THIS year’s Afghan Chevening scholars are living in fear of being forced back into the hands of the Taliban after graduating next month.

They urged the government to grant them to leave to remain as it has done previously for students on the Foreign Office scheme, which provides study at UK universities for students with potential to become future leaders, decision-makers and opinion formers.

The Home Office said the scholarship, mostly for one-year Masters courses, was not a pathway to resettlement before indicating this year’s 17-strong Afghan cohort can apply for another UK visa, such as the graduate route, or consider claiming asylum instead of following the standard Chevening policy of returning home or to a third country.

Three of the scholars, whose 2021 and 2022 counterparts who were already in the UK were granted indefinite leave to remain, have told of their fears as a result of the government policy.

They said they were stuck in limbo facing paying expensive two-year graduate visa fees or being left unable to work as they join the UK’s near 200,000-strong asylum backlog. 

One, who is specialising in international human rights law, said: “I am having panic attacks thinking about what exactly is going to happen.

“Should I just become stateless and homeless at the same time after September?”

Another student, who is studying accounting and finance, said he was made aware that the scholarship was not an offer of resettlement but was “hopeful” things would return to normal in Afghanistan by the time he graduated.

A third scholar, who is studying management of information systems, described receiving an email from the programme in early June, telling him to book his flight back home as a “hard moment.”

The scholars said Chevening informed them at the end of June that they may be exempt from the requirement to return to Afghanistan due to the expiration of their visas in their countries of residence at the time of accepting the scholarship.

Labour MP Neil Coyle MP said Chevening scholars were “the best and brightest,” adding: “Ministers must end their debilitating quagmire and grant leave to remain in the UK, as the Home Office did for the students who completed their studies last year.”

A government spokesman said it provided a letter of consent allowing the scholars to apply for another visa due to “the situation in Afghanistan.”