48 tales of courage

It’s a growing stain on our national honour — the brave Afghan interpreters promised sanctuary here, yet still stuck living in terror. So when WILL we repay our debt to them?

TWO years ago, Sam, 32, a former interpreter with British troops in the wartorn Afghan province of Helmand, was kidnapped at gunpoint by the Taliban and held captive for more than three months.

With execution looming as punishment for throwing in his lot with the ‘infidels’, he managed to escape. His 22-year- old brother, Parwiz, another former translator, was less fortunate. After being branded a British spy by the Taliban, he was shot four times in the chest on the doorstep of his home and died.

Sam, married with a young son, is just one of dozens of Afghan interpreters and translators who live each day in fear of their lives, despite a pledge two years ago by the then Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson to relocate up to 50 men who had been the ‘eyes and ears’ of the British military.

Under relentless pressure from the Mail’s award- winning Betrayal of the Brave campaign, which has told the terrifying stories of translators left to face the threat of the Taliban and Islamic State, he said it is ‘right to honour their extraordinary service’.

The hard-won policy change widened the criteria under which translators could find sanctuary in the UK. Yet, as the Mail revealed last week, only two interpreters have been granted visas.

Their hopes were raised anew when — after pressure from the Mail — the current Defence Secretary Ben Wallace met with Home Secretary Priti Patel and promised their ‘crucial service’ would be recognised and a settlement found.

Here, the Mail highlights the cases of 48 translators who could qualify to make up the promised ‘Williamson 50’.