To all those who celebrate, Nawruz Mubarak!
In Afghanistan, Nawruz is celebrated on the 21st of March. This is an important cultural holiday, and it celebrates the arrival of spring. It’s based on the tropical solar new year, and it’s the time taken by the Earth to complete one orbit around the sun.
It’s usually a time when families gather to celebrate renewal, unity, and hope for the future.
However, not all Afghan families have the opportunity to celebrate this special day together. Many Afghan families have been separated from their loved ones for over three years, and now have to celebrate Nawruz miles away from each other.
Many of the Afghan clients we work with feel abandoned by the UK government’s unnecessarily long and bureaucratic application process for the Afghan resettlement schemes.
In February, we submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office, regarding the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) Separated Families Pathway. The application window for this pathway closed in October 2024. As of 10th March 2025, approximately 50% of families are still waiting for a decision.
This is unacceptable. These families have been left in limbo, with no indication of when they might be reunited with their loved ones.
We’re calling on the government to process applications more quickly, and to expand the functional resettlement opportunities.
Last year, we published our report: “Still Waiting: the Afghans Abandoned by the UK.” This report evaluated the available resettlement schemes, and we made several recommendations to the government on the changes required to improve these schemes. You can read our report here: https://refugeelegalsupport.org/still-waiting-apbi-report/
