The government must reverse its shameful behaviour towards Afghan war heroes

Editorial: Boris Johnson declared in September 2021 that the UK would do ‘whatever we can’ to ensure that Afghan special forces left behind in Afghanistan would ‘get the safe passage they need’. Yet Britain has turned its back on them

Their lives are under threat because they assisted crown forces in a campaign sanctioned by the United Nations, and did so for about 20 years (Getty)

Betrayal” is a word that ought not to be used lightly, but the behaviour of the authorities towards Afghans who fought with British troops during their long and shared struggle against the Taliban is certainly unjust. As with the Afghan air force pilot who has now secured asylum thanks to The Independent’s advocacy, we hope now that hundreds of members of the Afghan special forces will also find sanctuary in the UK. It is no more than they deserve.

Our special report, prepared with Sky News and Lighthouse Reports, an investigative media organisation, eloquently lays out the case for assured refugee status. These former soldiers, mostly marooned in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, are targets for torture and execution at the merciless hands of the Taliban if they are unfortunate enough to be discovered.

This has already been the gruesome fate of their ex-comrades in documented cases, including one who was shot in the head as he went to buy groceries, killing him instantly, and another who was tortured so severely that his family said it would have been a greater mercy if he had been murdered. Most are having to pursue lives separate from their wives and children, with reunions happening under the cover of darkness. We believe that dozens of these former commandos have been beaten, tortured or killed by the Taliban. You can’t really get more vulnerable than that.

Their “crime”, in the eyes of the Taliban, an organisation not famed for its record on human rights, was to fight for their country and to do so alongside British and other allied forces. The UK has a special connection with the Afghan special forces, because the two squadrons formed in 2002 were trained and armed by the British, modelled on the elite Special Air Service and Special Boat Service.

By all accounts, they were brave and loyal troops, and when they fell in battle their blood would mingle with that of their British counterparts. It was a shared enterprise. In the end, as is all too obvious, the mission to liberate and rebuild Afghanistan failed, culminating in the ignominious evacuation in August 2021 that brought the expedition to an end. However, there is unfinished – and urgent – business. The Afghan special forces personnel we left behind must be rescued and offered asylum.

For reasons that are at best bureaucratic, at worst a cynical means of evading responsibility, the Afghan soldiers have been refused help under the Arap (Afghan relocations and assistance policy), on a strict reading of the terms. Yet even if they are ineligible for Arap – a suggestion that is currently being challenged in court – they can claim refugee status under the European Convention on Human Rights, because their lives are under a realistic threat.

Indeed, their lives are under threat because they assisted crown forces in a campaign sanctioned by the United Nations, and did so for about 20 years. In 2021, the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, declared that the UK would do “whatever we can” to ensure that Afghan special forces left behind in Afghanistan would “get the safe passage they need”. Yet Britain – or, more accurately, the government – has turned its back on them.

It is a shameful, callous attitude. One rejection email sent earlier this year to an ex-soldier stated that he is not eligible because he has not “worked in Afghanistan alongside a UK government department, in partnership with or closely supporting it”. That is pure sophistry.

It is sad, but no surprise, that some have had to journey to the UK in small boats to make their claim; they should have been airlifted out at least two years ago. Those who remain in Pakistan live under the fear that their temporary visas will be cancelled. It’s an intolerable situation, and it needs to be ended now.