THE Tories have been urged to “supercharge” the resettlement of vulnerable Afghans after admitting that one scheme has yet to resettle a single refugee in Britain.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said his department had received requests from 11,400 people hoping to be brought to safety in Britain through one of the three pathways for resettlement under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). 

This route is designed to help Afghans who worked for the British Council, GardaWorld — a firm which provided security at the British embassy in Kabul — and alumni of Britain’s Chevening university scholarship scheme. All face severe harm at the hands of the Taliban. 

Mr Cleverly told the Commons on Tuesday that the department was “working quickly” through the 11,400 applications for the third pathway, which closed for new submissions in August this year. 

However, the government has yet to resettle a single person through this route, despite promising to bring 1,500 people to Britain in the first year of the ACRS scheme, which opened in January 2022. 

The admission was made in response to a question by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who accused the government of putting vulnerable Afghans’ lives at risk. 

“I’m in touch with Chevening alumni, for example, who are living in fear of their lives for over 16 months now,” she said. 

“Will the Home Office urgently supercharge this scheme, increase the number of people working on it, but crucially allow the 20,000 people ministers say they want to help over five years to come now? They can’t wait another four or five years — they are in fear for their lives.”

Mr Cleverly insisted that 6,300 people have already been resettled under the whole ACRS scheme. 

However, these places are understood to have been filled by Afghan refugees who were already in Britain before the scheme was opened, after being evacuated from Kabul in August 2021. 

The government has promised to resettle a total of 20,000 people under the ACRS scheme over five years. 

Official figures released earlier this month revealed that just four people have been resettled in Britain under the scheme’s second pathway for Afghan refugees stuck in neighbouring countries.