Afghan contractors: ‘I wish I’d never worked for the UK government’

While the group announced a general amnesty for everyone who worked for the previous regime and its allies, there is mounting evidence of reprisal killings. The UN has documented 160 cases.

Nooria has been in hiding since the Taliban seized power in August last year.

“It’s really stressful. It’s worse than a prisoner’s life. We cannot walk about freely. We try to change our appearance when we go outside. It’s affected me mentally. Sometimes I feel like it’s the end of the world,” she said.

She accuses the British Council of discriminating between its staff.

“They relocated those who worked in the office, but left us behind. They didn’t even tell us about the Afghan Relocation Assistance Policy (ARAP) when it came out.”

Nooria and the other teachers have now applied for relocation through another UK scheme called Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), but have so far only received reference numbers.

The British Council says that when the ARAP scheme first opened, the UK government only considered applications from employees which included their office staff but not the teachers and other contractors.

They also say they have been pushing for progress with the UK government.

The UK Foreign Office has said that British Council contractors are eligible for relocation under the ACRS scheme, and that it’s trying to process applications quickly but there’s no answer on how long that could take.

“It’s only if a contractor dies that I think they might take prompt action. And then they might feel that, yes, they are at risk. Now let’s do something. I think sooner or later, this is going to happen,” Ammar said.

Some of the teachers are from the Hazara ethnic minority, who have been persecuted by the Taliban, and have repeatedly been attacked by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group. There have been three explosions in Hazara-dominated areas of Kabul in just the past 10 days.

But the path to safety is even more uncertain for those who worked with the UK government in some other roles.

Jaffer worked as a senior adviser facilitating the implementation of UK government-backed development projects in Afghanistan.

He was directly employed by British companies – some founded by the UK government, others given contracts by it. He also worked in similar roles for the US government, including at bases of the US military.

Even prior to 2021, Jaffer had received threats from the Taliban, during a wave of killings carried out by the group that targeted prominent Afghan civil society members.

He showed us one of the notes he received, which accused him of being a spy for foreign governments and threatened that he would be killed for his “betrayal of the Islamic faith”.

Since August last year, Jaffer has moved location seven times.

He showed us a summons letter sent to his family home earlier this year, from the Taliban’s interior ministry asking him to go to a police station for investigation. He’s received three such letters.

“I’ve been in hospital because of stress and shock. I can’t sleep. The doctor has given me strong medicines but even those don’t help much. My wife is also suffering from depression. I don’t let my children go to school. I fear they might be recognised,” he said.

Jaffer has been refused a special immigrant visa (SIV) from the US, because he’s unable to get a recommendation letter from his supervisor who died due to Covid-19.

During the chaotic evacuation which followed the Taliban’s unexpectedly quick takeover of Afghanistan, Jaffer had been called to the airport by a UK official. Along with his young children and his wife, he sat in a bus outside the airport for six hours.

“My son was feeling sick, but we couldn’t even open the windows of the bus, because people outside, desperate to get out would try to enter. The Taliban were firing in the air. My son saw that and he was so traumatised.”