LONDON: About half the Afghan interpreters risking their lives for British troops are to be given settlement rights in the United Kingdom under a reworked package prepared by the coalition government.

The package represents a climbdown from earlier suggestions that most interpreters would have to risk reprisals as collaborators by the Taliban after coalition forces leave a still unstable country next year.

Under the proposals any interpreters who have put themselves in physical danger working outside British military bases will be offered a resettlement package if they have been working for the UK forces for more than 12 months at the point of their redundancy.

The package will apply to any Afghan interpreter employed by British forces between December 2012 and December 2014, the final point of British departure. It is estimated that about half the interpreters - roughly 600 - will qualify for resettlement in Britain.

Qualifying interpreters will be offered a five-year visa for themselves and their families with additional practical help for relocation, accommodation and seeking work in the UK.

If a qualifying interpreter does not want to take up the option of living in Britain, they will be given an alternative five-year training and education package with the Afghan security forces on existing security force salaries.

They will also be offered pro-rata rates.

That army package will also be available to interpreters who do not qualify for resettlement in the UK.

It is estimated that roughly 600 interpreters will not qualify for resettlement either because they do not have 12 months’ continuous service or have not been deemed to face sufficient physical danger in their daily work. Interpreters not qualifying for resettlement will also be given the right to the equivalent of an 18-month average army salary paid on a monthly basis, rather than as a lump sum. A source at the prime minister’s office said: “The prime minister has been very clear that we should not turn our backs on those who have trod the same path as our soldiers in Helmand, consistently putting their lives at risk to help our troops achieve their mission.

“We should recognise the service given by those who have regularly put themselves in real danger while working for us. “These proposals give them a choice: the opportunity to go on working in Afghanistan, learning new skills and to go on rebuilding their country or to come and make a new start in Britain.”

Downing Street said the packages would not take away interpreters’ existing rights to be resettled within Afghanistan if they were under clear threat.

Similarly, rights to seek political asylum cannot be taken away under human rights law.

Britain’s defence ministry has always insisted it will not abandon Afghans who have put their lives on the line for the UK, but there was a strong emphasis on trying to persuade Afghans to remain in their country to continue the process of rebuilding.

There was also a fear that a blanket right to come to the UK would be taken as a signal that security will collapse, and reprisals proliferate, once the coalition forces depart next year. But some Afghan interpreters were mounting legal challenges, and influential figures such as Lord Ashdown, a former marine and leader of the Liberal Democrats, pressed the government to be more generous.

Ashdown said: “The principle is established. We did it in Iraq, because these people stood shoulder to shoulder with us. We recognised that in Iraq, so how can we not do so in Afghanistan?

“Our forces could not do their job without them. So let them come back here. Relocation is the right thing for those who want it.”

By arrangement with the Guardian