‘The Taliban are searching’: Afghan interpreter Nowroz pleads for help

INTERNATIONAL DESK: In hiding with his family in Kabul, Nowroz Ali says he is consumed by fear. He can hear gunfire in the darkness. He cannot sleep, getting up every time he hears a door slam.

“At night time, I am shivering. I can’t control myself. The more days I spend here, the more worried I get – the Taliban have started looking for people who worked with coalition forces.”

Ali is one of at least 37 Afghans who assisted New Zealand forces and now believe they could face torture or death if found by the Taliban. This week, the New Zealand government committed to evacuating Afghans who worked for New Zealand forces, and a C-130 defence plane left on Thursday morning to assist.

But the mission faces huge logistical difficulties; scenes of chaos at Kabul’s airport, and prospective evacuees dispersed in hiding. Joe Biden said on Thursday that US troops may stay beyond 31 August to assist with evacuations, but Britain has concerns that US forces may pull out of Kabul international airport within days, putting it at risk of closure and raising concerns about airlifts.

“The situation on the ground is incredibly difficult. People are struggling to get to Kabul airport,” prime minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday. “We need to be prepared for how hard this mission will be.”

From Kabul, Ali speaks on an often-broken phone line, and says the area he is in now “is totally controlled by the Taliban. There are Taliban checkpoints everywhere, the Taliban patrols are moving from one area to another … You cannot see women and girls going out … I can’t go outside because of the fact that there are reports that the Taliban are searching, searching for those who have helped coalition forces to kill them.”

Ali worked with New Zealand forces in Bamiyan, where New Zealand’s Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) was tasked with maintaining security. He worked in an unpaid capacity as an interpreter at the Kiwi base, and as a gate assistant. He provided the Guardian with multiple documents to prove his work with New Zealand and allied occupying forces. A New Zealander who served in Afghanistan also verified Ali’s story to the Guardian, and that New Zealand forces had used his services.

“I have worked with them shoulder to shoulder, shohna ba shohna. My message to the New Zealand people is: I stood with you. I volunteered for service. I stood for your democracy. I stood for your programs, social programs, economic programs, security programs, the whole mission there – and now, I need to be taken care of.”

Ali says he was glad to hear that New Zealand would evacuate Afghan people who had worked with coalition forces. But so far, he has had no confirmation from the New Zealand government, despite making contact with Immigration New Zealand and other government bodies multiple times over the past year and in recent weeks.

Ali, who has previously spoken publicly about his plight, believes that he will be killed if he is discovered. On Tuesday, during their first press conference since taking power, the Taliban said they were not seeking “revenge” on opponents and that everyone will be “forgiven”. But there have been reports from around the country of door-to-door searches.

“It doesn’t matter … for the Taliban, that you have worked for a day, or for 10 years. The thing is that you have engaged with [occupying forces]. The thing is that you have worked with them. The thing is that you have been seen in the base. The people have recognised you – all the villagers know that you’re working there,” he says.

On Tuesday, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the rescue mission “will literally come down to what is possible and when”.

The prime minister said her priority was “to get both our New Zealanders out of Afghanistan, but also those whose lives have, frankly, been (put) at risk because they supported New Zealand while we were in Afghanistan. And that’s our focus at the moment.”

The New Zealand government is also facing pressure to open seats on its plane to refugees and human rights workers who could be at risk. Canada and the UK have announced they will resettle 20,000 Afghan refugees each. Australia is dedicating 3,000 spots under its humanitarian visa program to Afghan nationals – although that is a carveout within their existing refugee quota, not an additional cohort. But New Zealand has not said it will take in any more Afghans seeking asylum, beyond the small number that worked directly with, or for, New Zealand forces.

New Zealand’s intake of refugees has fallen dramatically over the past two years: while the government is committed to taking 1,500 refugees per year, last financial year it took just 263, citing the Covid-19 pandemic. New Zealand also takes refugees’ families via a reunification quota – about 300 a year, about a third of whom are typically from Afghanistan. Last year, that category was stopped completely – meaning hundreds of family members of refugees in New Zealand have remained stranded.

“New Zealand has always fallen really short on the world stage when it comes to our refugee quota,” says Green party MP and refugee spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman. The party has been advocating for the government to increase the number of refugees it is taking – and to give empty seats on its plane to those seeking asylum, even if they are not direct government employees.

“This is a moment where we actually can save lives – save particularly vulnerable women from not just oppression but potentially torture and sexual slavery. New Zealand does have a responsibility, especially because logistically, we are going there,” Ghahraman said. “Every seat should be filled on those flights.”

Many New Zealand refugees are of the Hazara ethnic minority, who have been subject to violence and persecution, including mass killings, at the hands of the Taliban in the past. Amin Vakili, an Afghan New Zealander, says he is afraid for Hazaras, women, journalists, human rights workers and civil servants.

“For torture and killing, they are [the] first target,” he says. “The first target is those people who choose civil society. They are innocent people (who) just used their freedom of speech, they used their ability to write an article, they showed their beliefs.”

Marianne Elliott, a New Zealander who worked in Afghanistan for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and United Nations, says many human rights workers, particularly women, are at risk. New Zealand’s support for education and human rights programs had encouraged Afghans to put themselves at risk by staffing them, she says. Now, New Zealand must act fast if it wants to help them leave.

“Right now, the Taliban want the international community to perceive them as some sort of semi-legitimate national authority,” Elliott said. “They are saying, ‘we will not prevent people from leaving’. That window will close.” (The Guardian)