Afghan interpreter finally granted UK asylum, but his family still hiding in Kabul

“The people at Kabul airport, yes they are desperate, and they don’t want to live under the Taliban, but their lives are not in imminent danger,” says Mohammed Nabi Wardak, an ex-interpreter for the British Army who served alongside soldiers in Helmand.

The Independent has been following his story as events unfolded in Afghanistan, and he is stuck in Athens. After multiple attempts to be accepted for asylum by the British Ministry of Defence, Wardak tries to safely get his wife and four children out of Afghanistan.

“My family, because I worked for the British and Canadian armies, they are in danger,” he says, stating that the Taliban are as vengeful as they ever were. He fled in 2015 after multiple attempts on his life by the Taliban, paying a smuggler to get him into Iran and then on through Turkey and into Greece, where he has been homeless for three years.

“Do not believe all these things they say to the media about not seeking revenge on interpreters. Three interpreters were killed yesterday and left on the side of the muddy road to die. They have not changed,” says Wardak of the current situation in Afghanistan.

Fearing his wife and young children will be used by the Taliban as bait to lure him back after he fled the country because of attempts on his life, he has tasked his brother, who flew from Turkey, to hide them in Kabul.

“They’re already doing the revenge killings. What will happen to my wife when they find her? You don’t even want to think about what they do to women like her who are married to men like me, men who fought against them.”

After five years in limbo, pleading with the MoD to grant his family and himself asylum in the UK, his request was finally accepted last week, in an email from the British Embassy in Kabul.

Upon reading the email which asked that his family present themselves in Kabul for a ‘biometric appointment’, he sent his brother to collect them from Taleqan city and accompany them on the eight-hour journey to Kabul.

Taleqan City fell to the Taliban 13 hours later. One week after that, Kabul was also no longer safe. The biometric appointment at the British Embassy never materialised.

“It’s an incredibly tough situation. My wife now, according to Taliban law, cannot go out alone, and when my brother leaves them and goes back to his studies in Turkey, they will be without anyone,” says Wardak.

The family of five is currently in hiding, living in a two by three-metre room with another family of eight waiting to hear news of a way out.

At the same time, Wardak spends his days in Athens walking in 45-degree heat between the Canadian and British embassies, pleading to those whom he helped fight the Taliban, hoping that they might now help him.

“All of a sudden, the MoD and the SOS for Defence are all over the media talking about Afghan translators. I have tried for three years to raise the case of Mohammed Nabi Wardak with them and campaigned endlessly for this man’s case to be heard and his family and him to be allowed to settle in the UK,” says Fiyaz Mughal OBE FCMI, founder of the charity Faith Matters.

People continue to make their way to the airport in Kabul in the hope that they might leave, but Wardak fears that these civilians might take precedence over the families of ex interpreters like himself, purely because they have presented themselves at the airport.

“There are no flights for civilians - only people working for the embassies and military - but they are all still going and trying to get out. Will my children be forgotten? Has everything I did for the British army been forgotten?”

He has not received any more communication from the Ministry of Defence on how to get his children and wife out of Kabul, despite them being eligible for asylum and each holding passports.

“Nabi gave years of his life at the frontlines with our soldiers in Helmand. He was threatened by the Taliban, fled Afghanistan and has been homeless ever since,” says Mughal.

“He has not seen his family for nearly six years. Where were the MoD and the Secretary of State when I was raising this case, as many others have on other cases? The fact is that the Resettlement scheme was not fit for purpose and excluded thousands of Afghans who worked for us. Look at where we are now, a complete shambles with Nabi’s family stuck in Afghanistan.”

Following the announcement that the UK government will take Afghan refugees without a passport, provided they have been accepted on the relevant asylum scheme, Wardak will attempt to fly to the UK as soon as possible, but it is his family that he wants to see board a plane in the coming days.