Ex-Conservative leader joins calls for UK government to help former Afghan personnel

A former leader of the governing Conservative Party has joined a campaign urging UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to do more to help former Afghan servicemen seeking refuge in Britain.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith said there needs to be greater “flexibility” in letting people apply for the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy, following news that a former Afghan Air Force pilot, described as a “patriot” by coalition colleagues, had been threatened with deportation to Rwanda for entering the UK illegally.

He added that the UK has a “moral obligation” to people who had served alongside British forces in Afghanistan, including the pilot, who claims to have been “forgotten” by the West.

The pilot, whose identity has been kept secret to protect him and his family, has written to Sunak asking for assistance.

Last week, Sunak told MPs that he would “make sure the Home Office has a look” at the case.

“With all schemes there needs to be flexibility,” Sir Iain told The Independent, the newspaper running the campaign. “It’s smart always to be flexible on these things. We have established a safe route with the (ARAP) Afghan scheme, so it shouldn’t take too much to move him across to the scheme.

“If there is evidence he (the pilot) is what he claims to be, then I assume the government can look at it under the existing safe routes, and act accordingly.”

ARAP has come under intense scrutiny since the pilot’s case emerged, with criticism that its criteria are too strict to allow people who did not work directly for the UK government to use it.

Just 3,399 applications to seek refuge in the UK by Afghans have been deemed eligible under the scheme, with 18,946 people rejected.

Several politicians with military backgrounds have spoken in favor of making it easier for former Afghan military personnel to travel to the UK.

Labour MP Clive Lewis, who served with the British Army in Afghanistan, said the pilot’s potential deportation is “overwhelming(ly) wrong because it’s someone who has risked their life alongside British forces, and then gets thrown to the wolves.”

He added: “The very narrow parameters of the Afghan resettlement scheme highlights that the government’s rhetoric doesn’t match up with reality.

“There are thousands of others fleeing persecution who still deserve to be given refuge in this country.”

Tobias Ellwood MP, an army reservist and the chair of the House of Commons Defense Select Committee, warned that there is “no functioning process that allows Afghans to apply for asylum from abroad.”

Conservative MP Julian Lewis, former chair of the committee and a former naval reservist, told The Independent that “special consideration should also be given to genuine former military personnel who were our allies in the fight against Islamist extremists.”

His Conservative colleague Flick Drummond, who served in the British Army Intelligence Corps, said: “We need to look at every case on its merits and provide sanctuary to those that need our help.”