Ministers face legal fight over turning away hero translators
LAWYERS for an Afghan translator ‘abandoned’ to the Taliban after working with the British Army are planning an unprecedented challenge to the Government’s policy of denying interpreters asylum.
Defence chiefs have been warned that unless they reconsider the case of the translator, known as Chris, they will face a Judicial Review over how they have assessed threats to his life.
The 26-year-old father of two has dodged death nine times at the hands of the Taliban. His brother has also been beaten up and his pregnant wife punched so savagely she lost her baby.
His harrowing story has been told as part of the Daily Mail’s Betrayal of the Brave campaign calling for former interpreters being threatened by the Taliban because of their work with the British Army to be granted a safe haven in the UK.
Not one of 200 former translators who say they are at risk has been given asylum as the threat has not been considered serious enough. Defence minister Penny Mordaunt said the Government’s policy is working ‘satisfactorily’ with ‘no major problems’.
But Chris said last night from his hiding place near the Afghan capital Kabul: ‘There is overwhelming evidence of the constant threat to me and my family but Britain chooses to ignore this – they will believe it when I am dead.’ A 14-page letter to defence chiefs from lawyers Leigh Day challenges the assessments made by the specially formed intimidation unit in Kabul, which examines the threat against interpreters.
In a damning conclusion, it states: ‘Individuals are left exposed to danger far too long.’
It adds that Chris’s case reflects ‘a systemic unwillingness to properly protect the UK’s former Afghan staff by relocation to the UK, despite several of them having been victims of severe intimidation and attacks’. If the case goes to Judicial Review and is successful, it could pave the way for other translators.
The letter lists the series of attacks on Chris, including an incident in May 2010 when insurgents tried to ambush him in the road and warned he and his family would be killed. In September 2011 militants broke in to his home, threw three grenades and beat up his brother.
In March last year, a bomb was found near his home and the Taliban told locals they were trying to kill him. Chris has also been shot at multiple times by insurgents – once last January, again that June and in another attack last December, when he was hit by two bullets. His son, two, was also wounded.
In June, he fled after bullets were fired into his home but the Taliban left a death threat letter on his door. Last month, his brother-in-law was tortured and his pregnant wife beaten with a knuckleduster. She was told: ‘Your husband, who has been a British spy, is on our list. We will find and slay him.’ Chris and Leigh Day stress he has told officials about the attacks and ‘repeatedly requested that he and his family be allowed to relocate to the UK as the only practicable way of mitigating the severe risk they face’.
Chris said he received two payments totalling around £1,200 to relocate his family within Afghanistan but had been found each time by the Taliban. Leigh Day said: ‘Individuals cannot be expected to suffer multiple “lucky escapes” from assassination before reloca- tion to the UK even becomes an option.’ The letter also highlights how UK officials who are meant to help translators can be ‘inaccessible and unresponsive.’ Repeated calls by Chris went unanswered.
Chris said: ‘I am desperate and live each day in fear of attack. My innocent family are also suffering the consequences of my work for the British. I feel abandoned by the UK, it is shameful ... their government is leaving me to die.’
‘Ignoring the threat to me and my family’