Hey guys, Andy here. The 15th August 2024 marks the 3rd anniversary of the Fall of Kabul. The date marks the the day the Taliban captured the capital city of Afghanistan bringing to an end two decades of conflict against a US- led coalition. The entry event and the collapse of the Afghan government led to a large scale evacuation leading to the airlift of 120, 000 people, including foreign citizens and vulnerable Afghans, ending on 30th August.
Amongst those who managed to leave Afghanistan are the Afghan interpreters, and their families, who feature in We Are Here, my portrait project with Prof Sara de Jong documenting the interpreters who worked for the British Army being resettled in the UK. Where do we, the interpreters and the UK, find ourselves three years later?
The UK has recently experienced records levels of civil unrest and disturbance with over 1, 000 people arrested. The violence began in the seaside town of Southport, in the wake of the fatal stabbings of three young girls, spreading to the rest of the country. The riots conducted by the far- right targeted hotels housing asylum seekers, mosques, immigration centres and other locations considered to be aiding foreign communities. This unrest has led to counties such as Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and the UAE issuing travel warnings to their citizens. It is against this national backdrop Afghan interpreters who fled their homeland now find themselves.
Some interpreters continue to remain left behind in Afghanistan with a high the bar for their eligibility to the UK, arguably unreasonably so. 98% of Afghan asylum seekers in the UK are granted refugee status however the bar for Afghan interpreters has been set at a higher level. Additionally 35% of interpreters working for the British Army were dismissed without due process; this unfair dismissal is being used by the Govt to exclude the interpreters from UK resettlement which in turns has led to protracted legal challenges.
Since the Fall of Kabul the Taliban have targeted male relatives of interpreters, ie their fathers and brothers. There is a UK policy that allows for the resettlement of additional family members for interpreters however there is little sense of urgency. The UK policy offers no timescales and many interpreters hear nothing for months, sometimes years. Recently, applicants have received emails informing them that all decisions were put on hold, without any indication of when decisions will be resumed.
At the risk of stating the obvious it is worth considering two key issues in more detail; fleeing your homeland and the complexity of national bureaucracy. For all the recent UK hate and vitriol directed by protesters to immigrants blamed for ‘taking our education/ jobs/ money’ no one wants to be forced to leave their homeland with nothing but the clothes on their backs. No one wants to traffic themselves through foreign countries, relying on people smugglers in fear of being caught and indefinitely detained or, even worse, sent home to the country they are trying to flee. And no one wants to throw themselves on the mercy of a foreign nation because bureaucracy is complicated, especially for those who are not native language speakers and do not understand the culture.
The route an Afghan interpreter takes on arrival to the UK, as mapped by the Govt is a myriad of teams and offices working to various government departments. Concurrent to this is the Ministry of Defence (MoD) policy co- ordinated with military charities. While the official route is staffed with subject matter experts, cross-departmental efforts can, unfortunately, be ignored; on the other hand the MoD, while trying to keep everything under one roof, does not have the required expertise to handle integration.
Immigration and integration are challenging; the new Labour government have moved quickly in regards to the riots with swift sentencing for those arrested. With a notably high numbers of service leavers amongst current MPs one hopes the new government’s strong theme of “service”, with pledges on policing and the NHS, extends to supporting the interpreters and their families, helping them to thrive in the U.K.
andybarnham
I am a portrait photographer based in Cheltenham, UK. Born in Hong Kong to a Chinese mum and British dad, I had an international upbringing while I educated in the UK. I started photography as a hobby while serving as an officer in the British Army.
After my service I turned this passion into a career and became immersed in London's sartorial scene. I am now focusing my camera on portraiture and using this eye for detail which was refined over ten years. As a former Royal Artillery officer it is only fitting I shoot with a Canon camera.
