Following successful legal proceedings in the High Court, Bindmans’ client (AB) and his 13 family members have been relocated to the UK from Afghanistan, where they had lived in hiding from the Taliban for fear of their lives.

Amy O’Shea, AB’s solicitor in our Public Law team, commented:

We are so thrilled to see AB and his family safely relocated to the UK after over three years of living in hiding from Taliban. It is disappointing that it required court proceedings for the government to finally engage in this case, despite our repeated correspondence to try and resolve this matter without the need for legal proceedings. AB is someone who worked selflessly to try and build a better Afghanistan alongside the UK government, before the tragic collapse of the Afghan Republic. It is right that the government has finally seen through its duty to AB and his family to secure their safety.

During the Afghan Republic, AB worked alongside the UK government to further the UK’s mission in Afghanistan, including in relation to strengthening democracy and the rule of law. When the Taliban took power in August 2021, AB and his family were forced into hiding given the harm they faced from the Taliban including receiving a number of direct threats.

After a near two-year wait for a decision on his application to relocate to the UK, AB was offered relocation under the UK’s Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) in September 2023. The ARAP scheme is designed to assist those who are now at risk of harm from the Taliban because of the work they did with the UK government before the collapse of the Afghan Republic. However, even after being offered relocation, AB continued to wait for months in hiding in Afghanistan for details of his relocation without any response from the government to Bindmans’ repeated correspondence. AB also had no decision on whether his family members would be relocated with him, despite having made an application under the ARAP Additional Family Members route months earlier. In the meantime, the family continued to live in hiding at risk from the Taliban.

Judicial review proceedings were launched in June 2024 to challenge the UK government’s delays in relocating AB and his family.

On 29 July 2024, Mrs Justice Lang DBE granted permission to bring judicial review proceedings in respect of the claim against the Secretary of State for Defence and the Secretary of State for Foreign Commonwealth and Development Affairs, observing that:

There has already been a considerable delay in processing the applications. The tone and content of the summary grounds of defence demonstrates a worrying lack of concern about the delay, and the safety of the claimant and his family.

The case was scheduled to proceed to a full hearing on an expedited basis. However, after the judge’s decision, the UK government finally took steps to secure our client and his family’s relocation, including offering relocation to his elderly mother, adult children and grandchildren. The family of fourteen are now safely in the UK, and finally able to take steps towards rebuilding their lives.

AB and his family are the fourteenth family that Bindmans’ Public Law team have assisted in relocating to the UK under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy since the fall of the Afghan Government to the Taliban.

AB was represented in the court proceedings by Amy O’Shea, Lily Seaborne and Alice Hardy of Bindmans, as well as Naina Patel of Blackstone Chambers and Miranda Butler of Landmark Chambers. AB was previously represented by Shirin Marker and Theodora Middleton of Bindmans.