Apology to Afghan translators forced to take DNA tests
SAJID Javid was forced into a grovelling apology yesterday after admitting Afghan translators were wrongly forced to take DNA tests before they could settle in Britain.
The Home Secretary admitted hundreds of interpreters – the ‘eyes and ears’ of British troops during the war – and their families were illegally ordered to hand over samples to prove they had the right to live in the UK.
Adult children of Gurkha veterans – Nepalese ex-soldiers from the British Army – were also told to provide samples as a condition of getting visas to join their parents here. They were among at least 449 cases where Home Office letters had been sent with the demand. A small number were denied entrance to Britain after failing to provide DNA – even though this was unlawful.
Mr Javid told MPs it was ‘unacceptable’ that some relatives of Gurkhas and Afghan nationals employed by the UK Government had been affected.
The law states that the provision of DNA evidence in immigration cases should always be voluntary and never mandatory. Hundreds of Afghans have already struggled to win the right to live in the UK despite risking their lives for British troops in Helmand Province.
The Daily Mail’s three-year Betrayal Of The Brave campaign has highlighted how interpreters left behind in Afghanistan were shot at, issued with death threats and even executed on their doorsteps by the vengeful Taliban for helping the British.
It is the latest embarrassing fiasco to hit the beleaguered Home Office after it emerged that members of the Windrush generation had been wrongly detained or kicked out of Britain. Critics said the latest revelations proved that the Government’s so-called ‘hostile environment’ strategy, introduced by then Home Secretary Theresa May in 2012, was still in place. Explaining the latest blunder in the Commons, Mr Javid said: ‘There were some immigration cases where the provision of DNA evidence had been made a requirement for the issue of visas or leave to remain and not simply a request. Such demands are unacceptable.’
Insisting he was determined to ‘get to the bottom’ of the scandal, he said: ‘ Across our immigration system, no- one should face a demand to supply DNA evidence and no-one should have been penalised for not providing it.’
Apologising specifically to Gurkha and Afghan families, he said: ‘Schemes were put in place to help the families of those who have served to keep our country safe and I’m sorry that demands were made of them which never should have been.’ The Home Office said 398 applicants were told they must give DNA as part of a 2016 operation investigating visa fraud, with 13 refusals linked to failures to hand over DNA.
A further 51 relatives of Gurkhas – who had served in the military and been given the right to stay in the UK after a high-profile campaign led by Joanna Lumley – had to give DNA and pay for their own testing, with four adult children refusing. Mr Javid made clear that decision had been overturned.
And hundreds of Afghan translators offered the right to settle in the UK were also included in a mandatory DNA testing scheme.
That scheme has now ended. Mr Javid said officials had misinterpreted guidance.
He added that those affected would be reimbursed and announced he had set up a task force and a review of the immigration system to be informed by Wendy Williams, who investigated the Windrush scandal.
Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chairman of the Commons’ home affairs select committee, said: ‘Given that this comes after the Windrush crisis, [Mr Javid] will recognise this means things have gone badly wrong in the Home Office.’
BETRAYAL OF THE BRAVE