About the project
This project runs from January 2024 to May 2026 and is funded by The Nuffield Foundation.
Background
Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, thousands of Afghan evacuees – around half of whom were children – arrived in the UK under two official resettlement schemes operated by the Home Office and its partners:
- Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) – launched in 2021 for Afghans who worked with UK forces.
- Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) – launched in 2022 to support vulnerable Afghans, including those at risk under Taliban rule.
In December 2024, the UK government merged ARAP and ACRS into a single scheme: the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP). On 1st July 2025, the ARP was closed to new applicants. In mid-July 2025, the lifting of a super-injunction revealed a severe data breach from 2022, where details of nearly 19,000 Afghan applicants had been accidentally shared. Following this, another covert resettlement route in April 2024 known as the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) had been established, to relocate those placed at risk by the breach.
Resettled Afghans refer to those who worked for the British military or in roles promoting democratic values such as women’s rights and their immediate family members. Since 2021, around 38,000 have been evacuated or provided with other “safe and legal” routes to come to the UK so that they and their immediate family members are protected from potential Taliban reprisals, while others already accepted still wait for relocation. As one source in the research told the team, the resettlement schemes are vital to demonstrate that, ‘we will stand with those who stand with us’.
Methodology
The team gathered a robust evidence base on outcomes and experiences of the relocation and resettlement schemes from multiple perspectives. This sought to inform national government, strategic migration partnerships, councils and NGOs to assess how they are working, especially across regions and among different populations.
The research operated a mixed methods approach, including:
- a scoping study synthesising disparate existing data
- a regional survey of resettled Afghans in England, working with 20 peer researchers (completed, with nearly 800 anonymous responses)
- participatory research using creative methods (walking interviews and photovoice) to explore the experiences of 75 Afghan women, men and young people
- Research with 88 stakeholders through interviews and three regional roundtables with local authorities.
Findings
The findings of the research are published in a report produced by University College London (UCL), London Metropolitan University (London Met) and Middlesex University to examine how well the schemes are working. The research shows that this group is adapting well to life in England after being resettled by the British government, but that important lessons need to be learned from the complex, costly, and difficult multi-agency project.
Key findings of the report:
- Afghan resettlement schemes have saved thousands of lives and – while not without problems – demonstrate that Britain’s ‘safe and legal routes’ approach can be effective and a global exemplar of good practice.
- Afghans resettled under the schemes have a diverse range of characteristics but are generally embedding well. They feel safe and are grateful for the protection and support they have received, despite challenges and complications.
- Resettled Afghans’ experiences in housing, education and wellbeing in the UK are often specific to them but worries and frustrations commonly mirror those of other UK residents. While some are still struggling to adapt to new and very different circumstances after the trauma of war and relocation, many – particularly the young – are thriving.
Team
Project lead
- Professor Caroline Oliver, Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity, Department of Education, Practice and Society
Members
Outputs
- Executive summary
- Full report
- Walking with Afghan women: using mobile methods to understand differentiated embedding within different places across England, journal article on walking interviews
- From Kabul to Crawley: using collaboration to understand Afghan resettlement across England, blog on participatory methods
Additional information
Conceptually, the project seeks to generate new understandings in how resettled people ‘embed’ into receiving environments, with attention to heterogeneity in Afghan populations and differences according to different localities. The research is significant since reception experiences have major long-term effects for affected populations across a range of outcomes (labour market, housing, education, health and civic engagement).
The team aims to produce a range of academic and non-technical outputs including academic papers, policy briefings, presentations and a report, available below. A conference on experiences of resettlement, which puts the findings around the Afghan schemes into conversation with research around other resettlement bespoke schemes was held in September 2025, and a final event held in April 2026, with further events planned for engagement with Afghans to share the findings. The project’s outputs will be tailored for policymakers, practitioners, academics, and the wider public.
Funding
The project was awarded £269,000 and a further supplement of £79,000 for a six-month extension from the Nuffield Foundation, an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance social well-being. It funds and undertakes rigorous research, encourages innovation and supports the use of sound evidence to inform social and economic policy, and improve people’s lives. The Nuffield Foundation is the founder and co-funder of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the Ada Lovelace Institute and the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. This project has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the Foundation.
Find out more about the Nuffield Foundation
- Nuffield Foundation
- Bluesky: @nuffieldfoundation.org
- LinkedIn: Nuffield Foundation
Related links
Contact us
Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity (CSEE)
Department of Education, Practice and Society
UCL Institute of Education
University College London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL
Header image credit: Sezerozger / Adobe Stock.