A further 32 former government officials, as well as a number of civilian leaders who aided Britain’s mission in the country, have also been denied by the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Programme.
The former soldiers’ “abandonment” by the UK government has been labeled a “betrayal” and “disgrace” by senior British military figures, including Gen. Richard Barrons, who served in Afghanistan for more than a decade.
He told the BBC that the UK’s failure to relocate the former soldiers “is a disgrace, because it reflects that either we’re duplicitous as a nation or incompetent.”
Barrons added: “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.”
The UK’s then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021 described the work of the former Afghan special forces as “incredibly important.”
Britain set up two major units composed of elite Afghan soldiers in an effort to combat opium production and the Taliban presence in Afghanistan.
Commando Force 333, and its sister unit, Afghan Territorial Force 444, were known as “the Triples,” and “quickly gained a reputation for effectiveness, honesty and courage,” the BBC reported.
One of the former CF333 members, known as Ali, described being “abandoned and betrayed” by the UK after spending “day and night” together with British soldiers.
He added: “During training we slept under one tent, eating from the same dish. During operations we fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the British, as members of one family.”
During the evacuation from Kabul in August 2021, Ali oversaw the protection of British passport holders as they left the country on emergency flights.
But he was denied entry on the same flights, and eventually fled to Pakistan by land out of fear of reprisal attacks from Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers.
“We never thought that heroes would be abandoned. We took all those risks. We were ready to help the international community, we respected freedom of speech and human life, then everything turned upside down. It is really disappointing,” he said.
Figures compiled by a network of Afghan veterans, seen by the BBC, show that there are up to 200 other former soldiers in the same position as Ali. Their applications to Britain’s ARAP scheme have faced delays or rejection.
Civilian leaders who helped Britain’s mission in Afghanistan have also been denied by the scheme.
Among them is Mohammad Fahim, a former governor of Helmand province’s Garmsir district, a key Taliban stronghold before 2001.
Despite working “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Britain, he says he was “betrayed” and “never thought that I would be left alone like this.”
He added: “We arrested a number of Taliban leaders when I was governor. They knew that we were fighting together with the international forces, so the threat to me is real.
“We ran programmes shoulder-to-shoulder, with the shared aim of bringing security for the people who lived in Helmand, giving them a good life and making peace.”
His work to counter the Taliban presence in his district resulted in the murder of his brother and two cousins, and in 2018 Fahim was almost beaten to death.
Barrons said: “I’m personally ashamed because I feel very deeply that we made an obligation to them and we have not fulfilled it.
“It’s beyond absurd to say they don’t qualify and that they should be left behind to a fate at the hands of the Taliban.”
Lt. Gen. Abdul Hadi Khalid, former first commanding officer of CF333, said Britain’s treatment of the Triples will diminish the country’s standing in the region.
He added: “I’m 100 percent sure that when other nations, other progressive forces, see Afghanistan, when they look at Afghan people, Afghan miseries, how can they trust the West?”
In response to the BBC’s reporting, a UK Ministry of Defense spokesman said: “So far, we have brought around 24,600 people to safety, including thousands of people eligible for our Afghan schemes.
“Each ARAP application is assessed individually and in accordance with published policy, and we do not automatically make a decision on eligibility based on a job role.”
A former interpreter who worked with British soldiers in Afghanistan is helping a group of around 400 Afghan special forces personnel escape to the UK.
Rafi Hottak, 35, who now lives in Birmingham, is putting together details of the elite soldiers of Commando Force 333, which is thought to have been set up and trained by the British Army, to pass on to the British government.
As well as the soldiers of CF 333, Hottak has also compiled the names and details of around 200 other interpreters and former employees of the government seeking refuge in the UK, in a bid to pressure Whitehall into helping them.
“They’ve served the British government for 20 years, they deserve a life without fear of being killed,” Hottak told Sky News.
“These special forces were the frontline against all those terrorist groups. Leaving them behind, I see it as a failure of the UK government, a betrayal of these brave soldiers. They deserve to live a life of dignity and safety.”
Hottak had to flee Afghanistan himself in 2011 after receiving threats from the Taliban owing to his working with British forces.
Since the fall of Kabul, the father of three has put his job on hold, working with contacts in Afghanistan to locate and communicate with his countrymen still at risk.
“The Taliban will look at them as a threat to their regime in the near future, and then they will be hunted down and killed,” he said.
“Every single message I receive is that: ‘We will be killed, we are living in hiding, we are not in our villages, we are not in our homes.’ One of the guys was saying in the past two weeks ‘I have been shifting around different relatives and families.’”
He added that, with their livelihoods now gone and unable to seek work for fear of discovery, they were also finding it increasingly difficult to support their families.
“One of the interpreters sold his bicycle to get food for the family for those few days. That is how desperate the situation is,” Hottak said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence told Sky News: “We will continue to do all we can to support those who have supported us, and our commitment to those who are eligible for relocation is not time-limited and will endure.
“The [Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy] scheme remains open to applications, and we will continue to support those who are eligible.”
