THOUSANDS of Afghans are still waiting for their applications to resettle in Britain to be considered after more than five years since the fall of Kabul.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said yesterday that 37,950 people arrived in the country through various settlement schemes by the end of 2025.

But the public spending watchdog found that a further 29,655 people were still waiting to know if they would be allowed to come to Britain, despite the schemes being closed to new applicants since July last year.

Ministers expected up to 9,741 more people to eventually be resettled by 2029 and that integration would take place until 2033, the NAO said.

Britain increased the number of resettlement programmes it made available to people in Afghanistan in 2021 following the US withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul.

The NAO explained the backlog as a result of a “sub-optimal” offering involving two separate schemes across multiple departments. They said these “chaotic” arrangements continued for “much longer than was necessary.”

Officials also criticised the “bureaucratic” approach which allowed for, among other things, the closing of “bridging hotels” which housed Afghans, exposing many to homelessness.

They also hit back at the government decision to create a third resettlement scheme, the Afghan Response Route (ARR), for those affected by a defence official accidentally leaking their personal details in 2022.

Commons public accounts committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “There is clearly a need for more to be done to prevent resettled citizens experiencing poor outcomes and minimise the risk of homelessness.”

The government said the report highlighted the “progress that has been made” and that it remains “committed to our target of completing Afghan resettlement by the end of this parliament.”