Translators for UK turn protesters
DOZENS of demonstrators yesterday met at Parliament Square to protest what they see as a lack of support from the Government for Afghan citizens after the Taliban takeover.
The crowd, mainly made up of former translators for the British Army, held up signs and banners in front of Parliament as MPs returned to the House of Commons.
Placards included images of people gravely injured in Afghanistan, with the caption: “Protect our loved ones.”
One former interpreter, who like many there only gave his first name, Rafi, said: “Today we are representing all those employees of the British Government in Afghanistan who have served the British forces.
“Today, their lives are at a very high risk…they need protection and safety. The Taliban will butcher every single one of them if they are left behind.
“The Afghan nation feels betrayed and let down. They deserved better. The Americans took the rug from under our feet and left the nation with no protection, no safety and under the control of the same terrorists that we started fighting 20 years ago.”
Many more people joined the Afghan translators in the afternoon until the crowd had grown to 200.
Trapped
Women and children came bearing posters and red balloons with Afghanistan flags painted on their cheeks.
They were joined by people from Iran and Iraq who showed solidarity for the people trapped in Afghanistan.
Dewa, an Afghan activist originally from Jalalabad, who moved to the UK two years ago, said: “We want to tell the people there that they are not alone, we will do everything we can as British citizens to change the situation for Afghanistan.
“This is horrible. This is chaos. The girls, the women, the young boys, they’re so scared to go out on to the street. Everyone is trying to find a way to escape the country.”
Mujtaba, who was an interpreter from 2005 to 2010 in Afghanistan for the British armed forces, said he managed to move his family to the UK a month before the takeover.
He said: “My two brothers worked for eight years for the British armed forces in Helmand province and they’ve been left behind.”
A small scuffle broke out after a member of the public chastised the demonstrators for protesting at the same time as Gurkhas but no one was arrested or injured.