Britain abandoned its allies: Ukraine “pushed aside” Afghans who faced torture

The Observer found that Afghan citizens who were promised resettlement to the UK almost a year ago face the threat of torture and death while they wait for a response from the British government.

No people have been accepted or evacuated from Afghanistan under the UK Home Office’s Home Office Afghan Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) launched in January, sparking claims that ministers show a “poisonous combination of incompetence and indifference”. The scheme was intended to help Afghans who worked for or were associated with the British government, including embassy staff and British Council teachers, and anyone else who had been seriously harmed by the Taliban (the Taliban has been designated a terrorist organization in Russia and banned. – “MK”).

Meanwhile, figures show that the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (the department that manages ACRS) has just five to eight staff working on the scheme, compared to 540 who worked on schemes for Ukraine earlier this year. Sources said “there is no feeling that Afghanistan is any kind of priority.”

Britain’s efforts to evacuate endangered Afghans in the days following the fall of Kabul in August 2021 came under fire as it emerged that many of those who worked for or with Britain were left behind. Since then, under the rule of the Taliban, poverty in Afghanistan has skyrocketed, women’s rights have been violated, and the UN has recorded at least 160 extrajudicial executions.

Thanks to open source data, forensic findings and interviews with more than a dozen Afghans awaiting resettlement, a joint investigation by the Observer and Lighthouse Reports, a non-profit newsroom in the Netherlands, confirmed that the people the UK promised to help under the ACRS , were severely beaten and tortured by the Taliban. In other cases, family members were abducted or killed because Taliban fighters blocked access to medical care.

Batur, 32, a former university professor, joined the British Council in 2019, according to The Observer. During the Taliban takeover last year, he received death threats and went into hiding, separated from his wife and two children. When Batur’s two-year-old daughter, Najwa, fell ill, his wife was forced to treat her at home, as Taliban law prohibited her from traveling unaccompanied by a man.

Najwa’s condition worsened considerably. By the time Batur managed to get his daughter to the children’s hospital, it was already too late. Najwa’s medical records indicate that she suffered from acute hepatitis, septicemia, and liver failure. It was later confirmed that the cause of death was cardiac arrest. “Those were dark days,” Batur said. I couldn’t even go to the funeral. I couldn’t do anything. My wife still blames me that it happened because of who I worked for. I was not there for her during those difficult days. If I hadn’t been hiding, I could have helped… It’s my fault.”

Six months after Najwa’s death, the British Council informed Batur that his application for a different resettlement scheme, the Resettlement and Aid to Afghans (Arap) policy, would be “formally rejected” by the UK government and that he should apply to ACRS instead. He has not yet heard the outcome of his case. Batur said he feels “betrayed” by the UK government.

“We helped them. We were honored to do this job,” said the Afghan man from the safe house. “But now, despite the fact that there were promises, they have been broken. We did not expect this from the UK. They let us down. We do not understand what to do, where to go. There is no hope of staying alive in this situation. It’s just hopelessness for us.”

Another former contractor, Aziz, 32, worked in 2021 as a translator for the British Embassy at GardaWorld, the security contractor who guarded the embassy. His younger brother Nazir was detained near his home in May 2022 and held in custody for two weeks. During this time, he was subjected to flogging and electric shocks to the private parts of the body.

CCTV footage outside their family home, obtained by Lighthouse Reports, shows the Taliban driving up to the house and knocking on the door, Nazir opens it, and a verbal exchange takes place between the two. Within a minute, the Taliban begin beating him and pushing him into their car before driving away. Aziz said that they mistook Nazir for him.

The photograph shows Nazir’s upper thigh with deep lash marks. Forensic pathologist Dr. Juliet Cohen said the image showed “areas of bruising and criss-crossing red-pink lines.” [волдыри]attributed to spanking,” adding that “it’s hard to see what else could be causing it.”

Aziz applied to the ACRS in June and received a response in October stating that he was not eligible for asylum in the UK as it was decided that he “did not meet the definition of a GardaWorld contractor”.

He is on a list of 175 GardaWorld embassy employees who were seen during this investigation, which was handed over to the UK government. Only five of the list were resettled from Afghanistan to the UK under the Arap scheme.

“They look at the British embassy staff as spies. If they capture me, I will never get out alive,” he said. – I’m going crazy. I’m like a prisoner in my own house. I can’t go outside. I’m afraid all the time. Why won’t the British government help me?”

Four days after the fall of Kabul, the British Home Office announced the ACRS scheme, which it promised would resettle 5,000 Afghans in its first year.

The UK Foreign Office is the lead department of the scheme, working alongside the Home Office, which is responsible for issuing visas, conducting security checks and arranging accommodation in the UK.

Sources working in the Afghan Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that consultations on who would be evacuated under the ACRS began in August and are still ongoing, despite the Ministry confirming that it will begin resettling eligible Afghans in the fall. Great Britain.

One staff member who worked on crisis response last year said, “It makes no sense to make Afghanistan a priority.”

Another source said: “There has been a lot of criticism of the ACRS and my issue with it is the unfairness of the difference in approach to the Ukrainian schemes, which are much more generous. Between [министерством иностранных дел и министерством внутренних дел Великобритании] there was a lot of arguing about who is in charge of this, and discussions about the budget – who pays for it? “But that’s mostly settled now.”

The Home Office drew criticism when it was revealed in February that about a third of the places available under the ACRS were made available to Afghans who had already been resettled in the UK during Operation Pitting, the British evacuation in August 2021.

Zaid, 47, worked for GardaWorld as a driver at the British Embassy for 11 years until last spring. In October 2021, there was a knock on the door of the house where he lived with his wife and six children. He responded, and three Taliban fighters immediately began interrogating him.

“They said, ‘You’re still working for the British embassy, ​​for the infidels, you’re still getting money from them,'” Zaid said. “I was tortured there, on the street. They started beating me so hard that I lost consciousness. I fell to the ground. When I woke up, they had already left, but my body was beaten.”

Photographs of Zayd after the attack show dark bruises on his shoulder and arms, and his arm and head are tightly bound in plaster casts.

Cohen said the bruising indicated “blunt force trauma” that “could have been from a kick” or other means such as a “hard object” and concluded that the injuries were “typical of an assault”.

Zayd submitted an application to ACRS in June 2022 but has yet to receive a response. “I was told to prepare passports and all that. Nobody contacts us. We have lost hope,” he said.

Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock urged the UK government to act “with urgency” to get vulnerable Afghans to safety, adding that a number of those who were waiting for answers had contacted his office with “tragic stories”.

Responding to this investigation, Kinnock said: “This important new data shows how Operation Warm Welcome turned into Operation Cold Welcome due to a toxic combination of Conservative government incompetence and indifference. The UK is indebted to these brave Afghans and that debt must be fulfilled.”

Sarah Magill, director of the Afghan evacuation and resettlement organization Azadi Charity, called the UK’s efforts to evacuate people at risk a “fiasco”. She added: “The UK claims to be a world power, but we have embarrassed ourselves internationally by demonstrating that we cannot find and extract three fixed lists of famous people. The price these people pay is that they live in poverty, are deprived of their rights, many are detained and beaten by the Taliban. This is how we show our gratitude for serving the UK and keeping our diplomats safe.”

The UK Home Office has insisted that 6,300 Afghans have been taken to safety under the ACRS, but as the Observer and Lighthouse Reports know, none of these people have been taken in and resettled since January 2022, when the scheme was launched.