The UK must repay its debt to Afghan heroes – before it is too late

Editorial: Were it not for the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 – by an international coalition in the aftermath of 9/11 – there would be no Triples, and no claims for asylum. They seek to come here because the West went there and upended their lives

The ‘Triples’, named after their divisional designations, were trained and funded by the UK (Supplied )

While Tory ministers indulge in their favourite hobby of infighting, the fate of brave Afghan special forces left in lethal limbo in Pakistan continues to shame a nation. Messrs Heappey, Tugendhat and Mercer, respectively serving as defence, security and veterans minister, seem to be embroiled in a wrangle about what government policy towards Afghan veterans actually is. Depending on which day of the week the question is raised, and to which of these ambitious youngish men it is directed, the answers can be quite different.

To be fair to these three musketeers, the situation can be complicated. There are (or were) two Afghan rescue schemes with differing criteria, as well as the usual rights to asylum, either regular or irregular – or as the latter is now misdescribed, “illegal migration”. The Afghans themselves will have had varying degrees of exposure to combat and fellow allied operations.

What, though, lay behind the quibbling is that the former members of the “Triples”, named after their divisional designations of 333 and 444, were trained and funded by the UK, sometimes fought alongside British forces, and were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice in the shared objective of defeating the Taliban and winning in this particular theatre of the war on terror.