FORMER members of the Taleban seeking political asylum in Britain are being given priority over other Afghans, refugee welfare groups say.

At least 14 former members of the Islamic fundamentalist militia have sought asylum in this country since the regime of Mullah Muhammad Omar was swept away 14 months ago, The Times has discovered.

Three have been granted political asylum status and given permission to remain in the country indefinitely, the Home Office has confirmed.

One of them, Wali Khan Ahmadzai, said in an interview at the weekend that he had escaped from Afghanistan with other militiamen in a fleet of four-wheel-drive vehicles that he believes was bought by Osama bin Laden.

“I live here but I still think America and Britain are enemies of the Afghan people and Muslim people,” he said at his new home, a first-floor flat in West Hampstead, North London. “But I don’t want to fight anymore. I just want the chance to live in peace and safety and to be a good Muslim.”

The 14 former Taleban fighters have all claimed that they fear persecution, or even death, under the new Western-backed Government in Kabul.

Under the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees, none can be deported because asylum-seekers cannot be returned to a country where they have a well-founded fear of persecution or death.

According to the London-based Society of Afghan Residents, the principal refugee body for Afghans in Britain, young male immigrants are convinced that they are more likely to be granted asylum status if they claim to have fought with the Taleban.

“They can claim that they face a real threat of persecution under the new regime,” Sayed Jan Karwani, a spokesman for the society, said.

“People who were not Talebs cannot make that claim.”

There is even a suspicion that people-smuggling gangs are instructing young Afghans that they should claim “Taleban status” when they arrive in Britain.

Another of the three former Taleban fighters given asylum status is understood to be a 32-year-old militiaman who made his way to Britain despite being shot in two limbs during the war in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks. He is living in Cardiff and is thought to have received legal aid to fund his application.

Mr Ahmadzai, 23, said that he paid people-smugglers the equivalent of £9,375 before embarking on a two-month journey that ended at Ipswich.

“I wanted to come to Britain because I knew that it was a good place to be, that here I would have a good life,” he said. “I left behind my father and brothers and my wife and two children.

“I don’t know where any of my family are, they could be in Pakistan, or they could be dead, but if I could find them I would encourage them to come here.”

The Home Office says that all three former Taleban members were “forcible conscripts”, and that none fought against British or American forces.

Beverley Hughes, the Immigration Minister, told MPs last week that a review of all immigration applications by Afghans since October 2001 showed that “there were three who gave credible accounts of being opposed to the Taleban but having been forcibly conscripted by them.

“All three claimed to have escaped when an opportunity presented itself, and none was engaged in direct combat with British or US ground forces.”

Mr Ahmadzai insists, however, that he did fight against British and American forces, at Dasht-i Archi in northern Afghanistan.

In addition to the three given political asylum, at least 11 former fighters are applying for asylum or appealing against refusal.

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