Embassy worker fleeing Taliban feels 'betrayed' as UK government 'left his children behind'

Ahmad - not his real name - who worked for the British for more than a decade until the Taliban takeover in 2021 is begging ministers for urgent help to allow his children to reunite with him and the rest of his family in the UK

A British embassy security guard who fled Afghanistan said he feels “betrayed” by the UK Government after his oldest children were left behind and forced into hiding from the Taliban.

Ahmad - not his real name - who worked for the British for more than a decade until the Taliban takeover in 2021 is begging ministers for urgent help to allow his children to reunite with him and the rest of his family in the UK or to “hand him up” in return for their safety.

Speaking under condition of anonymity to protect his son and daughter who are feared to be Taliban targets in danger of being killed, he told how they have no money, cannot work and are forced to move to new hiding places every few months. They were reported to authorities by neighbours who viewed Ahmad as a “spy” working for the British, he said.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “Now I feel I’ve made a mistake to stand beside the British Government and support them when I see my children suffering.” Breaking down in tears, the father-of-four added: “I can’t go to sleep thinking what is going to happen to my children by the time I wake up, what news I will get.

“I beg the British Government to bring my kids and reunite me with my kids. And also, I beg them, if they cannot do that, hand me back to the Taliban for the sake of my kids.”

Ahmad was invited by the British Government to evacuate with all his children and wife when the Taliban regained control in August 2021 but missed the flight following a bomb explosion at Kabul airport. Instead, they had to send documents under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), designed to help those who assisted the UK efforts in Afghanistan to legally come to safety in the UK.

Ahmad, his wife and two younger children were approved under the scheme, but the two older children were refused because of their age, he said. Under ACRS, spouses and dependent children under 18 are eligible for resettlement, and additional family members in exceptional circumstances.

Immigration adviser Indre Lechtimiakyte-Abercrombie, from migrant support charity Samphire who is helping the family with their case, said they were given no help when they first applied in Afghanistan, and did not understand they had to provide more than birth certificates for their oldest children to show “exceptional dependency”.

“The people who worked for the British Government were left to their own devices to navigate the complexities of the ACRS,” she said. Ahmad said he tried to challenge the refusal for months, but his oldest children convinced him to go as his life was in danger, telling him to leave them behind in the hope he can get them to re-join the family. Ahmad added: “I have never been able to stay away for a second from my children, and now I find this very difficult, heartbreaking.

“Each time my children call me, they say: ‘Dad, please save us and get us out as soon as you can’. I’ve been trying, knocking on so many doors, to try to get help and make the British Government understand my situation. My children rely on me... and so far, no-one has given a hope.”

It follows on from several years of separation and fear, as the family split up to hide from the Taliban for a year in “hell” inside the country, before the majority were able to get to Pakistan to wait for their relocation to the UK in 2023. Now living in Kent, the family cut back on food and other expenses to send money home to support their children in hiding.

Ms Lechtimiakyte-Abercrombie said the family face restrictive and “extremely expensive” visa routes that can take more than a year to process and do not normally recognise parent and adult family relationships as sufficient. (The siblings) do not have this time as they are being actively pursued by the Taliban. The longer they wait, the more likely that (the son) will be executed and (the daughter) will be turned into a Taliban wife,” she said.

Ms Lechtimiakyte-Abercrombie urged the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to exercise discretion and grant the siblings leave to enter, or for the ACRS application process to be amended. A Home Office spokesman said: “It is long-standing government policy that we do not routinely comment on individual cases.”