Thousands more Afghans who worked with Britain should be allowed to relocate to UK, urge Army chiefs

Carrying the Union Jack, the last British troops leave Camp Bastion, Helmand Province, Afghanistan - Ben Birchall
Carrying the Union Jack, the last British troops leave Camp Bastion, Helmand Province, Afghanistan - Ben Birchall

Boris Johnson should urgently allow thousands more Afghans who worked with British forces to relocate to the UK, eight former chiefs of staff who were in charge during the conflict have urged.

General Lord Dannatt and more than 35 retired senior military commanders who served during the Afghan campaign set out their plea in a letter sent to the Prime Minister, Defence Secretary and Home Secretary, following the UK’s withdrawal from the Central Asian nation.

They have warned they are “gravely concerned” that Afghan interpreters and other supporting staff who previously “stood shoulder to shoulder with us on the battlefield” now face the threat of death under a resurgent Taliban.

Mr Johnson confirmed earlier this month that the UK has withdrawn from Afghanistan after 20 years, admitting there could never be a “perfect time” to withdraw troops.

General Sir Nick Carter, the current head of Britain’s Armed Forces, said developments in the nation, where the Taliban have overrun almost half the rural districts, were “pretty grim”.

Amid concerns about the risk of reprisals from the Taliban to local interpreters and staff that supported the UK ahead of the withdrawal, ministers introduced a new relocation scheme this spring.

The Government said it expected around 3,000 more Afghans to settle in the UK via the scheme, including former staff and their immediate family members.

So far 2,200 Afghans, including ex-translators, staff and their close relatives, have been supported to build new lives in Britain and the Government insists it has accelerated the pace of relocations.

However, the Sulha Alliance, an Afghan interpreters campaign group, has estimated that UK forces employed in total more than 3,000 translators and 4,000 other staff in non-interpreting roles, meaning there are thousands more people potentially at risk left in Afghanistan.

The former military chiefs insisted in their open letter, sent on Tuesday, that all former interpreters and Afghan staff locally employed in other roles should be urgently approved to seek sanctuary in the UK, unless they pose a threat to national security.

“We urge the Government to act immediately,” they wrote. “Time is of the utmost essence to save the lives of those who served alongside our servicemen and women in Afghanistan and who saved countless British lives.”

They added that “if any of our former interpreters are murdered by the Taliban in the wake of our withdrawal, the dishonour would lay squarely at our nation’s feet”.

The current relocation scheme is a positive initiative, they said, but argued that it “is not being conducted with the necessary spirit of generosity required” to protect their former colleagues from an “indiscriminate” Taliban.

Calling for an immediate review of the policy, they urged Mr Johnson, Ben Wallace and Priti Patel to intervene to allow all former interpreters who served with British forces to come to the UK, unless they have committed an offence that deems them a genuine threat to national security.

The former military commanders claimed that the current policy “discriminates” against Afghan translators and staff who were previously dismissed from working with British forces for minor reasons.

Critics have pointed out that 35 per cent of Afghan staff were dismissed without due process or the ability to appeal. Mr Wallace already directed earlier this year that relocation applications rejected on these grounds should be reassessed.

Signatories of the hard-hitting letter comprised eight former chiefs of staff, including Chiefs of Defence Staff, as well as Chiefs of Naval Staff, General Staff and Air Staff; two former holders of the post of Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe; a former Chief of Joint Operations; a former Chief of Defence Intelligence; and four former Commanders of Task Force Helmand.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: “We owe a huge debt of gratitude to interpreters who risked their lives working alongside UK forces in Afghanistan… Nobody's life should be put at risk because they supported the UK Government to bring peace and stability.”

They also pointed out that Britain is the only nation with a permanent expert team based in Kabul to investigate claims from local staff subject to threats as a result of their work with the UK.

Violence in Afghanistan continues to escalate as coalition troops leave, with record levels of civilian deaths in the past six months.

More than 1,600 were killed in the first half of 2021, the United Nations reported this week.

However, former Nato secretary general and Labour defence secretary Lord Robertson of Port Ellen on Wednesday insisted the UK’s involvement in Afghanistan has not been in vain.

Writing for The Telegraph, he said: “We have now had twenty years without a single attack conceived in Afghanistan. Twenty years without malign Taliban influence.

“Twenty years allowing the Afghan people to taste elections and women and girls in education. Twenty years to build businesses, re-open markets, listen to music, play sports.”

The peer blamed successive governments of all colours for failing to rally public support for Britain’s mission and said ministers had “underestimated and undervalued what was done in our name”.