After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, an Afghan judge who prosecuted Taliban and Islamic State group members was targeted for assassination and forced into hiding with his family. When he applied for relocation to the UK through the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) in August 2021, his application was rejected in March 2022 and again in May 2023 on the grounds that he had not worked closely enough with the UK government in Afghanistan to qualify.
However, the High Court has now ruled that the government was wrong to refuse his application. The ruling described the decision as “irrational” and based on “plainly faulty” reasoning, as the judge’s work “personally and directly” helped to further the UK’s goals in Afghanistan. The court heard that he had served as a senior judge for six years in an area that saw some of the heaviest fighting during the war, overseeing cases involving terrorism, kidnapping, drug smuggling, corruption, and violence against women.
The judge is currently in hiding with his family in an unspecified third country, with the constant “risk that they may be forcibly returned to Afghanistan.” The ruling does not automatically grant him relocation to the UK, but it does require the government to reassess his application in light of the court’s findings. The judge’s solicitor called on the UK government to act “very swiftly” to bring the judge and his family to safety before it was “too late.”
In response to the ruling, a government spokesperson said that officials were “considering” the decision and that the government remained committed to “those brave Afghans that supported the UK mission in Afghanistan.” To date, the UK government has brought around 27,900 people to safety from Afghanistan, including over 15,800 people from the ARAP scheme, including over 3,000 since October 2023
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