A matter of honour

Afghan interpreters betrayed

AS BRITAIN contemplates committing more soldiers to Afghanistan, it is shameful that the Government has not done more to assist those interpreters who risked their own lives to assist UK service personnel during previous deployments.

Though military interpreters are never enlisted so the employing nation is never under a legal obligation to resettle them, this country’s lack of honour towards those who expected better from this country is, nevertheless, inexcusable.

A scandal which first came to light last year when the Britain’s longest-serving Afghan military interpreter – a man who gave 16 years of “unfailing loyalty” to the Armed Forces – was refused the right to live in the UK, it’s been further exposed by today’s Defence Committee report.

It sets out how a scheme supposedly set up to help civilians at risk of reprisals from the Taliban seemed to go to “considerable lengths” to stop the relocation of interpreters, and other staff, to the UK.

Rightly, it warns that such assistance may not be available in the future if it’s perceived that Britain won’t be loyal towards those who need protection “from revenge and reprisals at the hands of our enemies”. The Government’s explanation is awaited – could it be that the immigration debate is so polarised that Ministers have lost their moral compass?