Latest news with #AfghanInterpreters
Telegraph
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
‘My husband was on the Taliban's kill list. Thank you Britain for saving us'
Four months ago, the Mohammadi* family were at home in Afghanistan when they received an email that was as chilling as it was businesslike. The father of three young children opened his laptop and clicked on the message, which declared it was from the Home Office of the British Government. The email said he was on a list of those whom the UK had chosen to bring to Britain amid fears for their safety following a data leak. For four years, the family had kept secret the fact that the father had worked with the British Army shortly after it began its protracted battle with the Taliban in 2014. As a trained English teacher, the father's skills made him invaluable to British officers eager to gain local intelligence about the whereabouts of enemy commanders. Like so many Afghan interpreters employed by the Army, he saw the arrival of the foreign forces as an opportunity to drag Afghanistan out of the grips of the oppressive regime imposed by the extreme religious intolerance of the Taliban. The parents, in their late 20s, believed they could work with the UK soldiers to contribute to forging a better Afghanistan – as well as earning a regular income – and, importantly, were assured their safety would be guaranteed. But, when the last remaining British troops ignominiously flew out from the Afghan capital in August 2021, the Mohammadis had no choice but to live in fear and harbour their secret. On Wednesday, those fears were quite literally thousands of miles away. Speaking as she returned with her three children to a Home Office hotel in Bracknell, Berkshire, the interpreter's wife placed the palm of her hand on her heart and said: 'We arrived in the UK a month ago. We were flown from Kabul to Pakistan and then on to London.' She spoke in broken English (momentarily laughing as she explained that it was her husband, who was in his hotel room, who was fluent). 'We are grateful [to be here],' she said, placing a hand on her son's head. She continued: 'The Taliban is very dangerous, very dangerous – we were scared for our safety.' The interpreter's wife, who did not want to be fully identified, in part because she had been told not to talk to journalists by hotel security guards, said she felt safe in England. She was blissfully unaware that her family's arrival, along with thousands of others, was at the centre of a political storm. 'We are grateful, thank you, thank you,' she said as she made her way back into the hotel and a security guard looked on. According to court documents, Afghans have been sent to Bracknell in Berkshire, Preston in Lancashire, Aberdeen in Scotland, and Cardiff in Wales. Others were sent to West Sussex and Yorkshire, while plans were afoot for hotels to be opened up to them in the North East, East Anglia and the East Midlands. In Larkhill, Wiltshire, a cheerful Afghan mother said: 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.' If there's one word that sums up the attitude of Afghan families relocated to the UK under the scheme designed to protect those who served the British Army, it is gratitude. But there is another word that encapsulates the impact of those new arrivals on the families of British Army personnel already living at Larkhill Army base in Wiltshire: resentment. Or as one mother, also taking her children to school, put it: 'When they arrived they got help with everything. Accommodation, doctors, learning English, free transport. But we don't get that for free. We have to pay for everything. It's just unfair.' Hard-pressed British Army families feel their burden has grown heavier since the arrival of the Afghan interpreters and their families under the Government's resettlement scheme. Some say they were moved out of existing Army accomodation to house them. Others report longer waiting times at the Larkhill Health Centre because of the influx of new patients. Some of the friction is undoubtedly cultural. Or as one young Welsh mother, married to a British Army squaddie put it: 'The Afghan men and boys stare at us because we're different to their women. 'We're not covered up, maybe we don't wear as much, especially in summer, but so what? We're always told to respect each other's differences, but they don't seem to respect us. 'I've even had the teenage boys on the pavement block my path. Why do they do that? It might only be a minority of the Afghans behaving this way but it's not nice.' Her friend, who is married to a Fijian soldier, was keen to emphasise it was not a question of race but of what appeared to be two-tier treatment. Two-tier treatment? She said: 'I'm married to a black man. He's served his country and put his life on the line, yet he's struggling to get British citizenship. Just stuck in the system. 'Why is that? It's the same with the other Commonwealth lads. They've served this country, but they don't seem to get any extra help or benefits, not like the Afghans. 'When they first arrived they all got welfare visits to make sure they were OK and did they need anything. We didn't get any of that. Why?' For Briony Slatter, a 26-year-old Army wife, the presence of Afghans and their families is just another unwelcome strain on an already difficult daily life. 'I've got huge concerns about the influx,' she said as cradled her young daughter in her arms outside Larkhill Camp's bustling convenience store. 'The way the Government moved them here is not integration. It's putting us against each other.'
