Visa backlog leaves interpreter’s baby son stranded in Afghanistan

A former Afghan interpreter and his wife who were given sanctuary in Britain have been separated from their two-year-old son for more than six months because of delays to his visa.

Sajid Naeemi, 29, said he had been left devastated and that his wife, Mena, was “crying every single day” over the heartbreaking decision to leave Yosuf with his aunt, Mena’s sister, in Afghanistan after complications with Mena’s own application.

The Ministry of Defence requested copies of their son’s passport and birth certificate in January so they could be reunited but the couple have heard nothing since as the department struggles with a huge backlog of cases.

 “I am devastated,” Naeemi said. “I feel like I am being betrayed by the MoD and the government as a whole. My wife is feeling the same. She is crying when she sees him over the phone. She tells me every single day to send her back to Afghanistan.”

Thousands of applications for sanctuary in the UK have been submitted by Afghans who worked with British forces or the government during the war. MoD officials are struggling to process them all.

The government’s policy towards Afghan interpreters has changed over the years as successive ministers have come under pressure to allow more of those who served alongside UK troops to Britain. At first the government only allowed in those who served for a particular period in Helmand province, but the rules were slowly relaxed to allow more in.

However, when western troops withdrew in August last year, many interpreters and their families were still stuck in the country.

Ministers also had strict rules about who the interpreters could bring with them: they could bring their wives with them only if they travelled together on the same date. Those who wanted to follow afterwards were denied sanctuary, a policy which was later changed.

Naeemi was initially one of the fortunate ones, having been allowed into the UK in 2016 under a government relocation scheme after spending two years on the front line in Helmand with British troops. He moved to Oldham with his wife at the time, and started a job with Amazon.

He later divorced and in 2019 married Mena on a visit to Afghanistan. Naeemi applied for Mena, who became pregnant, to join him in the UK and said that he spent £1,400 on a fast-track visa service, which should have taken six weeks to process.

As they waited, Yosuf was born in Afghanistan and solicitors told Naeemi that if he restarted the application they would reject it on the basis that he did not have enough money to support them both.

When British troops withdrew from the country in August last year Mena, 25, travelled to the capital, Kabul, to try to get herself and her son through the gates and on to an RAF flight. However, she was told that she did not have the right papers and was sent away.

A few days later Naeemi’s oldest brother, Halimjan, was shot dead in the street on the way to work in what the family believe was a revenge attack because Naeemi and his other brother worked as interpreters for the British.

Interpreters have been killed, shot at, threatened and had their families attacked as a result of their work.

Halimjan’s wife was left with their five children, aged two to 13, and no way of earning any income because the Taliban banned women from going outside without a male escort.

Back in Oldham, Naeemi contacted the MoD’s Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) team asking them to help bring his wife, son, and Halimjan’s five children to Britain.

In October 2021, two years after Naeemi applied for Mena, she was granted a visa by the Home Office. However, the initial visa was valid only for a short period and the couple feared that with time running out, if she didn’t get the flight to Britain then she would never be able to join Naeemi.

In the hope that once she reached Britain they would be able to apply for a separate visa for Yosuf, Mena, pregnant with their second child, Aqsa, who is now four months old, boarded a flight in November last year.

“We were both crying. It was a difficult decision for us both. It was a do or die for us,” Naeemi said. Yosuf lives with his aunt and uncle in east Afghanistan.

In January this year the Arap team responded to his request asking for documentation for his son and his brother’s five children, who had since been adopted with their mother’s blessing.

Naeemi replied with the official papers and has heard nothing since, despite sending several follow-up emails asking for an update. “They haven’t sent me a single letter in all that time. Now I’m worried they are stuck thinking about the Ukraine crisis and focusing on us less and less,” he said.

The MoD said: “We can’t comment on the detail of individual cases but we regret any delays incurred as we work through complex cases, which often include duplicate or ineligible applications. We are investing in a new casework system which will enable swifter processing and improved communications with applicants, and we are putting more resource into processing applications.”