‘I served you, but you don’t care’: Afghan interpreter stuck in putrid ditch begs for UK’s help
Hundreds of would-be refugees are queuing in a rancid moat filled with human waste, hoping soldiers will lift them into the airport
By Suddaf Chaudry IN KABUL ; Nick Allen ; Max Stephens and Ben Farmer IN ISLAMABAD |Telegraph
Knee-deep in an open sewage drain outside Kabul airport, the former British Army interpreter’s hopes of rescue were quickly vanishing.
Like hundreds of would-be refugees he, his wife and six children, were stuck queuing in a putrid ditch some 500 metres away from an airport entrance.
Their only hope was that soldiers standing on a nearby perimeter wall would pluck them out from the desperate hordes and take them to a new life.
Having worked with the British in Helmand in 2006 and 2007, the man never imagined he would be treated this way – left, literally in the gutter, to face the retribution of the Taliban.
“I love the UK, I love the UK people,” he told The Telegraph in despair. “If they hear my sound, please take me, please evacuate me. I was your interpreter, I helped you, I served for you, but you don’t care for me.
“I have just one message, please evacuate me, please take me, please pick me up from this place.”
Around him human faeces and all manner of unspeakable filth spilled past. His children, all under 15, vomited and struggled to breathe amid the unbearable stench. The family’s last money had been spent on a tent for shelter, and there was just one small cake left to divide between the hungry children.
Crowds of people wait outside the airport in Kabul |CREDIT: Reuters
The Telegraph is not naming the interpreter because he is being hunted by the Taliban. His identity was confirmed by a British major who served alongside him.
In recent days his 11-month old child was treated in hospital for severe diarrhoea and dehydration.
His wife said the family should flee to another part of Afghanistan because the British “didn’t care,” but the interpreter had faith the UK would come through for him.
“I had a dispute with my wife,” he said. “She told me ‘We cannot stay more in Kabul, the UK doesn’t care about you, they don’t care about your children’.”
At the airport they found throngs of people in front of them.
“I have been to the pilgrimage once, in Mecca, there were not crowds like this,” the interpreter said. “Our situation is not good, so very bad and it is getting worse. This morning they (the Taliban) were shooting and firing close to the airport.”
He and his wife were sick with fever. Other desperate refugees were defecating and urinating nearby and dirty nappies floated past in the black, noxious sludge.
US and British soldiers were standing on a wall running next to part of the drain but had run out of water, even for children, as they baked in heat.
British troops have 48 hours to continue their evacuation efforts and get civilians out of Afghanistan, the former chief of defence staff has warned |CREDIT: Planetpix/Alamy Live News
Those in the rancid moat clutched their precious documents – including passports and visas – over their heads. Letting them get wet could cost their life. Fatigue was etched on their faces.
Amid the chaos the soldiers sometimes pulled a lucky person, deemed to have the right document, over the wall.
One man put his elderly mother in a wheelbarrow to keep her out of the sewage. Another held a sign over his head in English. It read: “WE ARE GERMAN CITIZENS.”
Children looked dazed and held pieces of cardboard over their heads to protect them from the sun as they waded through detritus.
There were reports a Ugandan woman had managed to crawl through a sewage pipe to get inside the airport.
Many desperately phoned or sent WhatsApp messages to contacts in Western countries asking for help to help get them out.
The effort was being called a “Digital Dunkirk” or “Dunkirk by WhatsApp”.
There were long queues where the British Army was processing people, and a senior British source warned there was a “very high risk of a terrorist attack” against the evacuation operation.
British officials were most concerned about the terror group Isis-K detonating a suicide bomb followed by a small arms fire attack at the airport.
Soldiers set up barriers around the British evacuation handling centre to protect against a car bomb or individual suicide bomber.
Italian soldiers assist refugees waiting to be cleared for evacuation CREDIT: Planetpix/Alamy Live News
Hundreds of former guards at the Australian Embassy, and their families, queued in the sewage canal for hours before being told by soldiers on the wall they did not have the right visas.
One guard said: “The situation is unbelievable. People are jumping, falling off walls, there’s shootings.”
An Australian government spokesman said the airport opening near the drain was a side access point, not a gate, and it was telling its citizens not to go there.
Elsewhere, as thousands continued to descend on the airport two young girls were reportedly refused entry when their parents were let in.
Pointing at the girls an Afghan man said: “Mr Biden, you did this! You planned this. You made the deal with the Taliban. This is the consequences of it. Mr Biden you were against Trump now we are against you.”
Another man, Najibullah Alizadeh, posted a video of blood pouring from his own head. He said: “They [the Taliban] hit me. I am Australian citizen.”
Then, an armed man could be seen trying to grab his phone and a gunshot rang out.
At the main Abbey gate entrance to the airport members of one of the Taliban’s elite “red units” were on guard, wearing military fatigues and pushing back anyone who did not hold the necessary paperwork, enforcing the leadership’s decision to no longer let Afghans leave the country.
Refugees sat on the ground surrounded by rubbish and leaned in dejection against meal containers under the searing sun.
From inside the airport they could hear the constant roar of military transport plane engines taking off several times an hour.
A US marine escorts a child to his family at Hamid Karzai International Airport CREDIT: Alamy Live News
One young boy, who asked not to be named, told The Telegraph: “It is difficult, we don’t know when the wait will be over, and if the gate will open. Do you know?”
At the east gate left-over luggage lay strewn on the road and rags of clothes dangled from barbed wire atop the wall.
James Glancy, a former Royal Marine trying to get out former interpreters, said only 33 of his evacuation list of 135 had made it.
He said: “The chaos at the airport and the diminishing timeline are making this an horrendous task to get them all out.”
Andrew Fox, a former paratrooper, added: “I’ve been helping a chap on the refugee scheme. He’s been called forward to the airport and has been touching the gate for 24 hours.
“His name hasn’t been called by the ‘local security’ as they’re taking bribes. Those who pay, get in. It’s not an option for this guy. It’s appalling.”