According to the Berlingske newspaper, Britain acquired interpreters working for Denmark in Afghanistan who had been rejected by Denmark for millions of dollars, with Denmark spending 39.8 million kroner to send 23 Afghan interpreters to Britain.
The amount was kept secret for seven years.
According to Berlingske, the UK agreed to accept the interpreters in 2013, and payment was made in 2014, but the amount remains confidential. This equates to 1.7 million kroner per interpreter who had to leave Afghanistan while assisting Danish forces. Eleven of the 23 interpreters wished to come to the UK, while the remaining 12 applied for visas to Denmark but were refused.
Paul Hauchfinger, a lawyer specializing in asylum law and a former employee of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commented: “I have never encountered a situation in which someone is shirking their humanitarian responsibility.”
“In short, it shows the cost of getting rid of a human being,” said Signe Plumbich, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), to the source.
Nine out of 116 interpreters were granted asylum
Denmark accepted asylum applications from only nine Afghan translators, according to a memo from the armed forces, while 50 applicants were rejected, and the remaining 57 received financial support to resettle internally in Afghanistan.
Currently, there are 1,077 asylum seekers from Afghanistan in Denmark, including 236 interpreters and their family members who were evacuated to Denmark after the events in Kabul in August, and are waiting for their asylum cases to be considered.
Danish Defence Minister Trine Bramsen declined to comment to Berlingske.
Source: TV2
