My Lords, in this group I have the lead Amendment 177, which puts the Afghanistan citizens resettlement scheme—ACRS—on a statutory footing and includes provisions for family reunion. Noble Lords will know that the ACRS finally opened on 6 January—the day after this Bill had its Second Reading. That was after a delay of five months. The scheme is separate to the ARAP scheme—the Afghan relocations and assistance policy—on which the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, had tabled her welcome and important amendment.
I have a number of questions and comments to make on this important group. The Government have promised to resettle up to 20,000 people under the scheme. I wonder whether the Minister has any idea about the time period in which the 20,000 will be resettled? What oversight mechanisms will be in place to ensure that the promise is delivered, and who will be included in that total? Ministers have promised that 5,000 people will be resettled under the scheme in the first year: how many of them are already here? Will the Minister tell the House how many additional people will be arriving under this scheme in the next six months—what the Government’s aim and estimate of that is?
The crucial point is that the Government have not included a family reunion route in the scheme, which this amendment seeks to address. The Government’s stated aim in the Bill is to prevent people making dangerous journeys, but does the Minister not agree with our concern that those who are at risk from the Taliban—and who have family in the UK or have family members who are resettled here—are at extremely high risk of taking desperate and dangerous journeys in order to be reunited?
We strongly support the Government seeking to provide safe and legal routes out of Afghanistan, but a family reunion stream must be part and parcel of that resettlement plan. The longer we do not act to provide a safe family reunion route, the more likely these dangerous journeys are to be made at the hands of people smugglers. There are significant numbers of people who are eligible for the scheme who have already fled Afghanistan due to the urgency of the danger they faced. Can the Minister give more information about how those who are now in a third state will be included in the scheme? We have waited five months for the scheme to be open at all; why is it that this route into the scheme has not opened yet?