Elite Afghan troops face return to Taliban after UK ‘betrayal’

KABUL: About 200 members of Afghan special forces, trained and funded by the UK, face imminent deportation to their Taliban-controlled homeland, the BBC has learned.

The figures - gathered by a network of Afghan veterans - reveal the scale of what one former UK general calls a “betrayal” and a “disgrace”. The soldiers fled to Pakistan, which now says it will expel Afghan refugees.

The UK says it has brought thousands of Afghans to safety. Gen Sir Richard Barrons, who served the British Army in Afghanistan for over 12 years, told BBC Newsnight that the failure of the UK to relocate these soldiers “is a disgrace, because it reflects that either we’re duplicitous as a nation or incompetent”.

“Neither are acceptable,” he said. “It is a betrayal, and the cost of that betrayal will be people who served with us will die or spend their lives in prison.” Following the BBC Newsnight investigation, MPs tabled an Urgent Question in the House of Commons on Monday.

In 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had told Parliament that the service of these Afghan special forces had been “incredibly important”, adding the UK would do “whatever we can” to get “safe passage” for them.

The fears for the Afghan commandos come as it was revealed the government also rejected calls from senior British diplomatic and military figures to offer asylum to key Afghan civilian leaders whose lives were in danger.

The BBC has obtained a private letter sent in March 2022 to the Foreign Office, which called for urgent help to be given to a group of 32 former governors, prosecutors and officials who worked with the UK and US in Helmand Province during operations between 2006 and 2014.

Like most of the 200 special forces soldiers, these 32 officials had applied to come to the UK through the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Programme (ARAP), intended for those employed by the UK government, or who “worked in Afghanistan alongside a UK government department, in partnership with or closely supporting it”.

Many of the officials and the soldiers were rejected, while others are still waiting for a decision after more than a year.

One of the officials, a former district governor, told the BBC his application for help through the scheme was refused two weeks ago, more than 20 months after he first applied. Sir Richard, one of the private letter’s signatories, said: “We made a special commitment to these people, and we have not honoured it with an efficient, effective or even compassionate system.”