Interpreters betrayed

SIR – As the new Home Secretary rights the wrongs endured by the Windrush generation, I call upon him to redress the harm caused to another group caught up in the “hostile immigration environment” – namely our former Afghan interpreters.

For a minority of the interpreters – some 600 out of 2,600 – a “resettlement scheme” was offered; but they were only given five-year visas, and had no automatic right to bring their families over, unless they came immediately.

For some interpreters, those five years come to an end next year, and the Home Office will not tell them whether their visas will be renewed – a wicked game to play with men of such honour. This uncertainty also limits their employment prospects, despite their excellent English and understanding of our culture.

However, access to the resettlement scheme was arbitrarily limited to those who had served for a year, in Helmand, between December 19 2011 and December 19 2012. There was no rhyme or reason to those criteria beyond effectively excluding the majority (2,000) of our former interpreters – thus achieving the goal of limiting immigration.

Credible reporting by the UN and others has documented the fate of those left behind – some driven from their homes by the Taliban, some murdered, and some forced to become refugees and asylum-seekers.

This is a shameful way to treat those who served with our service personnel, shared their risks and now, precisely because of their service, are unable to “hide in plain sight” in Afghanistan – the usual advice they are given by our embassy in Kabul. Sajid Javid promises better for the Windrush generation; let him do the same for our Afghan interpreters too. Col Simon Diggins (retd) Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire