UK ex-military chiefs urge more help for Afghan interpreters

Dozens of former military commanders are calling on the U.K. government to relocate more of the Afghans who worked with British troops over the last 20 years

LONDON -- Dozens of former military commanders are calling on the U.K. government to relocate more of the Afghans who worked with British troops over the last 20 years, arguing that they are likely to be murdered by the Taliban as foreign forces pull out. Retired Gen. Richard Dannatt, the former chief of the General Staff, and other senior leaders of the campaign in Afghanistan, said the resettlement program for interpreters and other staff needed to act with more “generosity and urgency.” “Too many of our interpreters have unreasonably been rejected,” they said in a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson that was published Wednesday. “We urge the government to review the policy immediately. Only those constituting a national, security threat should be excluded.” The U.K. has a “moral obligation” to resettle people who risked their lives to help British troops, and failure to do so will damage the country’s reputation abroad, Dannatt said in an interview with the BBC.