'They will kill them': Afghan translator fears 'Taliban will take revenge on brother'
18 August 2021, 11:24 | Updated: 18 August 2021, 11:33
Former Afghan translator fears for brother left in Afghanistan
Mujtaba a former translator who worked with the UK armed forces in Helmand province told LBC he came to England a month ago but much of his family is still in Afghanistan and he is terrified for them.
The former translator was protesting outside Parliament as MPs inside debated the situation in Afghanistan.
MPs are holding an emergency debate after the Taliban took control of the country.
The speed at which they did so is on the agenda, along with the UK's efforts to evacuate British nationals.
Mujtaba said he had now started his new life in the UK after being evacuated to safety.
Expressing concerns for his "family, friends and colleagues left behind," he told LBC he would like to see MPs and Boris Johnson make a new regulation to allow them to come to the UK and be "safe."
He explained he had been in the UK for about a month, but in total it had taken him around nine months to gain sanctuary.
He told our reporter his family, and his two brothers remained in Afghanistan and they had also worked with him at Camp Bastion assisting UK forces.
He said he was afraid for them due to the Taliban.
"They will kill them," he said.
Mujtaba revealed that both his broths have not been able to leave their homes due to high levels of risk.
"I am worried about them, the situation right now is too bad."
The Government said the new scheme was in addition to the 5,000 Afghans already expected to move to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which is designed to offer local allies such as interpreters priority relocation to the UK.
Government figures showed 2,000 have already arrived under the ARAP programme.
Since Saturday, officials said 520 British nationals, diplomats and former Afghan staff have left Afghanistan on UK military flights.
A flight carrying evacuated British nationals and Afghans landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire at about 11pm on Tuesday night.
UK armed forces assist citizens with evacuation of Afghanistan
Afghanistan veteran Major Andrew Fox, who served three tours in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2010 with the Royal Welsh and later the Parachute regiment said any promises from the Taliban not to take revenge against those that had helped the British and Americans as "pure lies".
"They are monsters and they are simply trying to get the west on side with their takeover," he said.
"What they are saying doesn't match anything at all that I am hearing about on the ground and people messaging me from Afghanistan," Major Fox said.
"They are going door-to-door, they are threatening people, they are calling them up and saying they are going to hunt them down, they are passing messages saying, 'we are coming back once the Americans have left'."
He added: "I've seen images of soldiers executed on their doorsteps and units that have tried to surrender being executed to a man.
"So their words and their actions in no way line up. I don't believe a word they are saying, they are monsters and they are simply trying to get us onside."
Former DoD adviser responds to US Afghan withdrawal
Major Fox said it was imperative to keep the issue of evacuating interpreters and their families uppermost in MPs' minds as they reconvene to debate the Afghan crisis on Wednesday afternoon.
"I think the Government are going to do their best, it is a really fiendishly complicated situation in Afghanistan," he said.
He added: "It is something that needs resolving and we can't just walk away from a moral obligation - we have to do everything we can to get as many people out as possible."
