Tag Archives: Afghan interpreters

Afghanistan, Britain, Government, Society

Abandoned Afghan interpreters paying smugglers to flee

AFGHANISTAN

FORMER British military translators have been forced to turn to people smugglers to escape Afghanistan as the Taliban wages a murderous vendetta against those who helped the West.

At least three interpreters who worked on the front lines have handed over thousands of pounds to be smuggled out of their homeland.

They say they would rather gamble with the perilous illegal routes run by traffickers than risk being caught by the Taliban.

The fears of those who risked their lives beside UK troops have been fuelled by executions, beatings and house-to-house searches in Kabul and surrounding areas.

One former translator was taken by Taliban gunmen from his home and held in a tiny cell, accused of working for the British, while a 30-year-old ex-interpreter said his mother was beaten during a search for him last week.

The fear has seen a boom in business for human traffickers, increasing by 150 per cent since the Taliban took Kabul last month.

The three men, two of whom took their families with them, said they had no alternative but to turn to the smugglers, joining thousands of Afghans paying up to £20,000 for a family to reach countries such as France and Germany. It costs even more to get to the UK.

They are now in Iran, waiting to hear when they can move on.

Using WhatsApp, smugglers plot the route of the refugees – who they call “guests” – on separate legs of journeys from Afghanistan either via Pakistan or directly into Iran and on to Turkey. Separate teams of smugglers then orchestrate travel through Europe.

Prices for various stages of the journey are increasing rapidly as demand rises, starting with an initial £2,000 per adult from Afghanistan through Pakistan and on to Iran and £1,100 to get to Turkey.

An option involving visas and flights from Pakistan to Turkey costs around £10,000. From there, one route involves going by boat to Italy for around £8,000. The former UK military translators now in hiding in Iran are expected to be joined shortly by more Afghans who worked with British troops.

Many Afghan translators and interpreters failed to make RAF mercy flights to the UK after the fall of Kabul despite promises they would be given safe refuge in the UK. Afghan interpreters and translators feel betrayed by Britain despite the allegiance they gave to the British military in the 20-year war that ended in humiliation for the West.

One of the translators, Khan, 30, who worked for the Electronic Warfare Unit for two years, was taken to hospital after being shot in an ambush he blamed on the Taliban. He was rejected for relocation after being dismissed for using drugs.

Another of the ex-interpreters, Ahmad, 35, speaking from close to the Turkish border, said people smugglers had presented his family with “hope” as staying in his home city of Kandahar meant “possible death”. He said he plans to get to Germany where he has a brother.

The third, aged 34, who worked for the UK military for three years, is too frightened to be named while in Iran, where Afghan translators have also been killed.

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Afghanistan, Britain, Defence, Government, Military

The betrayal of Afghan interpreters

DEFENCE

British soldiers were aided by Afghan interpreters who were used to help provide intelligence on the activities of the Taliban. But despite the lives of many interpreters’ being at risk from continued reprisal attacks, the British Government has refused to help relocate many to Britain under the intimidation scheme. The defence select committee in Britain has concluded an inquiry into the treatment of Afghan interpreters saying they were dismally failed.

AN inquiry by the defence select committee says ministers have “dismally failed” to protect loyal Afghan interpreters who served alongside British troops from the Taliban. It concludes by stating that “dangerously exposed” interpreters should be given a new life in the UK.

MPs on the committee said the Ministry of Defence’s “intimidation scheme”, under which translators must prove a threat to their life before they are allowed into Britain, had failed to bring a single one to safety in this country.

The explosive report states that claims by the MoD that no interpreters have faced threats warranting their relocation to the UK are “totally implausible”.

It draws on evidence of the threats facing interpreters, and the report says: “We have a duty of care to those who risked everything to help our armed forces in Afghanistan.”

Dr Julian Lewis, chairman of the cross-party committee, said: “How we treat our former interpreters and local employees… will send a message to the people we would want to employ in future military campaigns about whether we can be trusted to protect them.”

The findings will pile further pressure on Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Home Secretary Sajid Javid to overhaul current policy on Afghan interpreters. The MoD has said it would now review the report.

There are two schemes under which interpreters who served alongside British troops can be given sanctuary in the UK. The “relocation scheme” only allows interpreters into the UK if they were serving on an arbitrary date in December 2012 and served at least 12 months in Helmand province.

But the report says this scheme had been “generous” in allowing interpreters who lost their jobs when UK forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan into Britain.

This generosity had, however, contrasted starkly with the “total failure to offer similar sanctuary to interpreters” under the intimidation scheme, it says.

This failure comes despite Afghan interpreters and their families having been shot at, threatened and even executed after being branded “spies and infidels” by the Taliban.

The report says ministers must allow interpreters who face “serious and verifiable threats” to come to Britain.

Case-in-point:

AN Afghan translator credited with helping save the lives of dozens of British soldiers trapped for nearly two months by the Taliban has said that their fighters have been trying to hunt him down.

Fardin, 37, said that twice in the past ten days a suspected Taliban fighter had been in his home neighbourhood of the Afghan capital Kabul asking neighbours and shopkeepers where he lives with his family.

“I am terrified,” he said. “My wife is crying constantly. They know what I look like, they know what I did for the British and they want revenge.”

Fardin, who still works with British forces in Kabul, was one of three Afghan interpreters who were the “eyes and ears” of 88 soldiers surrounded by 500 Taliban at the outpost of Musa Qala in Helmand for 56 days.

Despite the fact he has worked with the British for more than a decade, he was told he does not qualify for sanctuary in the UK because he did not spend a full year on the front line.

 

THE excoriating report by the all-party defence select committee, which finds not a single Afghan interpreter has been given sanctuary in the UK – under a scheme to rescue those at risk from Taliban reprisals – is devastating in its conclusions. The inquiry found that ministers have “dismally failed” to protect loyal Afghan interpreters who served with our troops.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson must act with all speed to honour our debt to these brave men – before more pay for their service to Britain with their lives.

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