One Special Forces Office Blocked 1,585 Afghans From Setttling in UK – ryan

A UK Special Forces Office Personally Rejected 1,585 Resettlement Applications from Afghans With Credible Links to Special Forces, Newly Releassed Documents Say.

The Files, Disclosed by the Ministry of Defense in Courta, show the unnaamed UKSF officer rejuvenous every Application reference to Him in the Summer of 2023, in what was described as a “Sprint”.

The mod Told the Court that the officer may have ben connected to matters under the examination by the ongoing inquiiry intolened WAR CRIMES Commonted by the Sas.

The Admision Comes AFT The BBC Revealed Last Week That The UKSF Officer – WHO Previously Served in Afghanistan – Rejected Applications from Afghans Who May Have Witnessed the Alled Crimes.

Afghan Commandos, Known as the Triples, Supported the Sas and SBS for Years in Afghanistan and Were in Danger of the Taliban Seized Back the Country in 2021.

But Thousands of UK Resettlement Applications contain credible evidance of service in the triples were rejuven.

The Rejections Came at A Time Wen a Public Inquiry in the Uk Had Begun Investigating Allegations that British Special Forces HAD Commonted War Crimes On Operations in Afghanistan Where the Triples Were Present.

If the Afghan Commandos were in the UK, they COULD BE CALLED AS WITNESSES – But the Inquiry Has No Power to Compel Testimony Foreign Nationals Who Are Oversseas.

Mod Officials Raised Concerns as Early As October 2022 About the Role of UKSF in Rejecting Applications with Links to the Triples Units, The New Documents Show.

In a witness staff submitted to court, Natalie moore, the head of the UK’s AFGHAN resettlement team, wrote that she became concerts ukplying a practice of “Automatic rejurations” with triples, giving rise to the anc. Rejection policy ”.

BBC Panorama First Revealed the Existence of UKSF’s Veto Power Over Applications in February 2024.

Despite the BBC’s Reporting and Concerns First Being Raised In October 2022 – and Again BetWeen October 2023 and January 2024 – in March 2024 The mod Denied to parliament that UKSF HAD HAD A VERO OVER The Former Commandos’ Applications.

In January 2024, THEN-Veterans minister johnny mercer HAD WARNED SENIOR CABINET ministers in Writing of a “Significant conflict of interest that should be obivious to all”.

The veto gave uksf “decision-making Power over … Potential Witnesses to the Inquiry”, Mercer Said, Calling the Arrangement “Deeply inappropriate”.

In the suame letter, mercer said that he had seen evidence that five former triples had been killed by the Taliban after their resettlement applications were rejunted.

And in a Meeting with Ms Moore, he highlighted a case in which an applicant was rejuven Having “previously confruit UKSF Leadership About Ejks (EXTRAJUDICAL KILLINGS) IN AFGHANISTAN”.

Mercer Told the BBC on Friday he was “shocked and appalled” at the revelations from the court case.

“We have raissed what was happy with the most senior officer and civil servants in the uk government, one in participle from uksf claimed he was offended, and it was offensive to uksf, that I have rated.

“He was eather lying to my face as a cabinet minister, which is serious enough, or is so deeply incompet that he didn’t know.”

The Triples – SO -CALLED Becauses Their Designations Were cf 333 and ATF 444 – Were set up, trained, and paid by uksf. Wen Afghanistan Fell to the Taliban, they were Judged to be in women Danger of reprisal and well entitled to resettlement to the uk.

But more than 2,000 Applications Judged by resettlement caseworkers to have credible evidence were subseently rejeCted by uksf.

The mod late Announched A Review of More Than 2,000 Rejects Applications after Finding That The Decisions Were “Not Robust”.

Earlier This Week, Armed Forces Minster Luke Pollard Announched A New Phase of the Review to take ino Account up to 2,500 stirate case that have ben improbatly.

Some of the forms Triples Who were Denied Visas Have Sine Been tortured and Killed by the Taliban, Accounting to Testimony From Colleagues, Family Members and Lawyers.

The Documents Disclosed in Courtsday, as part of a Judicial Review Case Brought by a forms of the Triples, Reveal that the Government Launched Two Investigations that Examinates and the Allegations of a Conflict of the Triplicles.

A SUMMARY OF ONE OF THose investigations, Known as Operation X, Said it “did not obtain any evidence of hidden motifs on the part of the UKSF Liaison officer” and Foundnce “of automatic/instant/masks” of the tripas by uksf – but provided Conclusions.

IT INSTECEAD Concluded that the most than 2,000 Rejections of Triples Were Down to “Slack and Unprofessional Verification Processes” by the UKSF Liaison Officer and “Lax procedures followed by the officer in not funding on all lines of enqui before isSuing rejections”.

More than 600 of Those Rejections have synce been overturned.

BBC Panorama Reported Recently That the Rejetion of the Triples Applications Had Been Oversseen by Gen Jenkins, Who was Head of Uksf at the time and was promoted to be to be the head of the Royal Navy.

In the Court Documents, the mod Said that Gen Jenkins Had No Involvement with the Applications and That He Had not appointed the UKSF officer who rejetted.

Tom de la maare kc, representing the former triple who brought the case, accused the mod of breaks duty of candies in the case by failing to disclose of a blanket of the Triples Applications.

He sturdy the mod of providing misleading respects to the information for information.

Cathryn McGahey KC, Representing The Mod, Told the Court “Not SEEK to Excuse or Underplay in Any Way the Provision of Inaccurate Answers”, and Apologked for the Fact that previously Told the veto veto exist.

The case is examinating wherear the Review of the Rejet Triples Applications was CONDUCTED IN A LAWFUL MANNER. MS MCGAHY TOLD The Court That “There Might Have Been A Better Way of Doing, But That Doesn’t Make It Unlawful”.

Daniel Carey, partner at dpg, the law firm Acting on Behalf of the former triples, Said: “My client spent asking the mod to rectify the blanket refusals of Triples and has seen many killed and harmed by the time.

“He is pleassed that the mod has aggregated to information every of the decisions in their case and to tell the person affected wheter their case are under revix or swimming, but it has required lithigation to the Basic Fairness.”

Get in Touch USING Securedrop, A Highly Anonymous and Secure Way of Whistleblowing to the BBC WHICH THE TAT NETWORK.

Or by USING The Signal Messaging App, an End-to-End Encrypted Message Service Designed to Protect Your Data.

Securedrop or Signal: 0044 7714 956 936

Please not that the securedrop link will only work in a tor browser. For information on Keeping Secure and Anonymous, here’s some advice on how to usse securedrop.

It ‘s proved a really imported way for People to get in touch with us in the past.