Paddy Ashdown: Let us not leave Afghanistan with this final gesture of betrayal and dishonour

I cannot understand why my Government have not before now clarified the position of these men, who have placed their lives at the service of our country and stood shoulder to shoulder with our troops in some of their most difficult hours.

Without them, those 
troops could not have acted at all.

These men are different from our troops in this sense: our troops can be sure that their families are home, secure and safe, in Britain, whereas they cannot.

Their families live, day in and day out, threatened by mortal threat from the Taliban in Afghan society.

Our troops come home every six or nine months, whereas they do not. They have served us, day in and day out, month in and month out, year in and year out, yet the Government are havering as to whether they should have the same rights that interpreters had in Iraq.

We are not asking much; we are not asking anything new, or for something that the Government have not done before. The precedent is already established.

There are some 400 Afghan interpreters – that is all. So what is holding this up? What is the Government’s position?

I am told that the Ministry 
of Defence is perfectly 
content to make sure that 
those same conditions are 
offered to these brave men – 
they are all men, of course – who have done such service to our nation and to our troops on the ground.

I am told – and it surprised me, because this is where I thought the problem might be coming from – that the Home Office is perfectly content.

I am told that it is coming from Downing Street. I do not know whether that is true.

The Prime Minister has certainly said – and I understand where he is coming from – that he wants these men to stay in Afghanistan, because they have something to contribute there.

I understand that. I remember very well in Bosnia the damage done by the internal brain drain, when salaries paid to those working for the international community so outweighed 
those paid by the local community that, for instance, 
my driver in Afghanistan was getting more than the Prime Minister.

I understand that and I understand that the Government may wish to put an economic value on those people, if they wanted to stay and contribute to Afghanistan in peace.

Let us assume a value, plucking one out of thin air. I imagine that it is nowhere near this, but let us say that it is £50,000 for such people to stay in Afghanistan.

That is fine – I am glad that the Government are prepared to monetise the value of their continuing in Afghanistan. However, the choice must be theirs to take.

It is theirs to decide whether they want to balance their own 
life and face the risk, under mortal, declared and deliberate threat from the Taliban, against the sum of £50,000. Let us double that.

I wonder how many peers in the House of Lords would accept £100,000 to leave yourselves at such mortal risk, and leave your family there as well.

If the Government wish to come forward and place a sum of money that expresses the value of their staying in Afghanistan, I am entirely for that, provided that the choice is left to them.

It is time that the Government came clean on this and acted in honour. It is time that we did not continue with this shameful delay in clarifying the position of these men.

We have paid a very high price for our engagement in Afghanistan. Let us not add to that price now with an act of dishonour by leaving these people in the lurch.