UK announces plan to resettle 20,000 refugees from Afghanistan

The scheme will give priority to women, girls and minorities considered ‘most at risk’ under Taliban rule.

The United Kingdom says it will welcome as many as 20,000 Afghans under a new resettlement programme that will give priority to women, girls and religious and other minorities, according to reports in British news outlets. The scheme aimed at those seen “most at risk of human rights abuses and dehumanising treatment by the Taliban” will offer a safe and legal route to Britain, the Times newspaper reported on Tuesday. About 5,000 people are expected to arrive in the UK in its first year. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain owed a “debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years and many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help,” British media said.