GIVE AFGHAN HEROES SANCTUARY
Pressure for UK to save translators facing Taliban death threat
GENERALS, former ministers, MPs and war veterans yesterday called for the Government to allow Afghan translators who risked their lives beside British soldiers to be given sanctuary in the UK.
The intervention came after a series of Daily Mail articles highlighted the plight of interpreters, who claim to have been ‘abandoned’ to the Taliban.
Two of those who worked with UK forces on the frontline, and translated for David Cameron and Gordon Brown on visits to Afghanistan, have been told a decision will be made ‘within days’ on whether they will be allowed to live in Britain.
But translators say there are many more cases in which they and their families became Taliban targets because of their role with UK troops for more than a decade. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon
‘Callous to refuse them a safe haven’
admitted the situation was ‘worrying’, but added: ‘ We look at each particular case and so far we have not found a case where an interpreter has been sufficiently intimidated to consider relocating them to the UK, but we have helped relocate from their village to Kabul or wherever.’
Interpreters have told of death threats, shootings, attacks on their families, kidnaps and intimidation, which have been reported to UK officials in Kabul.
More than 20 ex-British military translators are said to have resorted to paying people- smugglers to escape. One was reported by his family to have been killed on the hazardous journey through Iran.
The fact not one of the translators has been deemed worthy of being allowed into the UK – when thousands of migrants are entering illegally – is causing concern.
Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, awarded the George Cross for saving comrades in Afghanistan, said: ‘If other foreigners who have never served or contributed to our country are able to come here, settle, claim benefits … it’s a very immoral stance in refusing these privileges to these individuals who have done more for the UK than most who live in it.’
Tory MP Richard Benyon, of the defence select committee, said: ‘ People find it hard to accept that we provide visas for economic migrants but do not give asylum for those who are in harm’s way because of the brave work they have done to support our troops.’
Former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth said: ‘It seems at best bizarre and at worse somewhat callous to refuse these guys a safe haven when others who have given no such service are allowed into Britain. These are people who have really made a critical difference to our Armed Forces.’
Up to 600 Afghan translators fall outside a government scheme allowing those who work for UK forces for a year after December 2011 to settle here if facing intimidation.
Interpreters and their lawyers say this is ‘unfair’ because many were forced to leave after Taliban threats and they took the greatest risks by serving on the frontlines at the height of the insurgency.
They complain that some of those allowed into Britain under the scheme were rarely on the frontline and contrast the policy to that in place after the Iraq War when UK military translators were allowed to settle in Britain.
General Sir Mike Jackson, former head of the British Army, said: ‘These people put their lot in with us and we should stand by them. The date is arbitrary … there isn’t any difference between what they are doing before the cutoff point or after.’ Colonel Richard Kemp, commander of British forces in Afghanistan in 2003, said: ‘When they volunteered they took it for granted that a country with Britain’s standing in the world would look after them.
‘They gave us their loyal service; we must now show them the same loyalty.’
Chris, 26, a f ormer SAS translator, said his colleagues f elt ‘ betrayed and abandoned’, adding: ‘The soldiers have gone but the Taliban remain … It is a matter of time before they take their revenge on those they call “spies for the infidels”.’
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the policy for Afghan translators was ‘legal, honourable and f air … We review a sample of cases on a regular basis to provide independent assurance of our original decisions.’
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