Afghanistan: Interpreters

(asked on 6th September 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of interpreters working for the British armed forces were successfully evacuated from Afghanistan as part of Operation Pitting.


Answered by
James Heappey Portrait
James Heappey
This question was answered on 9th September 2021

Under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), more than 7,000 current and former Locally Employed Staff (LES) have now been relocated to the UK, with around 5,000 of these being evacuated during Operation Pitting.

The ARAP scheme is not time-limited and will endure, remaining open to all who risked their lives supporting the UK's mission in Afghanistan and to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for their support, including interpreters.

In May 2021, the ARAP scheme was expanded so that contracted interpreters who supported military operations were eligible for relocation by default. The UK Government agreed that contracted interpreters working in public facing roles at our Embassy in Kabul should therefore also be eligible.

Reticulating Splines