MPs’ fury over betrayal of our Afghan interpreters

MINISTERS have ‘dismally failed’ to protect loyal Afghan interpreters who served alongside UK troops from the Taliban, MPs say today.

An inquiry by the defence select committee concludes that ‘dangerously exposed’ interpreters should be given a new life in Britain.

MPs said the Ministry of Defence’s ‘intimidation scheme’, under which translators have to prove a threat to their life before they are allowed into the UK, had failed to bring a single one to safety in this country.

The explosive report states that claims by the MoD that no interpreters have faced threats warranting their relocation to the UK are ‘totally implausible’.

It draws on evidence of the threats facing interpreters gathered by the Daily Mail’s Betrayal of the Brave campaign. The report says: ‘We have a duty of care to those who risked everything to help our armed forces in Afghanistan.’

Dr Julian Lewis, chairman of the cross-party committee, said: ‘How we treat our former interpreters and local employees... will send a message to the people we would want to employ in future military campaigns about whether we can be trusted to protect them.’

The findings will pile further pressure on Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Home Secretary Sajid Javid to overhaul current policy on Afghan interpreters. Last night the MoD said it would review the report.

There are two schemes under which interpreters who served alongside UK troops can be given sanctuary in the UK. The ‘relocation scheme’ only allows interpreters into the UK if they were serving on an arbitrary date in December 2012 and served at least 12 months in Helmand province.

But the report says this scheme had been ‘generous’ in allowing interpreters who lost their jobs when UK forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan into Britain.

This generosity had, however, contrasted starkly with the ‘total failure to offer similar sanctuary to interpreters’ under the intimidation scheme, it says.

This failure comes despite the Mail campaign revealing how Afghan interpreters and their families have been shot at, threatened and even executed after being branded ‘spies and infidels’ by the Taliban.

The report says ministers must allow interpreters who face ‘serious and verifiable threats’ to come to Britain.

MINISTERS have ‘dismally failed’ to protect loyal Afghan interpreters who served with our troops.

So says an excoriating report by an all-party committee, which finds not a single interpreter has been given sanctuary in the UK under a scheme to rescue those at risk from Taliban reprisals.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson must act with all speed to honour our debt to these brave men – before more pay for their service to Britain with their lives.