My dream of a new life’s come true at last
First Afghan translator moves to UK with family under new rules following Mail campaign
JUST weeks ago they were hiding from the fighters of the Taliban and Islamic State in rural Afghanistan, fearing they may never escape.
But bathed in sunshine week near their new home close to Coventry, 32-year- old Niz, his wife Spougmai and their five children need no longer worry about ambushes.
For the past five years the family have ‘lived in the shadows’ after Niz was branded an infidel spy and told by the Taliban that he would be hunted down and killed for working as a senior interpreter for the British military – and later for the Foreign Office – at the height of the war in Afghanistan.
But last week Niz became the first translator to begin a new life in Britain under rules brought in by former defence secretary Gavin Williamson in a major victory for the Daily Mail and its awardwinning Betrayal of the Brave campaign.
The couple and their children Tajalah, six, Hasan, five, Zalah, four, Hussain, two, and ten-month-old Yousrah are the first to benefit from new qualifying measures which enable those interpreters who served with UK troops before 2012 to come to Britain.
Dozens more interpreters who served on the frontline in Helmand are expected to benefit from the new rules implemented last June. The old policy allowed those who served in December 2012 and had spent a year on the frontlines to qualify for resettlement. Under the new rules, anyone serving from 2006 could qualify – a move covering those in the worst fighting.
Sitting in the three-bedroom, end-of-terrace house he is learning to call home, Niz, who speaks four languages fluently, said: ‘It is still slightly unreal but so exciting to be here and finally to escape the very real threat to our security of the Taliban and IS.
‘To be able to play football with my daughters where it is safe and there are no spies, no one who would condemn you, is a dream come true for all of us.
‘To know my children can go to school and learn in safety is another dream that now can come true.’ The university graduate added: ‘There were times when I feared I would never be able to come to the UK because there were so many obstacles and I would like to thank the British Government for this opportunity.
‘But most of all I would like to thank The Daily Mail because you never gave up on the translators and without you I would not be here today.’
The Betrayal of the Brave campaign to highlight the plight of UK military translators left behind in Afghanistan first raised Niz’s case in August 2015.
Many of the subsequent years, he said, were spent in hiding although he did work for a charity helping Afghan women. He was an interpreter for UK troops between May and October 2009 in the Electronic Warfare squadron and then worked for the Foreign Office’s Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand from October 2009 to June 2012, when he was made redundant.
In this role he was known to Taliban commanders and tribal leaders. As a result, he said, he and his family had been attacked by Taliban gunmen three times.
His younger brother was attacked by men wanting to find Niz. ‘When he refused to give them information they proceeded to beat him severely and told him that if they captured me they would kill him in front of his family,’ the translator said.
People in his own village, in an area that is Taliban- dominated, accused him of being a spy.
In 2014, heavily armed men attacked his rural family home. The translator also has photos of a bullet-riddled car after a Taliban ambush intended for him in Kunar province.
Despite this, Niz was told he did not qualify to come to the UK under an ‘intimidation’ scheme because British officials did not accept he was under threat. And he also did not qualify under a relocation scheme because he had to be serving on an arbitrary date in December 2012 to qualify, but he had been made redundant six months earlier.
Under the new policy, Mr Williamson, who was fired from the Cabinet earlier this month, widened the qualifying period.
Niz praised his work in changing the policy, stressing it would be a ‘great legacy’. ‘I would appeal to the new Defence Secretary [Penny Mordaunt] to continue to examine the policy towards translators because the threat is very real and is growing,’ he said. ‘ People still look at us as infidels who “spied” for the British and point the finger at us… that is a very big shadow to live your life under... Some translators only left the military because of threats having served at the most dangerous times and the risk remains to them. I would ask that they are not forgotten or left without hope. The reason they are in danger is because they worked for the British military.’
Niz said his ambition is to ‘learn and to work hard’ in Britain to ‘repay the country’. He and his wife have already been struck by how friendly people have been and the ‘beautiful’ green parks near their home.
Their house is currently sparsely furnished but Spougmai, 27, says she is looking forward to making it their ‘very happy home’, learning English and taking her children to school – a right denied to so many, especially girls, in Afghanistan.
Their daughter Tajalah said she is looking forward to it. ‘I can now learn,’ she said. ‘It is exciting.’
‘People still see us as spying infidels’