Daily Mail
11-06-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Fury over six-year-old boy's 'traumatic' wait for ambulance after car crash leaves him with bone sticking out of his leg and covered in blood
A father has told how his six-year-old son was left bleeding and with a bone sticking out of his broken leg for almost an hour after a road accident while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. Rafi Hottak, who has campaigned on behalf of Afghan interpreters who helped the British military, says young son Yousuf has been left traumatised after suffering multiple injuries close to his Birmingham home. Yousuf, said to have been struck by an SUV while crossing the road on his journey back from school, suffered a broken leg and compound fracture, as well as cuts and bruises to his head and body. His father, 39, has asked for answers from West Midlands Ambulance Service over why it took more than an hour for paramedics to reach the boy - and the organisation has now apologised, while blaming pressure caused by hospital handover delays. An off-duty medic who was passing by was among those stopping to help as Yousuf lay beside the road, helping to try stemming the bleeding after the May 14 incident. Mr Hottak, 39, has been living in Britain for the past 13 years - having previously been injured himself on the Afghanistan frontline in a Taliban blast targeting UK forces. He has told MailOnline of his distress at Yousuf's suffering, with the boy telling his father: 'I don't want to die, Daddy.' The schoolboy is also still struggling to even 'hop' let alone walk almost a month after suffering his injuries, having been discharged from hospital. The accident took place in the Birmingham district of Sparkbrook shortly before 6pm on May 14, as Yousuf was crossing a road having almost reached his family home. Mr Hottak has shared a photo online of his son lying barely conscious when finally taken into an ambulance for treatment following the incident. The father told his 2,500 followers on X, formerly Twitter: 'My six-year-old child was hit by an SUV in Birmingham. 'He had a broken leg with the bone sticking out, head trauma, face bleeding, heavy bruising, and signs of shock. 'He was lying on the side of the road with four people pressing on his wounds just to stop the bleeding and keep him conscious. 'We called 999 multiple times, and every time we were told the same thing: "There is no ambulance available. We can't give you a timeframe." 'This is not a minor incident. This is a child - hit by a car, clearly in critical condition -and still, no priority, no urgency, no care.' Speaking now to MailOnline, Mr Hottak said he had still not received any feedback from health officials over why it took so long to respond on that evening. He said of Yousuf's progress since: 'He's getting better at the moment but he still can barely even hop by himself and still has wounds and cuts all over his body and everywhere he has bruises. 'Worst of all is between the knee and ankle of his broken leg - at the time the bone was sticking out of his flesh.' Mr Hottak told how a family friend was escorting Yousuf and other children home from tuition classes they have after the end of the regular schoolday. He said: 'Yousuf was almost home, crossing the street where lots of cars are parked on each side and a van came along. 'The lady driver, from the way she was driving, it seems she might have panicked and instead of braking, accelerated instead and his leg was driven over - we were lucky that it wasn't his head. 'I understand it was an accident, an unfortunate situation - more of a problem from my point of view is why it took so long for any ambulance to arrive. 'There are three hospitals within about half an hour's drive yet he was on the side of the street for an hour - you're telling me there were no ambulances at any of those that could get there sooner? 'Luckily a medic was passing by, not in her uniform as she was off-duty but she was there to help, along with a few other neighbours who helped hold him and stem the bleeding.' Mr Hottak said of the delayed response by paramedics: 'It shows to me that there are wider problems down the line. 'A child of six is hit by a car, with broken bones and yet he's not being prioritised? No child should be on the side of the road like that for an hour. 'How many ambulances are there in Birmingham and was every single one of them on emergencies elsewhere? 'It's been very traumatic for us all - just to see his face looking up at me and his injuries is very difficult. He says he still can't feel his leg and times and tells me, "Dad, I don't want to die."' A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman told MailOnline: 'Firstly, we would like to offer our sincere apologies to Master Hottak and his family for the delayed response he experienced. 'Our staff and volunteers across the service are working exceptionally hard to get to patients as quickly as possible. 'Sadly, we are seeing some patients wait much longer for a response than we would want as a result of hospital handover delays.' The spokesperson said the call was categorised as a 'C2' incident, which would be responded to within 40 minutes in 'at least nine out of 10 cases' - while saying their team arrived 46 minutes after an initial 999 call. The service's spokesperson added: 'When ambulances are delayed handing their patient over at hospital, they are unable to respond to the next call, which impacts on the care of patients in the community. 'There is a direct correlation between hospital handover delays and our ability to get to patients in the community quickly. 'We continue to work with our partners to find new ways to reduce delays so that our crews can respond more quickly and save more lives.' Mr Hottak was previously blown up on the Afghan frontline in a blast that killed a British officer and now campaigns for his ex-colleagues who served alongside UK forces as translators. On moving to Britain in 2011, he initially had his application for asylum rejected by the UK Border Agency - before they reversed their decision following a public backlash including from MPs and members of the military. Mr Hottak had paid £8,000 to people smugglers to reach Britain, before walking into a Central London police station to make his plea for asylum. Fluent in three languages, including English, Mr Hottak worked for the US military as an interpreter in 2004 before switching to the British two years later following in the footsteps of his elder brother. It was on the morning of November 14 2007 that while on foot patrol with a joint British Afghan force near the centre of Sangin, in Afghanistan's Helmand province, an IED was triggered. His boss Captain John McDermid, 43, of 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, was killed, while Mr Hottak was badly wounded. The interpreter suffered horrific shrapnel wounds to the head, neck, arms and chest that required 170 stitches, while also temporarily losing the use of his hand and was deaf in one ear for more than a year. Thanks to the work of doctors, Mr Hottak returned to work after three months but was unfit for frontline duties and was given a job at Camp Souter, the main British recruitment base in Kabul, the Afghan capital. His role involved interviewing prospective interpreters as well as liasing with the families of colleagues killed or injured, sometimes returning the remains of the dead to their families. It was then that he began to receive death threats both by letter and telephone – threats he told British officers about and which helped encourage him to seek asylum in the UK where he has since retrained as an accountant. The Mail's award-winning Betrayal of the Brave campaign has been highlighting the plight of hundreds of Afghan translators and has helped bring about changes in government policy, opening the way for many of those fearing for their lives to come to the UK.
