TAXI DRIVER TRAVAILS
GLASGOW TAXI DRIVER AND HIS YOUNG FAMILY STRANDED AFTER FLEEING TALIBAN
A Glasgow taxi driver is stuck abroad after fleeing Afghanistan with his wife and five children amid fear of the Taliban imposing a brutal regime. Jan Mohammad Ahmadzai, 42, has lived and worked in Scotland for 16 years and was visiting his pregnant wife and family when the coup took place.
STV News reports that with his British passport, the father- of-five tried to get them all safely evacuated during the Operation Pitting rescue mission but they did not make it. While they joined crowds around Kabul Airport they were caught up in the terrifying suicide bomb that killed at 95 people and wounded 150 others.
“We were just inches away,” he told STV News, “We just got saved because of a big heavy crowd, it was like a human shield. We had tears in our eyes, we couldn’t breathe for a few minutes. We had to run away that’s why we left out bags. They nearly killed my kids, my children.”
His wife Wakeela had only given birth to their youngest child just days before the bombing. Mr Ahmadzai said she and their children Wajid, 11, Yousaf, 10, Leena, seven, Sammi, five, and newborn Ishaq, were unable to sleep for days after the attack.
The bags they lost contained their passports and other documents. Despite putting up notices appealing for them to be found they were never recovered. The cab driver is desperate to get them safely to Glasgow via the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme.
He told STV News about the crowds at the Baron Hotel next to Kabul Airport and how dangerous it would have been to take his kids among them and after the bombing they were too scared to return. Then when British and American troops pulled out of the country after the final evacuation flight left, the dad became terrified that his family would be targeted by the Taliban as a “foreign family”.
He wants his daughter Leena to have the same education as his sons. “I want her future to be bright,” he said. Thousands of Afghans have fled their homes amid fears the Taliban will again impose a brutal government, all but eliminating women’s rights and conducting public executions.
The family went into hiding as he said the Taliban began searching phones looking for foreign emails and contact from the British Foreign Office. The family could not leave
DECEMBER 2021
the country legally without the necessary documents but finally Mr Ahmadzai was able to arrange an illegal crossing into Pakistan where they made contact with friends.
Since then he has been trying to get help from the UK Gov- ernment to return with his family to Scotland. “I cannot leave my family in a strange country where they don’t have any status,” he said, “I cannot send them back into Afghanistan because they are known as a foreigner family.”
A British journalist has set up a fundraiser to help relieve the financial strain Mr Ahmadzai is facing having run into debt as he struggles to feed his children while still paying for his Scotstoun flat, bills and car in Glasgow. If he fails to pay then he said all of his belongings will be disposed of and he will be homeless in the UK before he even arrives. A spokesperson for Glasgow Housing Association said: “We’ve been in regular contact with Mr Ahmadzai and will continue to do all we can to support him and his family through this difficult situation.”
Luke Pierce reports from in conflict zones around the world and when he saw he could help he knew he had to. “Jan’s was one of the families we were trying to assist, the problem is he had a seven-day-old baby during Operation Pitting so actually getting to the airport for him was really dangerous”, he said.
“We’ve been trying to work out ways of getting him out. As far as we know he’s had very little assistance from the British Government. “His family were on the evacuation list to be taken out.”
You can donate to the fundraiser here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/british-family-stuck-in- afghanistan?qid=028fb0c5a17d4351c3ebc9696241a354
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