SHAME ON YOU, RAAB
FOREIGN SECRETARY FACES CALLS TO QUIT FOR NOT HELPING TRANSLATORS ESCAPE
A FORMER translator from Afghanistan has said Dominic Raab should be ashamed for failing to make a phone call to help rescue others like him days before the Taliban seized power.
The foreign secretary yesterday faced calls to quit after it emerged he was ‘unavailable’ to give crucial help on Friday as he was on holiday at the luxury Amirandes Hotel in Crete.
The translator ‘Rafi’, 35, who now lives in the UK, said it was disgraceful that Mr Raab had failed to pick up the phone when so many Afghans were in danger for helping western forces. He said: ‘If he didn’t make the call, I’m shocked. How could somebody do something like that in this chaotic situation? The interpreters and their families could be killed at any time... if he was too busy during his holidays to help, shame on him.’ Government officials recommended on Friday that Mr Raab urgently call Afghan foreign minister Hanif Atmar to help evacuate translators who had assisted Britons, the Daily Mail revealed. But the job was passed to junior minister Lord Goldsmith, whose call was refused.
Asked at Downing St yesterday if he would stand down, Mr Raab said: ‘No.’
Former UK ambassador to the US Lord Kim Darroch told the BBC officials only encourage ministers to make calls while on holiday if it is ‘absolutely essential’. ‘If they were recommending this call strongly, I think he should have made it,’ he said. But defence secretary Ben Wallace argued the suggested phone call would not have made ‘any difference whatsoever’ as Afghan government resistance was ‘melting away’.
Labour, the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru all called for Mr Raab to quit or be sacked. Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy tweeted: ‘If Dominic Raab doesn’t have the decency to resign, the prime minister must show a shred of leadership and sack him.’
The Foreign Office said: ‘The foreign secretary was engaged on a range of other calls and this one was delegated to another minister.’