LONDON: The majority of the British voting public support giving sanctuary to former Afghan special forces veterans who served alongside the UK military, The Independent reported on Saturday.
The poll of 3,000 British voters, carried out by YouGov, found that just 19 percent of respondents said they should be barred from settling in Britain.
Those veterans who stayed in Afghanistan since the 2021 Taliban takeover have faced assault and torture, and some have been killed.
Several of the veterans — who belonged to the elite UK-funded Commando Force 333 and Afghan Territorial Force 444 units — have made it to Britain via evacuation flights or by boat.
Maj. Gen. Charlie Herbert, a former senior NATO adviser in Afghanistan, said: “I can think of no other Afghan security forces who were more closely aligned to the UK than 333 and 444, nor who more loyally or bravely supported our military objectives.”
The UK’s Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, which aims to resettle former Afghan veterans who served alongside the British military against the Taliban, has received character references from many former British colleagues of the soldiers.
However, one former British soldier, Alex, told The Independent that ARAP failed to respond to his reference.
“I provided details about the individual that I served with on the ground in Afghanistan to the Arap team and never got a response,” he said.
“I am aware of a number of other people who served alongside (the Afghan veterans) and never received any contact from the Ministry of Defense or ARAP. The cases were all rejected in the first place and were then rejected on appeal.
“We talk a lot about veterans and their mental health. To think that you’ve left these people behind, you hear what they’re going through. They were looking after you on the ground and you can’t help them.”
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Most British voters support sanctuary for Afghan veterans: Poll
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Most British voters support sanctuary for Afghan veterans: Poll
- Ex-elite soldiers face Taliban revenge as criticism grows over UK resettlement scheme
- Ex-British soldier: ‘They were looking after you on the ground and you can’t help them’
Italy arrests Burundi man over 2014 murders of three Catholic nuns
Guillaume Harushimana is suspected of instigating, jointly organizing and logistically supporting the murders
The nuns may have been killed for refusing to provide medical aid to Burundian militias deployed in Congo
ROME: Italy has arrested a 50-year-old Burundian man in connection with the murder of three Italian missionary nuns in the east African country’s commercial capital Bujumbura more than 10 years ago, prosecutors in Parma said on Thursday.
Guillaume Harushimana is suspected of instigating, jointly organizing and logistically supporting the murders of Olga Raschietti, 83, Lucia Pulici, 75, and Bernadetta Boggian, 79, in two separate attacks on September 7-8, 2014.
Monica Moschioni, a lawyer appointed by a court to represent Harushimana, told Reuters she could not say whether he would plead innocent or guilty as she had not yet spoken to him. She was due to do so on Friday, she added.
KILLINGS ORDERED BY GENERAL, PROSECUTORS SAY
The killings were ordered by General Adolphe Nshimirimana, then head of the Burundi secret police, who was assassinated in 2015, the prosecutors said. Harushimana was one of the general’s close associates, they added.
According to investigators, the nuns may have been killed for refusing to provide medical aid to Burundian militias deployed in Congo, disputes over the funding of a youth center in Kamenge, or as part of a sacrificial rite.
Burundi authorities did not respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors said four people were suspected of carrying out the killings. Two had made radio confessions and one described as the general’s bodyguard was questioned in Parma and had partially admitted the facts, they added. The fourth person has not been identified.
The presumed killers entered the nuns’ compound disguised in clerical robes and left wearing police uniforms, prosecutors said. In 2014, Reuters reported that two of the three victims were raped and decapitated.
Italian prosecutors said they reopened investigations into the murders in 2024, thanks to leads from a book by investigative journalist Giusy Baioni, leading them to testimonies from other nuns which had not been heard by Burundian authorities.
Harushimana’s name had already emerged in connection with the murders, Italian prosecutors said, adding that he had obtained a travel visa to Italy in 2018 to attend a training course in the northern city of Parma.
They said he was taken in for questioning at the time in Parma, but denied any involvement, saying he had been outside Burundi at the time of the murders, and providing passport stamps as evidence of his absence from the country.
The nuns may have been killed for refusing to provide medical aid to Burundian militias deployed in Congo
ROME: Italy has arrested a 50-year-old Burundian man in connection with the murder of three Italian missionary nuns in the east African country’s commercial capital Bujumbura more than 10 years ago, prosecutors in Parma said on Thursday.
Guillaume Harushimana is suspected of instigating, jointly organizing and logistically supporting the murders of Olga Raschietti, 83, Lucia Pulici, 75, and Bernadetta Boggian, 79, in two separate attacks on September 7-8, 2014.
Monica Moschioni, a lawyer appointed by a court to represent Harushimana, told Reuters she could not say whether he would plead innocent or guilty as she had not yet spoken to him. She was due to do so on Friday, she added.
KILLINGS ORDERED BY GENERAL, PROSECUTORS SAY
The killings were ordered by General Adolphe Nshimirimana, then head of the Burundi secret police, who was assassinated in 2015, the prosecutors said. Harushimana was one of the general’s close associates, they added.
According to investigators, the nuns may have been killed for refusing to provide medical aid to Burundian militias deployed in Congo, disputes over the funding of a youth center in Kamenge, or as part of a sacrificial rite.
Burundi authorities did not respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors said four people were suspected of carrying out the killings. Two had made radio confessions and one described as the general’s bodyguard was questioned in Parma and had partially admitted the facts, they added. The fourth person has not been identified.
The presumed killers entered the nuns’ compound disguised in clerical robes and left wearing police uniforms, prosecutors said. In 2014, Reuters reported that two of the three victims were raped and decapitated.
Italian prosecutors said they reopened investigations into the murders in 2024, thanks to leads from a book by investigative journalist Giusy Baioni, leading them to testimonies from other nuns which had not been heard by Burundian authorities.
Harushimana’s name had already emerged in connection with the murders, Italian prosecutors said, adding that he had obtained a travel visa to Italy in 2018 to attend a training course in the northern city of Parma.
They said he was taken in for questioning at the time in Parma, but denied any involvement, saying he had been outside Burundi at the time of the murders, and providing passport stamps as evidence of his absence from the country.
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