Fate of Afghans who helped Aussie cause grim: Aid worker reveals

Queenslander Kay Danes has witnessed the brutality and uncertainty of the Taliban first-hand, now she is working to save hundreds of lives from the war-torn country.

A Queensland humanitarian and her Army veteran husband are fighting to save dozens of Afghans who helped Australians, from execution at the hands of the Taliban.

Wynnum resident Kay Danes witnessed the brutality and uncertainty of the Taliban first-hand when she travelled to Afghanistan on a humanitarian mission in 2008.

At the same time her husband Kerry was on the other side of the war-torn country on duty with the Australian Defence Force.

The Danes, using contacts within the Australian Embassy and from during their time in the country, have provided the Federal Government with a list of security guards, interpreters and contractors who worked for Australia and were now attempting to flee Afghanistan.

“Those lives are 196 individuals and their families who provided direct, unbroken employment service to the Australian embassy in Kabul.

“They provided mission-essential services to keep our embassy safe, to keep our diplomats safe and do other things which were necessary.

“They were good enough to do the job for our embassy when it suited our government, but they’re now not good enough to be rescued – it doesn’t make sense.”

Australian Defence Force personnel unload luggage from a Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster following an evacuation operation from Kabul, Afghanistan.

She said the list of 196 names had been collated within three weeks, with all having already gone through the strictest security vetting to work for the Australian Defence Force and declared “bureaucratic delays” were putting their lives at risk.

“The threat is real, these people have been told what will happen to them,” she said.

“It will be graphic.

“People are afraid, they’re terrified – they know what the Taliban will do..”

Dr Danes, nominated for Australian of the Year in 2013 for her social justice and humanitarian work, said the Taliban leaders’ promotion of peace was in contrast to what is happening on the streets with soldiers travelling door-to-door hunting journalists and dissidents.

“Once they shut down the media and get rid of the diplomats that’s when they’ll do what they want,” she said.

Humanitarian and former political prisoner Kay Danes. Picture: Renae Droop

The Federal Government has been criticised for the slow evacuation of diplomatic staff and those who helped the Australian cause in Afghanistan.

In 2008 Dr Danes travelled across the ravaged country in a humanitarian mission, coming face to face with the men who would easily overrun the government 13 years later.

“It was quite terrifying because there are 50 shades of grey with the Taliban,” she said.

“It was at a critical time, in the fighting season when tensions were at their highest.

“There are fundamentalist ones then there were ones who were young men who just had tragic situations that forced them into fighting for the Taliban because they were angry.”

She recalls one man whose bride-to-be was killed by allied bombing while getting dressed on the day of their wedding.

“We were just lucky I think on the day we got the more moderate Taliban as opposed to the guys who were going up against our ADF,” she said.

Despite the danger, Dr Danes said she fell in love with Afghanistan and its people.

She disagrees the window of opportunity has closed, declaring it was “not too late” for the government to evacuate people.