Afghanistan interpreter told his British citizenship bars family from UK visa

When US and Nato forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August, Muhammad* received a message marked “urgent” from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) telling him and his family to go to the Baron hotel in Kabul for “processing prior to evacuation”.

Having worked as an interpreter and cultural adviser for British forces for more than a decade, putting a potential target on his back in the eyes of the Taliban, Muhammad applied for his wife and children to join him under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy scheme, open to people who worked with or for UK forces.

If he tried to bring his family over illegally, his wife would face being sent to Rwanda under the legislation that Rishi Sunak says will be passed on Monday, as .

Photograph: No creditMuhammad also applied for his family to come to the UK under the Home Office’s Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme(ACRS) but in June last year he was told his wife and children were not eligible under pathway three because they were not “at-risk Chevening [a scholarship programme supporting study at UK universities] alumni”.

When the office of his MP, Stella Creasy, queried the response, the Home Office said Muhammad’s wife and children were not considered under pathway one of ACRS for “vulnerable and at-risk individuals” because they were not listed as “called forward” for evacuation from Afghanistan, despite the message he received from the FCDO.

The Home Office said the message received by Muhammad was “not a call forward instruction, it is an invitation to come to the Baron hotel to process their request”.