CBC & Anor, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Defence & Anor

Facts

The two claimants, anonymised as CBC and GSD, are Afghan citizens who worked as security guards at the British Embassy, Kabul, employed by the private contractors G4S and, in GSD's case, later GardaWorld. Both applied for relocation to the United Kingdom under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy, introduced on 1 April 2021 and contained in Appendix ARAP 3.6 of the Immigration Rules. Both were accepted as meeting Condition 1 of Category 4, but both were refused on the footing that they had not made a substantive and positive contribution towards the United Kingdom Government's military or national security objectives in Afghanistan, and so failed Condition 2. CBC applied in May 2021 and again in January 2022; after a series of refusals, reviews and a settled judicial review, a third review decision of 20 June 2025 maintained the refusal. GSD applied in July 2021, was refused, and after pre-action correspondence a further review upheld the refusal on 4 September 2025; he had meanwhile been relocated to the United Kingdom under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme with his wife and two younger children, his two adult children being left behind in Afghanistan. Each claimant sought permission to apply for judicial review of the refusal on four grounds and, if granted, substantive relief.