Scottish Charity Gets £10m To Clear Afghan Mines

The Government is to spend more than £10 million on clearing up landmines in Afghanistan, a minister said today.

International development secretary Douglas Alexander said the money would go the The Halo Trust, a Scottish-based charity with expertise in the area, over the next five years.

Afghanistan was one of the most heavily-mined countries in the world, a legacy of past conflicts, he told BBC Radio Scotland.

“That impacts on British troops because when you meet Nato commanders they tell you that the Taliban pay young children a dollar a time to dig up a landmine in order to build the kind of incendiary devices that are then used against British troops,” he told Good Morning Scotland.

“It also stops Afghan farmers going about their daily work.”

He had met The Halo Trust during a visit there and was “humbled and inspired” by what he saw of their work.

“Today I will be announcing £10.6 million going to The Halo Trust over the next five years from the Department for International Development, to assist them in de-mining Afghanistan.”

Mr Alexander said one person a day was either killed or injured by mines in Afghanistan, and the work of clearing them was an “extraordinary painstaking and difficult” process.

“£10.6 million is a very significant investment which we believe will continue the real progress we’ve seen,” he said.

“Thanks to The Halo Trust and others we have halved the number of mine victims in just the last five years in Afghanistan.

“This major new announcement I’m making today will, I believe, be a significant contribution to continuing that progress.”