'Take anyone who can make the case': Boris prepares to unveil 'big-hearted' Afghan refugee scheme with priority for women and girls as Tories urge him to give tens of thousands of people visas - despite fears local councils will not agree to house them

  • Boris Johnson is set to unveil 'big-hearted' resettlement scheme for Afghans
  • Women and girls expected to get special priority under 'bespoke' arrangements
  • The project is expected to be similar to one set for Syrians over last seven years
  • Stephen Kinnock said the intake needs to be a bold and ambitious and generous' 

Boris Johnson is preparing to unveil a 'big-hearted' resettlement scheme for Afghan refugees as Tories urge him to welcome tens of thousands.

The PM is set to give details of the arrangements as he runs the gauntlet of MP fury in a statement to the recalled parliament tomorrow.

It is expected to be 'modelled' on the scheme that has allowed more than 20,300 Syrians to flee to the UK over the last seven years. 

Women and girls – whose rights are feared to be in severe peril under the new Taliban regime – will get special priority under the programme.

Britain is likely to work closely with UN agencies to identify those most in need, and accept from either inside Afghanistan or countries in the region they might have fled to. 

However, there are concerns that not enough local councils will volunteer to take new arrivals and help them start their new lives. 

Mr Johnson could also confirm that the UK's aid spending on Afghanistan will rise 10 per cent as the security assistance previously received by Kabul is axed. 

Teeing up the statement, Dominic Raab told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We will reconfigure our aid budget. We of course will not give the security capacity building money that we previously gave to the government to the Taliban.'

But he added: 'I expect that we will increase our aid budget for development and humanitarian purposes, probably by 10 per cent is what I have in mind on last year. 

'We want to try and make sure it won't go through the Taliban, but make sure that we can alleviate the humanitarian suffering.' 

Women and girls, whose rights are feared to be in severe peril under the new Taliban regime, will get priority under the programme, it is understood. Pictured: Yesterday's evacuation

Women and girls, whose rights are feared to be in severe peril under the new Taliban regime, will get priority under the programme, it is understood. Pictured: Yesterday's evacuation

Dominic Raab today
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has led the Cobra emergency committee over the last four days, and is seeking to to host a virtual meeting of G7 leaders, including US President Joe Biden

Dominic Raab said Boris Johnson would set out the details of the Afghan resettlement scheme 'in due course' - with more information due to emerge when the PM addresses the recalled Parliament tomorrow 

British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan being relocated to the UK

British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan being relocated to the UK

Afghan aid spending is set to rise 10%, says Dominic Raab  

The UK's aid spending on Afghanistan is set to rise 10 per cent after the Taliban takeover.

Dominic Raab said the support would be boosted as the security assistance previously received by Kabul is axed. 

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We will reconfigure our aid budget. We of course will not give the security capacity building money that we previously gave to the government to the Taliban.'

But he added: 'I expect that we will increase our aid budget for development and humanitarian purposes, probably by 10 per cent is what I have in mind on last year. 

'We want to try and make sure it won't go through the Taliban, but make sure that we can alleviate the humanitarian suffering.' 

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Downing Street said it is in 'everyone's interest not to let Afghanistan fail'.

'That means providing whatever support we can to the Afghan people who have worked so hard to make the country a better place over the last 20 years and who are now in need of our help.'

He added: 'We'll be speaking to other world leaders about how we can take a unified approach.

'I think it's clear no one country has the capability to deal with this alone and we want to work together on that.' 

Cabinet ministers including Mr Raab and Priti Patel are finalising details of the scheme before handing them to Mr Johnson.

The PM yesterday led the Cobra emergency committee as it held its third meeting in four days.

He is seeking to host a virtual meeting of G7 leaders, including US President Joe Biden, as soon as possible.

He spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday and ministers are hoping for a meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in the coming days.

Mr Johnson will update Parliament tomorrow when MPs are recalled early from their summer break for the first time in eight years to debate the crisis.

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'The UK team in Afghanistan is working around the clock in incredibly difficult circumstances to help British nationals and as many others as we can get to safety as soon as possible.'

Former Conservative immigration minister Damian Green called on the Government to take in any Afghan with a legitimate claim.

