Hero Afghan commando sent back to Taliban after being failed by Britain

Aziz’s family was sitting down for an evening meal in their cramped Islamabad hotel room when there was a knock at the door. When his nine-year-old daughter opened it, she was faced with a group of uniformed Pakistani police officers, clad in helmets and carrying rifles.

Outside the hotel window, police vehicles lined the street. Around 50 officers were going door-to-door in the hotel, searching for people whose visas had expired or who were unable to prove they were due to leave the country soon.

Aziz knew what this meant. A former Afghan commando who had fought ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with UK forces, he and his family had been granted approval to start a new life in Britain, safe from the Taliban. Months later, they were still holed up in an interim hotel in Pakistan, waiting to be relocated – and the threat of deportation was growing.

Within 48 hours, most of his family members, including a four-year-old and a newborn baby, had been rounded up with just the clothes on their backs, and sent back to their native Afghanistan – the very country they had been rescued from by the British less than a year earlier.

The Independent and Lighthouse Reports have now pieced together how this family, whose lives were deemed to be at risk in Afghanistan, were deported despite being under the care of the British government. Through interviews with the family, correspondence they shared, and documentation, we have uncovered that this deportation took place with the UK authorities being aware of what was happening.

Ministers have been accused of “all but abandoning” Aziz and his family, who had been approved for relocation under Arap, the Ministry of Defence (MoD)’s flagship resettlement scheme for those who supported UK forces.

The family are now in hiding in Afghanistan, in fear for their lives. Through voice notes shared with one of his sons, Aziz said: “I am facing a very certain death if I am not evacuated from Afghanistan. My whole focus is on securing my family so they can avoid getting killed by the Taliban”.

But it appears the UK government is not even trying to rescue the family. Aziz was informed that the British High Commission wants to return their passports and luggage that was left in the hotel room to them in Afghanistan.

The shocking story raises questions about the time it is taking the British government to bring Afghans eligible for relocation to the UK. Concerns about the safety of those waiting for sanctuary intensified this year after it emerged – only after the lifting of an unprecedented super-injunction – that a major data breach by the MoD led to the personal data of 18,700 applicants to the UK’s Afghan resettlement schemes being leaked. Aziz’s family were among those caught up in the breach – and, as a result, were meant to be prioritised.

It comes as we reveal that more than 100 ex-Afghan security forces who fought alongside British and US troops have been killed in Afghanistan in the past two years – with one executed in front of his wife and children.

‘When my family die, will they take action?’

Confronted by the officers, and dressed in just some tracksuit bottoms, a thin t-shirt and slippers, Aziz asked if he could change his clothes – but was refused.

Instead, in chaotic and terrifying scenes, children dressed in pyjamas were loaded with other family members into police trucks and taken away, without having the chance to collect anything from their rooms.

Three family members – Aziz’s son Rayan, along with his wife and young child – managed to avoid being deported by hiding in a hotel bathroom. Instead, as his family was driven away, Rayan sent panicked Whatsapp messages to their British High Commission case worker, pleading for help.

Rayan’s brother, one of the members of the family who had been taken to the deportation camp, phoned him from the site saying their eight-month-year-old baby was in a bad way. His wife’s breast milk had dried up and they had no access to baby formula or clean water.

“They move my family to the border. They are on their way,” he wrote to the case worker. He followed up later: “They are already in the car and they have left the camp.”

Rayan wrote again: “When my family die will they take action?”

“There is no update from London or government of Pakistan. If that position changes we will update,” read the response.

In the days leading up to the family’s detention, Rayan had spoken about his fears that the family would be sent back to Afghanistan, with Pakistan ramping up its deportations and police raids becoming more frequent. “No matter how much we try to endure these nightmares, each day it becomes harder,” he said.

Speaking about the delay while waiting for relocation to the UK, he wrote: “I don’t even know what to worry about first - the harsh living conditions, the fear of being arrested by the police, or the uncertainty about what decision will be made regarding our case”.

‘Britain has neglected us’

Aziz had served in the elite commando force 444, one of two Afghan special forces units known as the Triples that had been trained and funded by the British.

The Independent and Lighthouse Reports first made contact with the family in 2023, when we revealed that Aziz and hundreds of other former Triples had been wrongly denied relocation to the UK with many of them harmed by the Taliban as a result.

Following that investigation, the MoD admitted that flawed decision-making had led to Triples being wrongly turned down for sanctuary in Britain, and that the government would re-examine hundreds of Triples’ cases who had been rejected. Aziz’s rejection was overturned and the family was approved.

After this, the British government moved the family to a safe house in Afghanistan before transferring them to a hotel in Islamabad to await relocation.

The family had been moved to the hotel in autumn 2024, with two young babies born in the time they had been waiting to be brought to safety.

The family had been expecting the deportation. In January this year, Pakistan police detained them and brought them to a camp. They were released, but the UK government’s failure to relocate them afterwards put them in further harm. “They mentioned clearly [in January] the next time we capture you we will deport you,” said Rayan.

The family are now desperately worried about their safety in Afghanistan. They managed to avoid their worst fear of being arrested at the border as they had been returned back without any documents. With the British High Commission in Islamabad still in possession of their passports, border officials stamped their hands instead.

“Before transferring to Pakistan, I lost all my life and belongings in Afghanistan. Now me and my family have been deported, my problems have increased four-fold,” Aziz said through voice notes.

“I think the British government has neglected the situation of my family and myself. I want the British government and related organisations to help get us out of this situation.”

In September, the minister for armed forces Al Carns confirmed in response to a parliamentary question that 13 Afghans under the care of the British High Commission in Islamabad had been deported. There were around 30 other Afghans in Islamabad under Britain's care in Pakistan in early September, the response said.

Rayan explained: “Before coming to Pakistan, we were living in safe houses in Afghanistan for two months, as the threats for my father who served in 444 were high.

“All this time we have been living in Pakistan it has been a pretty uncertain situation. We have been checking with the MoD and with the British High Commission in Islamabad to see if there was any issue with our documents, but we haven’t been notified of any problems.

“My family spent 48 hours in the deportation centre and during that time I tried very hard to reach Arap and the British Council, as well as the UK embassy, but it didn't help. They told me they were not able to help us,” he said.

‘All but abandoned’

Lib Dem MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afghan women Wendy Chamberlain said: “The British government has badly fumbled the Afghan Resettlement Schemes.

“It is shocking that almost a third of Afghans under the care of the British High Commission in Islamabad have now been deported. The case of this former Triple shows how badly the British government has failed.

“He was trained by and worked alongside British Special Forces; and now having waited years for our promised support has been all but abandoned. What happens to him and his family rests on our shoulders.

“The government cannot pretend it has met its obligations to the Afghan forces and interpreters who stood alongside our troops, or to the minorities, women and girls it has abandoned. Four years on from the fall of Kabul, Britain should be doing far more.”

The MoD said it did not comment on individual cases, but has said that they would honour commitments to eligible Afghans who have completed all relevant relocation checks.

A spokesperson added: “As the public would rightly expect, anyone coming to the UK must pass strict security and entry checks before being able to relocate – which can take significant time.”

Names have been changed to protect identities.