After the Taliban quickly took over Afghanistan last month, calls for the federal government to expedite the evacuation of more Canadians and Afghans from Afghanistan have grown louder.
At the end of August, the terrorist organization celebrated the last U.S. plane leaving the Kabul airport, and many Afghans wanted to flee.
“I am scared for myself, because if I can’t live with my family, what will they do?” John said, Global News is using pseudonyms to protect the identity of the former language assistant.
“I am particularly worried about my family because I am the only one who takes care of them, and the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse and worse because people are now unemployed. They have no jobs, and the people have no money. Banks are closed and the economy is in recession. People are going Was killed.”
John’s relationship with Canada made him worry about his wife and children. He said he was worried that the Taliban would eventually find him.
“Some people have been driven out of their homes and killed. Some people who have worked with intelligence agents or interpreters are trying to hide,” John said.
“Unfortunately, I am also one of them.”
Global News first learned about John’s story through Afghan veterans Daphne and Mike Tekuler, Who is from Calgary. The two said that Ottawa had made progress recently, but now the radio is silent.
“[The federal government was] John will be contacted and they will process the files from this point…but when we talked to him, we found that no one had contact with him, not even once, which made me very worried that this would happen at all ,” Daphne said.
The Afghan translator said that when officials fled Kabul, some people felt “ashamed” for helping Canada.
Ter Kuiles said that John’s chances of running away without outside help are extremely low.
“This is the novel you have read,” Mike said.
“There are too many variables, too many ifs, so his odds are not good,” Daphne added.
On Friday, the Canadian Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship stated that the situation in Afghanistan remains unstable and that it continues to maintain regular contact with Canadian citizens, permanent residents and Afghan applicants. It is exploring the option of reopening Kabul Airport as soon as possible after security can be restored to ensure safe passage.
Mike said: “I will not stop looking for any way to open any door to help John and his family reach this country.”
“I really hope Canadians understand from the people who are actually here in Afghanistan how important these people are to our success there.”
“They tore our souls apart”: Canada ended the evacuation work in Kabul because many people left
But John is still trapped.
“I think I’m in jail now,” John said.
“People who want to rule, we don’t know how they will rule, what their standard of living is, what opportunities we can get for our children, the future and ourselves, so everything here is chaotic.
© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
