He helped our Army in Afghanistan, f led to UK ... but faces being sent home to ‘certain death’
AN Afghan interpreter who risked his life working for the British Army says he will be killed if a threat to deport him to his home country is carried out.
Abdul Bari, 26, who helped UK forces in Helmand Province in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2010, fled the country after receiving death threats from the Taliban.
He reached Britain in 2015 after being smuggled across the Channel from Calais and says he applied for asylum on the day he arrived.
However, the Home Office rejected both the initial application and an appeal. The Government says it is safe for Mr Bari to return to the Afghan capital Kabul.
He said: ‘The UK gave me notice for deportation, so they will send me where I will definitely be killed.’
His solicitor is seeking a judicial review of the decision.
Mr Bari, who currently lives in Manchester, added: ‘It is unfair, it is injustice. I helped the British forces at a very risky time. At the moment I am at risk and I need help, but they are ignoring me.
‘Interpreters who have been deported to Afghanistan are all in danger. If I go back I will be killed.’
The Home Office has allowed some interpreters to live in the UK but only those employed on a specific date in 2012 – Mr Bari worked for the Army before that.
About 1,000 Afghan interpreters worked with British forces but only 400 have been given a visa to live in the UK, while 600 have not qualified.
The Daily Mail is campaigning for interpreters who helped our armed forces in Afghanistan to be given sanctuary in the UK.
The former head of the British Army Lord Dannatt has also urged the Government to step in on the issue.
He said: ‘If [the interpreters] genuinely feel there is a threat to their safety, we have a moral obligation to look after them. That probably means giving them an opportunity to come to this country.’
Explaining why he helped the British Army, Mr Bari said: ‘I knew that if I joined the British forces it would be a great choice for me.
‘The situation in our country was very bad. So I had to help the international forces to protect our country.
‘They came to my country to help us, so I had to help them.
‘I helped the British forces at a very risky, very unsafe time but now I’m at risk, so I want the British Government to look after me.’ He described how his work with the Army led to threats from Taliban insurgents, including a phone call to his father and a letter through the door of the family home. ‘They said, “You know your son is working for the infidels. So tell him to leave the job, otherwise he will be slaughtered”,’ he recalled. The threats escalated to violence when the Taliban came to his family’s home and beat up his mother and father. Mr Bari then decided to flee. ‘I did not have enough time to stay there and go and seek the authorities for protection,’ he said. ‘The only choice for me was to leave the country.’
Mr Bari, a professional boxer in his homeland, has been keeping busy by working out with Amir Khan’s former childhood trainer Mick Jelley.
Mr Jelley, who runs a gym in Bury, said of Mr Bari: ‘ He’s a human being and all human beings should have a chance in life and the work the lad’s done should be honoured by our country.
‘We should look after people who have looked after us and if we don’t, we are in a very bad situation.’
As an asylum seeker, Mr Bari is allowed £ 35 a week living expenses from his local council
‘I am at risk and I need help’
but has the constant threat of deportation hanging over him.
A former British Army interpreter who was granted asylum in the UK has become friends with Mr Bari and has spoken out in support.
The man, who gave his name only as Hashmat, said: ‘I want a visa for every interpreter that spends time over there.
‘The Taliban holds 70 per cent of Afghanistan. They are more powerful every day and are searching for people that worked with the Army and Nato forces. They are all at risk.’
Mr Bari’s lawyer Lewis Kett, of the firm Duncan Lewis Solicitors, said yesterday he is seeking a judicial review to challenge the rejection of his client’s asylum application.
He added: ‘The Home Office has accepted that he was an interpreter, they have accepted he was originally threatened, but they have not accepted he is at risk in Kabul.’
The Home Office said each asylum claim is carefully considered on its own merits but that it does not comment on individual cases.