LONDON
\nThe UK government said on Wednesday it aimed to resettle hundreds more Afghan translators and their families, after criticism from former military top brass it was not doing enough.
\nDefense Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel said they were committed to relocating the families of 500 staff who supported British troops in Afghanistan \u201cas soon as possible\u201d \u2014 some 2,500 individuals in total.
\nThe pledge came after published criticism from senior defense figures, urging a review of the relocation scheme in the face of escalating violence in Afghanistan and threats to former local staff.
\n\u201cThere has been considerable misreporting of the scheme in the media, feeding the impression the Government is not supporting our former and current Afghan staff,\u201d Wallace and Patel wrote. \u201cThis could not be further from the truth and since the US announced its withdrawal we have been at the forefront of nations relocating people,\u201d they added.
\nIn response to pressure following the announcement of a US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the UK accelerated its relocation scheme for Afghan local staff in May.
\nSince the expansion was announced, 1,400 Afghan staff and their families had been relocated, equalling the total number resettled in Britain since 2014.
\nSix former heads of the UK armed forces and other senior military figures voiced concern in a letter to The Times last week that Afghan staff had been rejected for relocation because of security concerns.
\nOften these individuals were deemed ineligible because they were dismissed from service.
\nThe ministers asserted they needed to ensure a \u201cbalance between generosity and security\u201d and would now offer relocation to 264 members of Afghan staff who were dismissed for a \u201crelatively minor administrative offense.\u201d
\nOf these, they said, 121 individuals in that category have already been offered relocation.
\nThe Taliban on Wednesday claimed responsibility for Tuesday\u2019s deadly bomb and gun attack on the capital, Kabul, amid a wider assault by the Islamist group on a string of provincial capitals.
\nRegular reprisals against Afghan interpreters and their families have escalated as the Taliban have seized vast swathes of the countryside in the weeks following the withdrawal announcement.
\nAs humanitarian displacement from the conflict increases, the UK also said it would make further changes to its rules to allow former Afghan staff and their families to make applications for relocation outside Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON The UK government said on Wednesday it aimed to resettle hundreds more Afghan translators and their families, after criticism from former military top brass it was not doing enough. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel said they were committed to relocating the families of 500 staff who supported British troops in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n