Afghan asylum approvals plunge as UK denies women fleeing Taliban, analysis warns
Hundreds of Afghan women were refused asylum in the UK last year as grant rates plummeted, new analysis shows.
Labor has been accused of “betraying” women and girls fleeing oppression as data shows Afghan refugees have less chance of asylum in the UK than before the Taliban’s rule.
Analysis of government data by charity Amnesty International UK shows that the grant rate for Afghan asylum claims fell from 96 per cent to 34 per cent during Labor’s time in office.
That figure is lower than before the Taliban came to power, when approval ratings for the Taliban were between 45 and 62 percent, an article published by the aid agency on Tuesday found. According to Ministry of Internal Affairs data, 370 Afghan women’s asylum requests were rejected in 2025.
Wendy Chamberlain, LibDem MP and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Afghan women and girls, said: “Women in Afghanistan endure one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, systematically alienating them from everyday life.
“The UK’s increasing refusal to grant asylum to Afghan women, despite the Taliban’s acknowledged brutality and clear evidence of gender discrimination, is indefensibly cruel.”
Grant rates for initial asylum applications have been falling across the board since Labor came to power. The success rate for first-time asylum applications was 42 percent in 2025, down from 47 percent in 2024 and 76 percent in 2022. The increasing number of initial rejections has led to more people now awaiting the results of their asylum appeals; Justice Department data shows the backlog has doubled to just under 70,000 in the year ending September 2025.
The Home Office said it assessed each asylum request on its individual merits and the evidence presented.
Steve Smith, chief executive of Care4Calais, said: “Just a few short years ago, the significant risk posed to individuals by the Taliban regime was duly recognized, with an almost 100 per cent asylum claim rate for Afghans. But the UK government has clearly changed its position, and I would argue that this has changed not because the Taliban threat has diminished, but rather because Afghan nationals are the nationality most likely to cross the Channel seeking asylum in the UK.”
Gunes Kalkan, campaign chair of Safe Passage International, said it was “incomprehensible” that the government had rejected the Afghan women’s shelter. He added: “Last year over 110 Afghan girls and over 260 Afghan women were forced to cross the Channel to seek protection.
“It is an inexcusable failure of this government to leave persecuted women and girls on journeys that endanger their lives, rather than offering them safe routes, and then deny them their protection.”
Charities and doctors have also warned Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s plans to reduce the settlement period granted to refugees from five years to 30 months will impact their ability to recover from traumatic experiences and integrate well into the UK.
Amnesty International UK has warned that the changes, along with restrictions on refugee family reunification, will disproportionately affect women and girls.
Karla McLaren, the charity’s head of government affairs, said: “As the Taliban tightens their power, the proportion of women secured here is falling. This is untenable. The refusal of Afghan women to seek asylum here, despite clear evidence of the brutality they faced under the Taliban, shows the extent of the moral and practical breakdown in the UK’s asylum decision-making process.”
Since returning to power, the Taliban has banned most women from the workplace and university and banned girls from attending secondary schools. According to the UN, maternal deaths are also increasing along with the increasing teenage birth rates due to child marriage.
Hasina Safi, Afghanistan’s former minister for women’s affairs, who came to the UK in 2021 after the Taliban came to power, said Britain needed to do “much more” to protect Afghan women and girls, adding: “The fact that it is becoming more difficult to find protection and stability pushes them to fight the way they want to live. This is not just a quote, it is a lived experience.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Since the Taliban takeover, the UK has humanely resettled almost 38,000 Afghan men, women and children.
“As women and girls in Afghanistan face serious dangers, asylum decision-makers continue to closely and carefully consider allegations of gender-based persecution.
“The home secretary has also announced plans to open new safe and legal routes once order is restored in our asylum system. These will prioritize integration and reflect public expectations for people to build independent lives and contribute to their local communities.”
