An Afghan interpreter with former British servicemen delivering a petition calling for asylum.
Agencies/London
A planned relocation package for Afghan interpreters “falls short” of guaranteeing protection and safety for many of those who worked with British forces, campaigners said.
The group of signatories, including MPs David Davis and Stephen McPartland and retired army officer Major General Timothy Cross, called for the government to extend protection measures to offer a safe haven to all translators who worked in Afghanistan.
The move comes after it emerged last week that Afghan interpreters who served on the front line in Helmand with British troops for more than a year could be eligible for a five-year visa to the UK.
But in an open letter, published in The Times, campaigners said the proposed relocation package “falls short of guaranteeing protection and safety for many brave individuals who stood shoulder to shoulder with our British forces in Afghanistan.
“Specifically, the asylum offer may only apply to those working on or after January 1, 2013; excluding hundreds who risked their lives alongside UK troops in this decade-long war. Death threats forced many interpreters to stop working for the British before 2013, and many are still in hiding.”
They said under such a deal interpreters such as one, known only as Abdul, who started a petition to campaign to be allowed to resettle in the UK, may not be offered sanctuary in the UK as he stopped working with the British army in June last year.
“It would be an affront to the proud tradition of this country as signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees to refuse protection and safety to those who put their lives on the line to serve with our British forces,” the letter said.
“We urge the government to extend the protection measures to offer a safe haven to all of our courageous translators in Afghanistan, and not abandon the hundreds who will be left stranded by this deal to live in fear of execution by the Taliban.”