Tragedy of translator ordered out of UK
AN interpreter who worked for the British in Afghanistan killed himself last year after being told he did not qualify for asylum in the UK and would be deported.
Nangyalai Dawoodzai was said to have been ‘deeply depressed’ about the threat of being thrown out of the country despite working with British forces in Helmand province.
Fellow interpreters said he had spoken of suicide in the weeks leading up to his death in April 2016.
Mr Dawoodzai, 29, had paid people smugglers to reach the UK after receiving Taliban death threats in his homeland. But he was told he could not stay in Britain because he had been fingerprinted in Italy and had to claim asylum there.
The Daily Mail’s Betrayal of the Brave campaign highlighted the case in May last year and revealed how interpreters were being deported because the Home Office deemed Afghanistan ‘safe’.
An ex-translator, who shared a hostel with Mr Dawoodzai in Birmingham, said at the time: ‘He was depressed. He said his life was at risk and no one cared… he believed that Britain would help him because he had helped them.’
Mr Dawoodzai was held for 18 days at a Home Office detention centre before being released to a hostel while paperwork was processed. His body was found by West Midlands Police. worked with the British, and their 600 dependants, have been granted residency in the UK as part of a separate redundancy scheme.
Minister Mr Penning described the security situation in Afghanistan as ‘difficult’, and joked that he was ‘probably going to get shot’ for revealing more personnel may be sent there.
He said: ‘We have no plans to drawdown, actually there is a possibility that we might uplift because of what we are being asked to do.’
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