Aid organizations struggle with UK rules for evacuating Afghan workers

Afghan development workers are in hiding and scared for their lives as the Taliban begin hunting them down, according to messages received by Devex, while their former employers say the U.K. government is still not doing enough to help them.

NGOs, companies, and even private citizens are trying to raise the cases of at-risk former colleagues and contacts in Afghanistan hoping to evacuate, even as the situation at Kabul’s international airport becomes increasingly chaotic, with thousands of people attempting to enter in hopes of getting on a flight. It is not known how long the airport, controlled by soldiers from the United Kingdom and United States, will remain operational, and Taliban fighters are reportedly hindering access.

Some of those trying to help say the U.K. government’s efforts have been uncoordinated and need to improve, while echoing criticisms of the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy — or ARAP — reported by Devex earlier this week.

“Me and my family [have hidden] ourselves and cannot move out. … I myself [have] received a direct threat from Taliban who called me and told me to ‘count down moments to your death. You are infidel and ... an agent of foreign occupation in Afghanistan,’” said a man who was subcontracted to work on a long-running U.K.-funded technical assistance project at an Afghan government ministry.

As with many other cases, the man said his status as a contractor meant he was not eligible to apply for ARAP. The company he worked for is lobbying the government to expand eligibility for its staff, the man said. He urged the government to “include people like us as well, as we have faithfully and honestly served on DFID [Department for International Development] project.”

The company that employed him, which Devex is not naming for security reasons, declined to comment in detail but said it was taking the situation “extremely seriously,” adding that “we’re doing as much as we can.”

The man’s family was instructed by the Taliban to tell him to report to a location in Kabul on Saturday. “I know that if [I] go there, I will be killed. I know my fate and won’t risk it,” he told Devex. “Although they have given assurance that no one will be harmed, it’s a complete lie. They have started collecting information and asking people to appear before their local leadership.”

An additional person, who worked as a gender specialist and is also in hiding, wrote to Devex asking for help, saying her emails had been ignored. “We all are in shock,” she wrote.

Many similar cases have been heard by people and organizations that worked in Afghanistan, as well as the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, according to inquiries made by Devex. Some officials within FCDO are said to be eager to evacuate at-risk Afghan development workers and have collected case studies of some of those stranded, but they are reportedly trying to work within a seemingly overwhelmed system and lack managerial support.

Laure-Hélène Piron, who worked as a DFID team leader in Kabul from 2010 to 2011, had hired many Afghan staff members — who now want to leave the country or get their relatives out. “People are going to be killed because they worked with us, for us, or came to our receptions,” she said. The Afghans she is in contact with say they believe the U.K. has an obligation to them, she added.

Piron is trying to help 10 families as a private citizen, but “there’s no coordinated system I can interact with,” she told Devex. In addition to contractors who worked for the U.K. government “not being helped,” Piron described “different layers of [high-risk] individuals” who were not directly employed or subcontracted to the U.K. government. These included “Afghans who visibly collaborated with the U.K. effort,” such as legal officials paid through the aid budget.

“No one knowing what’s going on, no updates are being provided. I think the FCDO are completely overwhelmed in the U.K.,” said Piron. “I’m also aware of embassy staff on the ARAP scheme not being evacuated.”

A U.K. government spokesperson said, “We have already supported over 3,300 former Afghan staff and their families to start new lives in the U.K.” They added that close to 2,000 individuals and their families had been resettled in the last five months and said the relocation scheme had been “significantly expanded and accelerated.”

“Those who were dismissed for serious offenses, including those that constitute a crime in the U.K. or threatened the safety and security of British troops, will continue to be excluded,” the spokesperson said.

“The help that's being provided to them [Afghans] is not consolidated and in a form that helps them,” said Richard Brittan, managing director at Alcis Holdings Ltd., a mapping company that worked extensively in Afghanistan. Those with poor English-language skills faced a particular challenge, he said.

He said at least 50 Afghans of various development backgrounds had contacted him for help and voiced frustration at the limited information available online about visa schemes, as well as the government resettlement schemes more broadly.

Brittan said he was advising some “really close” contacts “not to bother applying [to] ARAP,” as they “will not succeed.” He added that even exceptional cases sponsored by government teams were being rejected. Unless the ARAP conditions change for Afghan applicants, “if you are not directly employed by the embassy as locally engaged … you will not get accepted,” he said.