LONDON: A former interpreter for the British Army has warned that Afghans who worked for the military could be put in danger by the government’s plans to crack down on migrants.
According to Metro newspaper, 36-year-old Rafi Hottak, who was injured in an explosion while assisting British soldiers fighting the Taliban in Helmand province, said that many of his former colleagues would suffer as a result of new laws making entry to the UK via small boat across the English Channel illegal.
According to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans, migrants who cross the English Channel would be ineligible to apply for asylum in the United Kingdom and would be subject to immediate deportation.
Hottak, who fled to the UK in 2011 due to threats from the Taliban, claims that many others like him are still in Afghanistan today. The Taliban have taken power in the country since the United States and its allies withdrew from the country in August of 2021.
“Every day we lose precious lives, and the vast majority of them are people who have served with the NATO forces in Afghanistan,” Hottak said.
They have to leave the country in search of asylum if they are not included in the current schemes.
“Now, if asylum routes are closed, it means that the UK government is taking away their fundamental human right and saying, ‘I will not save your life even if you have served the NATO forces and I would rather you are killed by the terrorist Taliban,'” the author writes.
Since the Taliban took power again in Afghanistan, Britain has welcomed over 21,000 Afghans through two different schemes. At least 4,300 people who have permission to travel to the UK are still there.
Over 71,000 Afghan asylum applications submitted to the UK have not been processed, according to Ministry of Defense data.
