On the foreign scene
British soldiers have helped the Afghan interpreter they worked with flee the country.
The interpreter said the Home Office twice refused him entry to the UK because he was a danger to national security and because his presence in the UK would not be conducive to the public good.
However,
Former soldiers Joshua Roberts, Vance Bacon-Sharratt, Paul Standen and Sam Knight worked with lawyers and the British government to get their ex-colleague’s visa approved.
Mr Roberts, while reacting to the incident said they all go through minor language courses to pick up certain words and phrases to get by, but without an interpreter they wouldn’t be able to get by, one wouldn’t be able to meet with the local populace.
He said they embedded with one another as they took on parts of his culture and he took6 on parts of theirs and they all worked as a team.
He recalled many times the interpreter had saved them from catastrophic situations as they didn’t take a fatality because of him.
Mr Roberts said it was shocking to watch events unfold in Afghanistan last summer, when the Taliban regained control of the country as British and US forces made
a sudden and chaotic withdrawal.
The interpreter Mr Roberts and his fellow soldiers helped escape had spent six months living apart from his family, hiding in a friend’s basement, while he waited for his UK visa to be issued.