New Delhi: Afghans such as Wasim Khan (name changed) who have worked with the United Nations (UN) in Afghanistan for years claim the world body has failed to protect local personnel and has instead prioritised evacuation of international staff since the Taliban’s takeover of the country last week.
Speaking to ThePrint on a WhatsApp call, 37 year-old Wasim, who has worked with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Afghanistan for almost ten years, said: “Before the Taliban entered Kabul, there was 100 international staff in the city. Now, there are barely any. All national staff has been left behind and despite talking to senior UN officials, there is no concrete plan to get us out. The UN is hibernating.”
The UN started moving some of its international staff out of Afghanistan to Kazakhstan. The UN has about 300 international staff and 3,000 national staff in Afghanistan.
Khan said he had appealed to the UN Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan, Dr Ramez Alakbarov, for help, to which Dr Alakbarov said national staff would be evacuated “after the US evacuation”. The US has so far moved 7,000 people out of Kabul.
Khan fears help for him will come too late. He claimed he was successful in securing a Turkey-bound visa for his spouse and child and had a confirmed flight for 19 August but three days earlier, the Taliban entered Kabul and the situation at Hamid Karzai International Airport had been chaotic.
“Kabul airport is now the most dangerous place on Earth,” he said.
In an email to ThePrint, Liam McDowall, Chief of Strategic Communications at UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said: “The UN places the highest priority on the safety and security of all its personnel. In the immediate period ahead, the UN will continue taking additional measures and approaches to safeguard its personnel.”
Former UN officials, such as Heather Barr, currently the interim co-director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, claimed they are receiving messages from local personnel “desperately pleading” for help to escape Afghanistan.
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The organisation meanwhile reiterated its commitment towards delivering assistance to the Afghan people during their “hour of need” and communicated this on social media with the hashtag — #StayAndDeliver.
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Changing addresses to dodge door-to-door searches
Over the past few days, reports have emerged that the Taliban have been conducting “door-to-door searches” of several embassies, including the Indian embassy, and are targetting those who worked for NATO forces or the previous Afghan government.
PassBlue, an independent news site covering the US-UN relationship, published a report Friday on how national staff felt “alone” and “petrified”.
Khan, like many other local UN personnel who fear they are targets, have been changing their address to dodge searches.
Abdul Hakim (name changed), 35, an employee of the UNDP since 2013 and an alum of Pune’s Sinhgad Institute of Management, told ThePrint he has changed his address three times this week already. “I’ve been advised not to stay in one place at the same time. Luckily, I have a trusted taxi driver who takes me and my family to my father or cousin’s house. Rotating is risky but what else am I to do?”
Hakim claims he has been regularly attending Zoom meetings with senior officials who have communicated that the UN is in touch with other countries to get visas for their Afghan staff. He said in frustration: “This is not a matter of meetings, it’s a matter of urgent action. Look at other embassies and other international organisations like the World Bank — they immediately evacuated all staff”.
On Friday, the World Bank Group’s Kabul-based staff and their immediate families were safely evacuated to Islamabad. Other organisations like GIZ Afghanistan and CARE International also initiated the immediate evacuation of all staff.
“We [UN] are supposed to protect human rights of all and now we are leaving our own to fend for themselves. Shame on the UN and its leadership,” Arora Akanksha, Indo-Canadian UN auditor who ran for the body’s Secretary-General post earlier this year, told ThePrint.
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Not in a position to work
Despite the UN issuing a ‘Stay and Deliver’ order in Afghanistan, it appears national staff are low on morale, anxious, depressed, and continue to face a humanitarian crisis of their own.
Asked if the UN has ramped up security for remaining staff in Afghanistan to carry out their work, McDowall said in an email to ThePrint that “extensive security measures” are in place to safeguard colleagues.
Hakim explained that employees of UN bodies such as UNDP and UNAMA, which worked on “riskier projects” with regard to Afghan police, elections, and governance, are likely to be top targets for the Taliban but are yet to receive additional protection or compensation.
McDowall claimed: “Thousands of Afghan colleagues and their families were, over the course of recent weeks, relocated out of harm’s way to areas away from conflict”.
Bashir Navid (name changed), 35, who has been serving in the Operations Department of the UNDP in Afghanistan for more than ten years, countered this by saying that when the Taliban initially took over provinces like Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif, national staff were relocated to Kabul.
“Since Kabul fell, there has been no guarantee about the safety and security of national staff. They took us out of the rain and now we are facing the flood,” he said, adding that national staff is being “discriminated”.
While acknowledging that there are policies and procedures that prioritise evacuation of international staff, Navid said there should be a contingency plan for national staff too.
(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)
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