‘We’ll send you to Taliban’: interpreter’s arrest ordeal in Pakistan

A former frontline interpreter for British troops in Helmand who has been waiting more than two and a half years in Pakistan to be brought to the UK was arrested in his “safe” hotel bedroom and threatened with deportation back to the Taliban.
Jamil, 36, said that in nearly six hours of questioning by local police and intelligence officers he was called a British spy and told that he had betrayed Afghanistan and would be sent back to the “arms of your enemy”.
He was eventually released on the same day as his arrest, and allowed to return to the hotel with his family, after an intervention by officials from the British high commission in Islamabad. He is still waiting for a flight to the UK.
Jamil, who spent four years risking his life with British forces in Helmand Province, was one of three Afghans who staying at the hotel paid for by the British high commission when they were arrested. He had believed his family would be safe there.
Within hours of learning of the arrest, lawyers for Jamil who were “appalled” at his treatment threatened the UK government with legal action.
Jamil also wrote his own letter to the UK government, saying: “Our lives are in grave danger. We are not safe in Pakistan. I have dedicated years of service alongside British soldiers in Afghanistan, facing immense risks and numerous hardships. We were evacuated to Pakistan by the UK with the promise of a safe transit to Britain. However, what was meant to be a safe route has turned into a nightmare.”
All three of the people who were “dragged” from their hotel rooms have already been granted sanctuary in the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). However, the UK government still has not flown Jamil and a second individual, also a former interpreter, to Britain. Hundreds of other Afghans are believed to be waiting in Afghanistan to come to Britain, but the Ministry of Defence needs to find housing for them before flying them out.
Jamil, who worked for the UK between 2007 and 2011, first applied for ARAP in 2021 but was refused on the ground that he had been dismissed after a fight with another interpreter. Officers he had worked with on the front line had praised his “bravery under fire’ and described him as “an integral part” of their operations.
Shortly after the Taliban seized Kabul, Jamil was told that he could relocate. He sold his home and possessions and travelled to Islamabad, where he has been in a hotel ever since.
Speaking about his arrest, he said: “It was terrifying. I fear for our lives as the Pakistan authorities seemed to be acting like agents of the Taliban. We were dragged from our beds … separated from our families.”
Jamil added that their wives and children had been held at a detention centre where they were mistreated, refused water and had videos taken of them. The children had since suffered from nightmares, he said.
He added: “I was treated very badly, they were threatening me with deportation, they called me a spy of the British who had betrayed my country. It seemed they were sympathetic to the Taliban calling them the “true rulers” in Afghanistan.
“One police officer shouted at me, “Next time, you will be taken directly to the border and deported or shot dead … this is our land’. The reality is Islamabad is a friend of Kabul, and Pakistan can throw us out if it wishes to, they don’t like us being here.
“I have waited 33 months to be brought to the UK. I feel a prisoner in my hotel and plead with the UK government to honour its promise and bring us to the UK.”
Pakistan has cracked down on Afghans without visas and deported thousands. The case has raised concern among lawyers and campaigners for Afghan former interpreters.
Jamil’s lawyer, Erin Alcock, of Leigh Day, said : “We are extremely concerned for the family’s safety and appalled by the way our clients have been treated by the Pakistani authorities.
“We raised concerns about their safety with the UK government some time ago, and asked that their relocation to the UK be prioritised. It is deeply regrettable that there has been a failure to adequately protect our clients in Pakistan and that their onward travel to the UK has been delayed for seemingly no good reason.”
Rafi Hottak, a former supervisor of translators and one of the UK’s leading campaigners, said: “It is appalling the UK can wait so long to relocate someone who risked their lives for its soldiers, after granting them sanctuary. It is totally unacceptable.”
Campaigners said their anger was compounded because many Afghans were being effectively fast-tracked through Pakistan, flown within days of leaving Afghanistan to start safe lives in the UK.
Ed Aitken, an army veteran who served in Afghanistan and is now a founding member of the Sulha Alliance, which campaigns for those who risked their lives on the front lines, accused the government of dragging its feet by keeping former interpreters for months in Islamabad hotels.
“This situation highlights why there needs to be prioritisation of the interpreters and their families. Our interpreters were on the front line and were most visibly on our side,” he said.
A government spokesman said : “We are determined to honour our nation’s commitment to those brave Afghans that supported the UK mission in Afghanistan.
“Thousands of Afghans have come to the UK through relocation and resettlement schemes, but there have been multiple issues in processing ARAP applications over the last three years. This government will do all it can to tackle these problems and aims to relocate eligible individuals to the UK as quickly as possible.”