We have a duty to protect our Afghan allies from Taliban vengeance

Afghan heroes who fought alongside British and US troops are being hunted down, tortured and executed by the Taliban, The Independent can reveal as a result of an in-depth investigation.

While the British government drags its heels over bringing Afghans to safety, we have discovered that more than 100 of those who served with British and US forces have been killed in the country since 2023. Others have been tortured.

That is why we have been campaigning for Britain to stand by its moral duty and protect those who fought alongside our forces. A few thousand Afghans have been settled in Britain, and we are proud to have played a role in the Home Office decision to grant indefinite leave to remain for the Afghan pilot who was threatened with deportation to Rwanda.

But we have not, as a nation, done enough to repay our debt of honour to all of those brave Afghans who risked their lives alongside our troops. There are currently an estimated 4,200 applicants and their family members who are eligible to come to the United Kingdom under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) but who are still awaiting relocation.

Our new investigation confirms that these people are in real danger. In one case, a former commando whom we are calling “Najmuddin” was approved for relocation to Britain six months ago. He served in one of two UK-funded special forces units, known as the Triples – after their numbers 333 and 444. But, before he could flee to safety, he was detained yards from his front door and taken to prison, where he was so badly beaten that he had to be hospitalised. He was eventually released from Taliban custody after nearly a month and remains in Afghanistan.

We accept, of course, that applicants for sanctuary in the UK do have to be checked. There have been enough reports of people with Taliban connections successfully claiming the right to settle in Britain to confirm that not all those seeking to come here are entitled to do so.

But in Najmuddin’s case, which is not untypical, those checks had been made and he was cleared for transit. Yet he was still not given the final go-ahead. There are many others, either in Afghanistan or in Pakistan – or in some cases back in Afghanistan after being returned there by the Pakistani authorities – who are still waiting for checks or final clearance.

Another source of delay is the time it takes for the Ministry of Defence to review the cases of Afghans who are initially rejected for relocation to the UK. We cannot afford to be complacent about these people, especially after it emerged that thousands of applications had been refused without being examined at all. According to official figures, these people face an average wait of more than six months before their case is reassessed, and for those asking to bring their family members to safety, reviews take nearly 10 months on average.

We are concerned that the unspoken view among ministers and officials is that obstruction and delay are a good way of discouraging applicants. During the court case over the MoD data breach, which put thousands of Afghans who helped UK forces at risk, a government barrister said it was a “fundamental fact” that reprisal attacks were not taking place on a scale that would indicate that the Taliban were using information from the data leak.

If this was an attempt to minimise the danger of Taliban vengeance, our investigation establishes beyond doubt that this is much mistaken.

It is time for the government to end the delays and to adopt the opposite approach. Four years after the fall of Kabul, the UK must discharge its obligations to our Afghan allies, strictly, but quickly and in full.