Former Conservative immigration minister Damian Green (pictured) called on the Government to take in any Afghan with a legitimate claim

Former Conservative immigration minister Damian Green (pictured) called on the Government to take in any Afghan with a legitimate claim

How does the Syrian resettlement scheme work? 

The Afghan refugees could benefit from arrangements similar to the Syrian resettlement scheme.  

That was set up in 2015 to help those in the greatest need, including people requiring urgent medical treatment, survivors of violence and torture, and women and children at risk.

With an aim to bring 20,000 Syrians to the UK by 2020, it was the largest resettlement scheme in Europe. 

The government worked with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify particularly vulnerable candidates. 

It deliberately targeted those who were still in the region, giving them a direct safe and legal route to the UK. 

Local authorities and community sponsor groups were asked to volunteer to support people as they settled into a new life.

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He said: 'There are times and places where we should be strict with asylum applications. Afghanistan today is the exact opposite. We should take anyone who can make a case.'

Chairman of the Commons defence committee Tobias Ellwood said the numbers accepted by Britain should run 'at least' into tens of thousands.

The former British Army captain told news website PoliticsHome: 'All Nato countries who participated in Afghanistan need to work together to coordinate efforts in order to facilitate arrival of what will be hundreds of thousands of families fleeing the country.'

Former Cabinet minister Lord Hammond described the situation as a 'terrible failure of Western strategy' warning of not just a 'humanitarian crisis but no doubt in time a counter-terrorism crisis for the West'.

Shadow Foreign Office minister Stephen Kinnock warned the intake 'needs to be a bold and ambitious and generous offer'. 

Mr Kinnock told Today the new plan 'needs to be a bold and ambitious and generous offer'.

Asked if 20,000 people would be about right, he said: 'We need to see an offer that is also backed up with the capacity to process it.

'As you pointed out, the situation on the ground there is so difficult at the moment that we have got to ensure that we don't open up an offer that we can't actually deliver on.

'So we need to see the detail of the plan from the Government, but it is absolutely right that we make an ambitious and bold offer.'

Asked if that means tens of thousands of people rather than a few thousand, he said: 'I would have thought so, yes, yes - we, of course, need to see the detail, but I think this needs to be a significant offer.'

Last night British legal bodies called for female Afghan judges and lawyers to be given priority, amid concern over their safety under Taliban rule.

The Bar Council and the Law Society said in a joint statement they were 'gravely concerned' about the 'perilous future' they were facing under the Taliban.

Shadow Foreign Office minister Stephen Kinnock warned the intake needs to be a bold and ambitious and generous offer'

Shadow Foreign Office minister Stephen Kinnock warned the intake needs to be a bold and ambitious and generous offer'

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson hopes to convene a meeting of world leaders at the 'earliest opportunity' as he looks to co-ordinate the international response to the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister is pushing for a virtual G7 meeting to be arranged, raising the idea with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a call on Tuesday and doing the same during talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.

And in a signal that Mr Johnson wants to draw together a broad coalition, Downing Street confirmed the UK wants the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) - which, as well as Britain, includes the US, China, France and Russia - to meet this week.

The gathering would extend even further than the G7 alliance of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US, with the Prime Minister keen for leading economies to act together on choosing how to broach relations with a Taliban-led state in Afghanistan.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said Mr Johnson and Mrs Merkel agreed that 'global co-operation was crucial'.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed the UK would have to work with 'challenging' partners on its approach to dealing with the Taliban following their capture of Kabul.

UK relations with Moscow have been strained in recent years, particularly since the Salisbury Novichok attack in 2018, while Beijing and London have been at loggerheads over China's growing technological influence amid security and spying fears.

Mr Raab, who admitted that the speed of Afghanistan's fall took the Government by surprise, told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'We'll need a contact group I believe, of not just like-minded Western countries, but countries with direct influence even if we find it challenging dealing with them.

'The permanent members of the Security Council, including China and Russia, will need to be, I think, part of the solution, so it's not going to be easy.'

Mr Raab said he thought the international community must 'test' the Taliban's resolve to hold to promises previously made in their Doha agreement with the US, including ensuring terrorists do not take hold again in Afghanistan and leading a more 'inclusive' government.

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