As U.S. Withdraws, Afghan Interpreters Fear Being Left Behind

Ken Kraetzer Thanks for bringing this forward... we have an obligation to help those who help our troops over the past 20 years.

"The interpreters who say they have been left for dead in Afghanistan as U.S. and U.K. troops pull out after 20-year war. Aazar had just turned 18 back in 2013, when he signed up to work with Western forces in Afghanistan, perhaps not fully understanding that it would place a clear target on his back.

For 11 months, Aazar – a pseudonym we are using to protect his identity – worked as an interpreter for U.K. troops in Helmand Province. But when he later sought asylum, believing he could fall prey to a vengeful Taliban that saw interpreters as traitors, Aazar learned he was ineligible because the asylum threshold required that Afghan interpreters had worked for at least one year. Aazar fell shy of that by a single month.

He managed to find refuge in New Delhi, India, but he still holds out hope of getting to the U.K. He says the asylum rule is arbitrary and unfair. "If I work one day, [the Taliban] will cut my head," Aazar said in an interview. "If I work 10 years, they will cut my head."

Since the start of the US-led war two decades ago, the Taliban has targeted anyone it sees as "stooges" or collaborators. People like Aazar.

Now, as the last American and Western troops withdraw from Afghanistan – President Joe Biden set a deadline of Sept. 11 – Afghanistan's security forces will soon be on their own.

Taliban fighters have meanwhile taken almost 20 districts over the past two weeks and staged increasingly audacious attacks across the country. A spate of targeted assassinations have killed dozens of journalists, rights workers, academics, religious leaders and other prominent figures over the last year. The majority of these attacks have gone unclaimed, but the Kabul government believes the Taliban are behind most, if not all, of these killings."....