'I’ve lost my whole life': UK’s Afghan allies ‘abandoned’, veterans claim five years after Taliban regained power

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Earlier this year, the government confirmed that 9,000 Afghans, many of whom claim to have made a significant contribution to help British forces during the war, are yet to receive a decision on whether they can be resettled in the UK.

Senior British military figures and immigration lawyers have warned LBC that many of those seeking resettlement fear reprisal from the Taliban for offering support to British forces during the twenty-year war in Afghanistan.

Akhtar Mohammad Ibrahimi is one of those still in limbo.

As a senior member of the previous administration who served as deputy security minister, Ibrahimi and his family were immediately placed under surveillance by the Taliban, which set up a checkpoint outside his home after the takeover.

“I believe they (the Taliban) would have carried out a direct execution on me,” he says via an interpreter.

He explained that he worried about being recognised if he had travelled to the airport for the British evacuation flights in August 2021.

Undercover, Ibrahimi escaped to Uzbekistan before flying to the UK via Turkey using his diplomatic passport. Unable to join him, his family went into hiding.

“I’ve lost my whole life. My everything.”

It’s been nearly five years since he has seen his wife, three children and grandchildren.

For the plight his family continues to face in hiding he’s considered “writing a letter saying they (the British) have to deport me back to Afghanistan.

"It’s better to have whatever happens to me happen instead of my family being pressured”.

If his family are caught and deported to Afghanistan from the third country in which they hide, he says “they are going to torture them to put pressure on me to go back to Afghanistan and be submitted to the Taliban.”

Ibrahimi, who was a General in the Afghan army, claims to have supported British forces in counter terror and security operations.

“I shed my blood for Afghanistan and we wished for a democratic, peaceful country one day… I miss everything about Afghanistan,” he says.

For the last two years, he has been living in an asylum hotel.

He applied for asylum as well as the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme which was set up to protect British allies from Taliban reprisal.

Initially, however, he was rejected for eligibility to the ARAP scheme; he has appealed with supporting statements from a British Major General and Lieutenant General.

Those involved in the operations in Kabul underlined the contribution many Afghans made to ensuring British troops could carry out their duties as effectively as possible.

General Sir Peter Wall, who was head of the British Army between 2010-14, told LBC that “we couldn’t have done it without them”, when asked about the importance of Afghans’ contributions to the operations before the fall of Kabul on 15 August 2021.

Meanwhile, Colonel Simon Diggins, Britain’s Defence Attaché to Kabul from 2008-10, said Afghans have been “abandoned” and that he has seen recent intelligence which appears to show the Taliban collecting information on those who worked for foreign force organisations.

The increasing focus on the activities of those who collaborated with US-led forces comes after LBC exposed a major data breach from the Ministry of Defence in 2022.

LBC revealed that up to 100,000 Afghans had sensitive information leaked by the MoD which, judges suggest, could result in the harassment, torture or death of those named if the Taliban obtained their data.

Shortly after the leak, nearly 19,000 applicants were secretly moved to the UK under the Afghan Relocation Route.

Recently, though, the schemes set up to support Afghan allies have been winding down.

Last year, the government closed all its key resettlement schemes to new applicants.

This spring, they also shut off support to help those in hiding be safely taken out of Afghanistan into a third country where they could be processed for relocation.

The government says they expect less than 1% of the remaining applicants to be eligible for relocation.

The Home Office makes the final decision on eligibility for a visa to the UK once the MoD has confirmed that an applicant is eligible for the scheme.

Lawyers claim that many decisions are poorly made and through lengthy costly appeals, are often overturned.

In the meantime, the lives of those who helped the British and their families continue to be desperate.

Jamie Bell, a human rights and immigration lawyer at Duncan Lewis, says that even those hiding in third countries like Pakistan live in fear of being deported as their visas often expire as they await decisions.

Of those in Afghanistan he added “some people have been outside. They have been caught by the Taliban, detained and tortured for months”.

Mr Bell also says many regret helping the British as their lives have been ruined for doing so.

Ibrahimi, meanwhile, says he’s lost everything: “Son, daughters, wife, grandchildren. I don’t have anything. I am the only one.”

The MoD said: “It’s absolutely right to bring Afghans who are eligible, including those who worked alongside UK forces in Afghanistan, to the safety of the UK to start a new life. Since the Taliban takeover, the UK has resettled almost 39,000 Afghan men, women, and children through Afghan resettlement schemes.

“We have received nearly 200,000 applications since the start of the scheme, so it does take time to process this caseload, but we have increased our resources to ensure that we can do this as quickly as possible.”