Key Points:
- Australia evacuated hundreds of former staff from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.
- But many are left behind and in fear of their lives under the new Taliban rulers.
- Some have fled the border to Pakistan in a desperate attempt to seek safety from Australia.
Adam* feels time is running out for him.
Some days, the Afghan man pleads for help at the gate of the compound that houses the Australian High Commission in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad - for someone inside to just hear his story.
He wants to tell them how he worked for Australian forces for several years at a military base in Kabul.
How he was encouraged by an Australian soldier to apply for asylum, but then the Australian Defence Force (ADF) rejected his application.
How he’s been in hiding and running for his life since the takeover of his country by the Taliban - who’ve long considered people like Adam ‘traitors’ for supporting foreign forces on Afghan soil.
But the guard outside the compound tells him he has to get an appointment. And though he’s tried, Adam can never find a way in.
Adam marking Christmas at Camp Qargha in Kabul, 2019. Credit: Supplied
Adam says he’s on edge every day. His visa is about to expire and he fears the police in Islamabad will capture him and send him back to Afghanistan - and potentially, into the hands of the Taliban.
“They rounded up a few other guys who were nearby the other day and I ran away,” he said in Dari.
“It’s very bad. I’ve lost my life as I knew it.”
And he says it’s all because he worked for Australian forces.
'The Australian soldiers were kind people'
Adam says he loved working at the military base in Kabul, called Camp Qargha.
He was a support staff member, cleaning and doing other jobs between 2013 to 2021.
He celebrated Christmas with the Australian soldiers stationed there in 2018, donning a Santa hat and posing next to a cake wishing all a Merry Christmas.
“They were kind people and good guys,” Adam said of his Australian ‘mates’.
“I liked the soldiers I worked (with) in Afghanistan.”
'You are not at risk'
But working at the military base carried risks. The Taliban militant group which had long opposed the “invasion” of Afghanistan by Coalition forces were routinely carrying out deadly attacks before they took over the country in August 2021.
As , others who worked at the base would receive threatening letters from the group for their work.
In 2017, an Australian soldier, fearing for Adam's life, encouraged him to apply for a special visa for locally engaged employees of Australia’s mission in Afghanistan, called the LEE visa.
“He is required to undergo body scans and pass through four check points,” a character reference provided by an Australian soldier, seen by SBS News, reads.
“Each check point has had significant incidents over the past 12 months that has included multiple fatal casualties.”
Adam with a soldier in Kabul, Afghanistan. Credit: Supplied.
“The Australian Minister for Defence … has decided that you are not eligible under this visa policy as you were not assessed as being at significant individual risk of harm as a result of your support to the Australian mission in Afghanistan due to your role, location, period of employment and currency of employment,” the email dated July 2020, seen by SBS News, reads.
When the Taliban rolled into Kabul after taking district by district in August 2021, Adam tried - and failed - to get on an Australian evacuation flight, before Australia finally left Afghanistan and ended its longest war.
Desperate, Adam then emailed the Department of Defence once again to seek help. In response, the Department told him to instead apply for a spot in the humanitarian visa program because he wasn’t eligible under the LEE visa policy.
He is now in a line with more than 200,000 other people from Afghanistan who’ve applied for the same visa.
An email Adam says he was sent by the Department of Defence after the Taliban took over Afghanistan.
He can’t risk returning to Afghanistan, where he’s been forced to leave family behind.
“My neighbours understand I worked with Australian soldiers. The Taliban search house to house,” he said.
“One of my (interpreter) friends in Kandahar province, he did an interview with Sky (News) London.
“They killed this guy,” Adam said, referring to the Taliban.
Adam isn’t the only one who worked for Australia who is now left behind.
While Australia successfully evacuated hundreds in the past year, some advocates estimate there remains around 600, including family members.
"There's still a lot of people left behind. And that's the really sad part of the story,” Jason Scanes, a former Army captain who is an advocate for Afghan interpreters through the Forsaken Fighters group, told SBS News.
Mr Scanes, who ran for the Labor Party in the Queensland seat of Hinkler in 2022, said there had been a “decade of neglect” on the LEE visa program.
“That has really left a lot of people vulnerable and remaining in Afghanistan with little access to services and facilities to try and get them out," he said.
He said the previous Coalition government should have acted sooner to get former interpreters and key staff out.
The Albanese government has launched an independent review of the LEE visa, looking into how decisions were made, and the appeals process.
When asked about the case of Adam, and that of other allies left behind, a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Morrison government “failed to apply the legislative instrument consistently and in accordance with its original intent”.
“The Albanese government is committed to helping those who helped Australia in our military and diplomatic operations in Afghanistan, over 20 years,” the spokesperson told SBS News in a statement.
“Afghan staff deserve safety and protection, and this should not be undermined by narrow legalism.”
But others are critical of the government.
GAP Veteran & Legal Services has been providing legal advice and helping bring hundreds of former interpreters and other Afghan staffers to Australia since before the fall of Kabul. It says behind the scenes, there’s a different scenario playing out.
“In the same week that Minister Wong announced the LEE review, saying, we ‘owe them a moral obligation’, the … staff in her Department mass-rejected a group of wheat and grain experts who worked on AusAID/DFAT projects in Afghanistan,” a GAP spokesperson said.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the ‘moral obligation’ rhetoric does not translate into action. Minister Wong rolled out the same rhetoric in opposition in order to attack the former government."
When asked about Adam’s case, the Department of Home Affairs said it could not comment on individual cases for their safety.
“The government is committed to assisting Afghans who supported Australia’s mission in Afghanistan and is extending all available effort to finalising certifications and visa applications for Afghan Locally Engaged Employee (LEE),” it said.
“The government continues to work to ensure each case is considered and those at risk of harm who meet visa requirements are resettled to Australia as soon as possible.”
*Names have been changed for safety purposes.
