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The Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP) brings together existing Afghan resettlement schemes into a single, efficient pipeline. A single pipeline will improve efficiency, value for money and outcomes across Afghan Resettlement. The Government intends to reach an eventual ending of UK Afghan resettlement schemes.

Existing schemes that will be brought under the ARP include:

1. The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). This is for Afghan citizens who worked for or with the UK Government in Afghanistan in exposed or meaningful roles and may include an offer of relocation to the UK for those deemed eligible by the Ministry of Defence and who are deemed suitable for relocation by the Home Office.
2. The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). This is a referral-based resettlement scheme which prioritises vulnerable people and those who assisted UK efforts in Afghanistan.
3. Any other Afghan relocation activities across Government, i.e. Leave Outside the Rules, including on the basis of compelling compassionate grounds.

Secretary of State for Defence statement to Parliament on 18 December 2024

Further information

Applications

• The changes will not impact applications. You can find detailed information about eligibility criteria at the links above.
• Those who have already applied for resettlement in the UK do not need to do anything and should wait to hear from their caseworker. Contacting the UK Government will not speed up the process.
• Some applications are incredibly complex and it may take some time to ensure that those who are eligible are identified and relocated quickly once eligibility is confirmed. We are committed to making and communicating eligibility decisions as quickly as possible.

Transitional accommodation

• From the spring, all arrivals on the Afghan Resettlement Programme will be provided with transitional accommodation for up to 9 months. This is intended to provide time for families to acclimatise to life in the UK, fostering a culture of independent living, without dependency or incurring excessive costs.
• Transitional accommodation is a vital part of our support offer to Afghan arrivals, allowing them to orient themselves and set themselves up for success for their new lives in the UK.
• Transitional accommodation will continue to be a mixture of serviced accommodation and hotels alongside reduced use of the Defence Estate. This will be spread across the country.
• Sites on the Defence estate used as transitional accommodation will be returned to their previous use in due course, and we are working to minimise the impact of resettlement work on Service personnel, Service families and key Defence outputs.

Settled accommodation

• In recognition of the pressures on housing supply and the unique challenges facing this cohort, the Government commits to continuing to fund and support a pipeline of settled housing to support around half of these arrivals, who are the hardest to house.
• This will be through additional capital funding, community sponsorship and some Service Family Accommodation. This will ensure that there is a pipeline of settled accommodation to support delivery of the Afghan Resettlement Programme.
• Those Afghan families who have moved into settled accommodation are unaffected by these changes and will be free to stay there for the duration of their tenancies.

Funding

• From the spring, Local Authorities will be able to claim a single tariff per arrival on the Afghan Resettlement Programme, amounting to 24,110 over 3 years.
• This is an uplift of the former 20,520 integration tariff to incorporate the wraparound, housing and homelessness support elements that were previously distributed through the Wraparound Support, Flexible Housing, and Temporary Accommodation and Homelessness Support funds, which will no longer be available.
• The Funding Instructions providing more detail on the funding in support of this programme will be published in due course.