UK during the evacuation without their family, this route enabled them to be joined by their immediate family in the UK.
Pathway 2. The UN selected Afghan refugees for resettlement to the UK in the same way that it does for the UK Resettlement Scheme.
Pathway 3. This was designed for “people at risk who supported the UK and international community effort in Afghanistan, and people who are particularly vulnerable, such as women and girls at risk and members of minority groups”. This pathway resettled people (and their eligible family members) from three groups: British Council contractors, employees of GardaWorld (a security contractor), and alumni of Chevening, the UK government’s international scholarships and fellowships programme.
Unlike ARAP, the government capped ACRS admissions at 20,000 individuals, which included family members and Afghans already evacuated during Operation Pitting in 2021.
Those who came to the UK under Pathways 1 and 2 had to be referred by the UK government or the UNHCR, respectively, which means that they could not apply directly to the schemes. For Pathway 3, people needed to have submitted an expression of interest to the FCDO, but this process closed in August 2022.
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Understanding the Evidence
Click to read more.This briefing mainly uses administrative data from the Home Office. Some of these data are published quarterly as part of the Home Office’s official Immigration System Statistics release. These data are complemented in this briefing by provisional administrative information. All data relating to the Afghan schemes, including those in the official quarterly statistics, are provisional and subject to change.
Quarterly data on people given status under ARAP and ACRS refer to the quarter that the person arrived in the UK and not the quarter in which they received status.
How many Afghans came to the UK under the humanitarian visa schemes?
Around 35,700 people had received settlement under the humanitarian visa schemes for resettling Afghans by the end of June 2025. This includes people resettled under ARAP (53%), ACRS (37%), and the recently revealed ARR (10%). Of all those resettled, 97% were Afghan nationals.
Around 41% of all arrivals under the schemes took place in the third quarter of 2021, which included the evacuation from Afghanistan. Provisional operational data showed that 2,000 people were evacuated before the start of the evacuation, followed by another 15,000 during the 16 days it lasted (this includes some people who did not need resettlement, such as British nationals).
Resettlements under the Afghan schemes declined after the evacuation and were paused between November 2022 and July 2023, until secure accommodation could be provided for eligible applicants. However, resettlements increased notably once they were resumed.
Figure 1
The existence of a third route for relocating Afghan nationals to the UK – the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) – was only revealed in July 2025. An accidental data leak by a British official in 2022 exposed the personal details of 18,700 Afghans who had applied for ARAP and another scheme. The leak also included details of their family members, as well as some British officers and intelligence operatives who supported their applications – around 33,000 people in total.
When the breach became apparent in August 2023, the government applied for and was granted a superinjunction by a judge – the first time the mechanism was ever used by a British government. This prohibited disclosure of any details related to the leak, including the existence of the restriction itself, in order to preserve the safety of those affected. The superinjunction was extended several times under both Conservative and Labour governments, until it was lifted on 15 July 2025.
The ARR was established in December 2023 as a new relocation route to the UK for people affected by the leak. Not everyone whose details appeared in the leak was eligible for relocation, and an unknown number were resettled under the original ARAP. When details about the ARR were first released on 15 July 2025, it was said to have resettled 4,500 people to the UK at a cost of £400m. Official statistics later released by the government showed around 3,400 people had been resettled under the ARR by 30 June 2025.
The scheme was closed to new applicants in July, though a total of 6,900 people are expected to be eventually resettled under the ARR at an overall cost of £800-£850m. Reports that the ARR scheme alone would cost £7bn were inaccurate – this figure was based on an internal government memo that appeared in court papers and erroneously referred to the total cost of all three Afghan resettlement schemes to the government, which is now estimated at £5.5-£6bn.
How many Afghans arrive in the UK by small boat and apply for asylum?
The number of Afghans arriving in the UK without authorisation increased after the Taliban takeover in the summer of 2021, with most using small boats to cross the English Channel.
In 2022 and 2023, more Afghans arrived by small boat than through the humanitarian visa routes. Yet this pattern was reversed in 2024 and the first half of 2025 – partly because of an increase in resettlements but also because of slightly fewer Afghan small boat arrivals.
Figure 2
In the first half of 2025, Afghan was the second most common nationality among people arriving by small boat. Most people who arrive in the UK via unauthorised routes go on to seek asylum, including those crossing the Channel in small boats. However, not all Afghans who claim asylum in the UK arrive on small boats. In the first half of 2025, Afghans made up 12% of small boat arrivals and 6% of all asylum applications. Afghans were the largest group among small boat arrivals in both 2023 and 2024, as well as the top nationality for asylum applicants in 2023.
Figure 3
How many Afghan asylum seekers receive protection in the UK?
Asylum has been the main route for Afghans seeking protection in the UK since the start of 2022, despite the existence of humanitarian visa routes. Between 2022 and 2024, around 29,600 Afghan nationals claimed asylum in the UK, compared to roughly 15,600 Afghans who were resettled through the humanitarian schemes and other routes.
