Afghan interpreters for ADF enjoy freedom after fleeing Taliban for NSW

He had to fake his own death to flee the clutches of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now an interpreter for the Australian Defence Force has finally been reunited with his family now living in NSW.

Afghan interpreter Sayed was able to stay out of the Taliban’s clutches by faking his own death – the family put him on a list of killed people while he recovered from his ordeal in a Canadian military hospital.

His “death” kept him hidden from Taliban notice for five years.

Brothers Sayed, Ahmad and Hassan and their cousin Khalid all worked as interpreters for the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan, subjecting their family to constant attack and threats.

While Hassan and Khalid were able to escape to Australia years previously, Ahmad and Sayed made the desperate journey to Kabul airport with the thousands of Afghans desperate to flee on Australian and US evacuation flights when the terrorist organisation seized power in August this year.

They and their families were held back by the crowds and had to turn around and hide in a safe house, desperate for the Australian government to hear their pleas. But now the families have been able to finally reunite in NSW.

Former Afghan interpreters who worked alongside the ADF with their children in NSW. Picture: Owen Hammond/APAC Sport Media

Former Afghan interpreters for the ADF can at last enjoy freedom in NSW and their kids are flourishing. Picture: Owen Hammond/APAC Sport Media

Their names have been changed for their own protection, and those of relatives still in Afghanistan. Sayed still wears the physical scars of his service to the Australian Defence Force.

“My brother, he was going from home to work but before he got to the base the Taliban they were waiting in the road,” his older brother Hassan said.

Sayed was shot multiple times by the Taliban, his heavily scarred arms and torso a brutal reminder of the years of cruelty. His brother said he still suffers memory loss and nightmares as a result of his ordeal.

The youngest brother, Ahmad, was targeted by the Taliban as a child for his older brothers’ and cousins’ links to Australia – culminating in a terrifying kidnapping when he was just seven years old.

Despite moving houses every three months and staying indoors as much as possible, he was still snatched by the Taliban. Older brother Hassan said it was by stroke of luck Ahmad wasn’t murdered.

“I received a call saying ‘Listen to me, I have your brother, you need to come to me otherwise you won’t have a chance to save your brother’,” Hassan said.

The police told him to waste the kidnappers’ time on the phone as much as possible while the town was searched, but it was Hassan's quick thinking that saved his brother.

“When I was talking to them on the phone I could hear the helicopters, they told me they are in the countryside but I could hear the helicopter, I could see it,” he said.

“This is the same helicopter noise when talking to this guy … that is the way we were lucky, if we had got there 10 minutes later they would have died.”

Ahmad and a cousin were drugged and tied up during the kidnapping.

“It was very hard to see my mum and her face, but we got them out alive so we again changed the house,” Hassan said.

Cousin Khalid, who has been living in Australia but was forced to leave behind his brothers and mother, said Australians don’t understand the true risk Afghans took to help Australian soldiers.

“Working as an interpreter is a huge risk, the Taliban said we were the infidel … we put our family life at huge risk because of our work for the ADF,” he said.

Glenn Kolomeitz is a lawyer representing dozens of people in Afghanistan who worked alongside Australians. Picture: Owen Hammond/APAC Sport Media

As a young boy Khalid watched as his father was dragged from home and executed by the Taliban for refusing to join them.

“Especially myself, I worked from 2006 to 2014 and in that time my family were receiving calls and letters from the Taliban and had to relocate every three months,” he said.

“If someone targets an interpreter they receive $10,000 to $15,000 … you couldn’t trust anybody.”

While the family has been able to reunite and watch their children flourish in Australia, their hearts are breaking for the remaining family in Afghanistan who remain at extreme risk of being killed.

“Because of the stress that I have, my hair is going, no sleep at all and every hour I called my family to make sure they are alive and safe,” Khalid said.

“My brain is back there and my body is here … our kids, they are in school here but their brain’s are in Afghanistan.”

Lawyer and veterans advocate Glenn Kolomeitz said the interpreters’ remaining family had been threatened by the Taliban when they found out they had escaped.

“We need to get them out … they are living in safe houses away from their homes because its not safe and the threat hasn't gone away,” he said.

“Afghan families are big and very close, it was amazing seeing the bulk of the family now reunited but at the same time speaking to the matriarch of the family, she still has a child and grandchildren in Afghanistan.”

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