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Told he was cleared to travel with his family to the UK, he was also one of the numerous left behind as the promised help from the FCDO failed to materialise.
A Panjshiri intelligencer, Fahim (not his real name) has not slept in the same house for further two nights in a row since the Taliban preemption four months agone, fearful for his life.
Leslie Knott, a talkie film-maker who has been trying to help Fahim leave Afghanistan, told the Guardian what happed.
“ On 18 August (in the midst of the evacuation extremity), I was asked for names of intelligencers who had worked with British news agencies so they could be included on a overload for evacuation.
“ (Fahim), his woman and nine children were included on this list that was submitted to the FCDO. He snappily entered news that he was cleared by the FCDO and that he should pack his bags, keep his phone charged and be prepared to leave at any moment.
Fahim takes up the story. After original contact by dispatch with UK officers at the morning of the evacuation extremity, he says he has heard nothing.
“ They asked about me. Living in Kabul. What my problems were. It was a long time agone now. They were in touch two months agone. Since also I ’ve heard nothing. I tried several times to communicate them.”
Knott said what was most “ heart- wrenching” was the knowledge that Fahim and his family were induced by their connections with the FCDO that they would be leaving. They indeed called her to ask how they should best prepare to leave.
“ He wanted to know how important food they should bring for the children and how to secure their house. They were in the mindset they were leaving, so it was devastatingly disappointing.”
For numerous others who had worked nearly with the west and western organisations, it was a analogous story. Told they were cleared to travel, they say they didn’t hear back from UK officers either with collaboration details for reaching the field and evacuation breakouts, or latterly after the last breakouts had gone.
And while some managed to make their way to Pakistan and leave that way, numerous others have remained trapped in Afghanistan.
Another Afghan intelligencer, who like Fahim had been cleared to leave for the UK with his family, transferred a communication, seen by the Guardian, after the last British flight had left, saying simply they had been left before and asking for help.