Figure 4
Grant rates for Afghan asylum seekers have fallen sharply, from 99% in 2023 to just 38% in the first half of 2025. Overall grant rates also fell during the same period, from 67% to 43%. A higher standard of proof for recognition as a refugee was introduced in 2024 under Nationalities and Borders Act rules (for details, see Asylum and Refugee Resettlement in the UK). For Afghans, the Home Office issued new guidance in August 2024 stating that the security situation in Afghanistan was no longer considered as severe as previously assessed, and that risks must now be judged on an individual basis.
The lower grant rate means that more Afghan asylum seekers are refused protection. Since the UK does not recognise the Taliban government, it remains unable to return refused asylum seekers to Afghanistan. Unless they leave voluntarily, such people will remain in the UK without any legal status.
Figure 5
Around 23,800 Afghans who arrived by small boat between 2018 and 30 June 2025 applied for asylum (95% of the total). Of these, roughly 10,200 were granted protection or other leave as of 30 June 2025. Excluding withdrawn applications and administrative decisions, the grant rate in the first half of 2025 stood at 34%, similar to that for all Afghan asylum seekers. Around 2000 Afghans who arrived by small boat were still waiting for an initial decision as of 30 June 2025.
What kind of accommodation do resettled Afghan refugees live in?
As of June 2025, 74% of Afghans who had been resettled under the Afghan schemes were living in accommodation provided by local authorities. Another 15% were in transitional accommodation, and only 11% had moved into privately rented housing. Very few resettled Afghans were living in the UK without financial support for their housing – even among those living in private rentals, around two-thirds were receiving integration support.
Figure 6
Where do resettled Afghans live in the UK?
Under the Afghan visa schemes, the most people were housed in the South East of England (20%), London (12%), and the West Midlands (10%). Resettlements were relatively uniform across the country, especially compared to the distribution of the pre-existing Afghan diaspora in the UK. At the time of the 2021 Census, 56% of the Afghan-born population in England and Wales was living in London.
The distribution of resettled Afghans was somewhat different when compared to the supported asylum population and Ukrainians arriving under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Afghans were much more likely to live in the South East than both of these groups, and less likely to be based in London. Ukrainians were particularly likely to first arrive in Scotland, while a high share of asylum seekers were found in the North West.
The top three local authorities of residence for people resettled under the Afghan schemes were Crawley, Birmingham, Leeds, each hosting more than 500 people.
Figure 7
How many resettled Afghans were women and children?
The demographic profile of Afghans varies based on the resettlement scheme and pathway through which they arrived in the UK. Generally, adults coming under the ARAP, ARR, and ACRS programmes are gender-balanced, and almost half of the arrivals are children – indicating these programmes were oriented towards families. The profile of people resettled under the Afghan routes since their creation is similar to other resettlement schemes in the same period (Figure 8).
One exception is ACRS Pathway 2, which targets vulnerable Afghans identified by the UNHCR, where a majority of adult beneficiaries were women. This is likely related to the “women and girls at risk” category used by the UNHCR as a selection criterion for this pathway (see Understanding the Policy).
The profile of resettled Afghans contrasts with that of Afghans granted asylum, among whom a majority in the period analysed were adult men. This trend, observed across other nationalities, is related to the tendency of men to migrate first, often through dangerous and unauthorised routes, and later apply to bring their families on refugee family reunion visas after they have been granted asylum. Between Q2 2021 to Q2 2025, 96% of all Afghans granted refugee family reunion were women and children (Figure 8). The refugee family reunion route was suspended in September 2025, and was due to be replaced with a more restrictive route in 2026.
Figure 8
How do asylum applications from Afghans in the UK compare to other European countries?
The UK ranked fifth in Europe in the number of asylum applications from Afghan nationals in 2024. It received fewer applications than Germany, Greece, France, and Switzerland. All European countries saw an increase in asylum applications from Afghans after 2021 – numbers in the EU were 80% higher in 2024 than in 2018.
The UK also received slightly fewer asylum applications from Afghans relative to its population than the EU as a whole – around 12 per 100,000 residents, compared to 15 in the EU. However, smaller countries like Austria, Switzerland, and Bulgaria received many more applications relative to their population than the UK.
In 2024, the UK’s grant rate for all Afghan asylum applicants fell to 59%, from 99% the year before. While rates declined everywhere, they remained over 70% in most other European countries. This meant the UK was less likely to grant protection to Afghans than other states, a reversal of previous patterns.
Figure 9
How many Afghan refugees and asylum seekers are there around the world?
The number of forcibly displaced Afghans rose steeply after the Taliban returned to power – from 5.7 million at the end of 2020 to over 10 million by June 2025, according to UN estimates. Of these, around a third remained in Afghanistan as internally displaced persons (Figure 11).
The rest were abroad as refugees, asylum seekers, or in similar situations. Iran and Pakistan host the largest populations of Afghan refugees, though many of these had been displaced before the summer of 2021. The UK ranks seventh globally by the number of hosted Afghan refugees.
Figure 10
Acknowledgements
A previous version of this briefing was produced with the support of Oak Foundation. The authors are grateful to Will Somerville, Andy Hewett, and CJ McKinney for valuable comments on drafts of this publication.
