Nearly a thousand former AECID workers and their families are still in the emirate and are finding it difficult to leave the country due to the enormous economic costs
Mir Fakhruddin walks briskly on, still holding the phone. A year has passed since the Taliban came to power, but this former employee of the Spanish Agency for Cooperation and Development (AECID), between 2009 and 2012, does not trust it and leaves the house as little as possible. After the anniversary of what Islamists call the “liberation” of Kabul, no one in the capital forgets the chaotic scenes that took place at the international airport.
Fakhruddin had everything ready to leave for Spain with his family on August 26, but that was the day of the brutal attack by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group that killed at least 170 people, including 13 US Marines. . not achieve their goal. They returned home and until four months later they received no message from Spain. They were informed by email that there were changes to the evacuation system and that the departures would be managed from Islamabad or Tehran, where they would first have to arrange an interview at the respective embassies, not from Kabul.
Last week, a plane landed in Torrejón carrying 294 Afghans from the Pakistani capital, some 80 of whom were collaborating with the defense and foreign ministries. According to the latter’s data, 2,900 Afghans have already found refuge since the first flight left Kabul on August 15, 2021. To them should be added those who managed to travel on their own. In Afghanistan there are said to be between 800 and 1,000 people, former AECID employees and relatives, and there are also employees with ties to Defense.
Fakhruddin, 60, keeps on his phone all the documents sent from Madrid proving he is a former employee with the option of lodging with his wife and eight children. “In total there are ten of us and according to the new Spanish instructions the only way out is if we travel to Iran or Pakistan, which is currently not feasible for many families like mine because it means a fortune. ” regrets the former AECID employee .
The only way to get a passport in the emirate is on the black market and it doesn’t go below 2,000 euros, the Iranian or Pakistani visa is around 1,000 euros and you have to add up the travel and accommodation costs in Tehran or Islamabad . Families like Fakhruddin’s survive on the savings they had and are running out of money as prices have skyrocketed in a country facing an unprecedented humanitarian and economic crisis. “No one should be left behind and I hope Spain will help us, but time is passing and they are no longer responding to our messages,” says the engineer. In these 12 months, he has not received any direct threats, “but I know my life is in danger because I worked for a foreign country, so I want to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible.”
Iran and Pakistan are now the gates for the Afghans who collaborated with Spain to escape the emirate. “The biggest drawback is the high economic cost to families, which has caused some to give up and resign themselves to life under the Taliban,” said Ignacio Álvaro Benito, a former AECID worker in Afghanistan who has been involved in supporting the entire campaign. local staff who worked for the agency. “The Iranian route is the most effective for now. Besides chartering planes to Islamabad, it would be more practical to provide more resources to the embassy in Tehran to help refugees pay for their stay in Iran and tickets,” said lvaro. Of the 294 Afghans evacuated to Spain last week, two families belonged to AECID employees.
“What Spain has done in Afghanistan is unprecedented and we must recognize the dedication and great effort to accommodate all these Afghans, but the government should be more transparent in reporting which groups are being evacuated and pay more attention to those who were evacuated.” direct collaborators, who gave the best of themselves in a complicated context and took a huge personal risk working side by side with Spain,” says Álvaro. People like Fakhruddin, who are glued to the phone, waiting for a message or a redemptive call from Madrid.
Source: La Verdad
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