Recognition rates for Afghan asylum claims have fallen sharply from 96% to 34% since the current government took office.

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Afghan women fleeing one of the world’s most extreme systems of gender persecution are being denied safe asylum in the UK. And this is undermining the UK’s commitments on Women, Peace and Security, a new briefing warns.

Published by Amnesty International UK and the Gender Action for Peace and Security network, the briefing finds that asylum policies framed as restoring “control” are instead designed to deter people from seeking protection, shutting out women and girls escaping Taliban repression.

Sharp drop in successful Afghan asylum claims

Recognition rates for Afghan asylum claims have fallen sharply from 96% to 34% since the current government took office. At least 370 Afghan women and girls had asylum claims refused in 2025 alone.

Campaigners say the consequences are stark. A country that claims global leadership on women’s rights is turning away women fleeing systematic oppression.

Afghanistan is one of the most extreme examples of gender persecution in the world. Women and girls have been erased from public life, barred from education, excluded from work, stripped of autonomy, and silenced by sweeping restrictions on their movement and expression.

Many are effectively confined to their homes under threat of punishment. This is the reality women are fleeing. Yet current UK asylum policies are denying protection to many of them.

Karla McLaren, Amnesty UK’s head of government affairs, said:

Afghanistan is one of the worst places in the world to be a woman. Women have been systematically erased from public life, denied education, autonomy, and even the most basic right to be seen or heard.

Yet as the Taliban tightens its grip, the proportion of women granted safety here is falling. That is indefensible.

The fact that Afghan women are being denied refuge here, despite clear evidence of the brutality they face under the Taliban, shows the extent of the moral and practical collapse in the UK’s asylum decision-making.

Denying protection to women who so clearly should be recognised as refugees, preventing them from rebuilding their lives with dignity, and deliberately subjecting them to years of uncertainty is not strength, but cruelty.

Ministers cannot claim international leadership on women’s rights while turning away women fleeing persecution. The UK’s treatment of Afghan women seeking protection is a total betrayal of the principles it claims to stand for.

A system designed to deter, not protect

The briefing identifies a pattern of policies making it harder for refugees to secure safety in the UK, with disproportionate harm to women and girls. These include:

  • Rising refusal rates, including for Afghans despite well-documented persecution.
  • Plans to cut refugee status from five years to 30 months, increasing instability.
  • Proposals that could delay settlement for up to 20 years, trapping refugees in prolonged insecurity.
  • Ending refugee family reunion, closing a vital safe route used predominantly by women and children.

Taken together, campaigners warn these measures amount to a system designed to deter people from seeking asylum rather than protecting those entitled to it.

The UK is the UN Security Council penholder on the Women, Peace and Security agenda. This means it’s responsible for leading global efforts to protect women and girls affected by conflict.

However, the organisations warn that current asylum policies directly undermine these commitments. Denying protection to women fleeing gender-based persecution, including forced marriage, sexual violence, and exclusion from education and work, contradicts the UK’s stated leadership on the global stage.

At a time of rising global conflict and displacement, campaigners say the UK should be strengthening protection, not restricting it.

The organisations behind the briefing call on the UK government to:

  • Reinstate refugee family reunion rules.
  • Repeal restrictive asylum decision-making provisions.
  • Abandon plans that weaken protection for recognised refugees.
  • Expand safe routes for women and girls fleeing conflict.

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