Gen Allen: Afghan interpreters 'will be first target'

Afghan interpreters who work for the British military are calling on the government to give them the right to claim asylum because they say they fear their lives will be in danger when UK forces leave.

While at the end of the Iraq war hundreds of interpreters were allowed to settle in the UK, there is currently no such offer being made to Afghan interpreters.

The government says the Iraqi resettlement programme was expensive and complex to administer and took little account of individual need.

Instead individual claims for asylum are being considered on merit.

But the former top commander of all NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, has told the BBC that Nato members have an obligation to look after them.

From Kabul the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Beale reports.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme on Monday 11 February 2013.