About 600 Afghan interpreters who served with British forces fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan will be allowed to stay in the UK, the government has said. Prime Minister David Cameron initially opposed the decision, but backed down after a campaign that called for interpreters and their families to be allowed to settle under a similar package to one supporting Iraqi interpreters, and a legal challenge in the UK High Court. A source from Cameron’s office in Downing Street said on Wednesday that he was now preparing to offer five-year visas to those who served on the front line for a year or more. Cameron had said earlier that Afghan interpreters, who said they were under threat of attack from the Taliban in their homeland because of their work with foreign forces, should only be allowed to stay in Britain “in extremis”. “When we think of all that we have spent and all the cost in money and human lives we have put into Afghanistan, we should do everything we can to encourage talented Afghans to stay in their country and contribute to it,” he said.
