1000 soldiers still AWOL

Image of the Faculty of Health and Social Care Building at Anglia Ruskin University

Steven Walker, a Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University has been involved with the reasons why soldiers go AWOL. Steven has spoken to the Channel 4 website and a summary of the report follows:

More than 1,000 British soldiers are risking jail sentences by remaining absent without leave (AWOL), latest figure show. New documents reveal a total of 1,013 soldiers were AWOL at the start of November 2008 - with more than 60 registered as absent since 2002.

Critics claim a lack of proper breaks from duty and the nature of modern combat is causing military personnel to continue to disappear. But the Ministry of Defence (MoD) says the number of reported incidents of soldiers going AWOL each year is going down; and it is to introduce new officers to track down remaining wayward soldiers. It believes family problems rather than a wish to avoid military service is the reason the majority of soldiers go AWOL.

Steven Walker, who has studied the reasons why troops go AWOL, says:

"The publicity and the interest with the two wars has created a lot of interest.

But a lot of the young people that were recruited came from deprived backgrounds - with social and economic problems. They were vulnerable to mental health problems.

I am not surprised about the numbers given the nature of the combat and the frequency of the deployments."

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