Afghans hunted by Taliban to send message to relatives in Australia

Two Afghan men were beaten and tortured because their brother, who now lives in Sydney, worked as an interpreter for Australians. He fears for their lives and the lives of those left behind with the Taliban.

The brothers of a Sydney man who escaped the Taliban have been beaten and tortured because he worked as an interpreter for Australian soldiers.

In devastating and all too common scenes, innocent Afghans are being hunted by the Taliban to send a message to their relatives who have fled to safety.

Sydney based Mohammad Naine Saidy is grateful for his chance at freedom but frantic after seeing the pictures of his two injured brothers.

“I am in a very bad situation. They want to kill me, so they want to kill my brothers,” Mohammad told The Saturday Telegraph.

“Three days ago they captured my two brothers and take them and punish them, bruised them. Crushed them with a car on the street. They are punished because the Taliban want some information from them ‘where is your brother where did he go, your family is in Australia’.

“I thought they were dead but my cousin sent photos to show ‘look they have survived’. They are dizzy from the pain, my cousins carried them from hospital now they hide in a room with one of my cousins it’s not safe.”

The brothers of Afghan interpreter Mohammad Naine Saidy was beaten by the Taliban.

The Taliban was trying to find out where interpreter Mohammad Naine Saidy fled to.

They were tortured after they were mowed down in the streets by the Taliban.

Prior to the fall of Kabul the Australian government evacuated 4100 Afghans to safety by RAAF aircraft. The scenes were as disturbing as they were chaotic.

Thousands more Afghans were not evacuated and many have been in hiding ever since.

Desperate to avoid the label ‘infidel’ they move from house to house, district to district and, where able, province to province to avoid detection.

“We have been absolutely inundated with desperate appeals from these families who are witnessing the abduction of their loved ones. Some are taken in broad daylight and never seen again,” says lawyer Glenn Kolomeitz.

“Despite the Taliban’s constant articulations that it is deserving of a seat at the United Nations table, the persecution continues against those who assisted the Australian government’s aid and development sector in Afghanistan.”

Mohammad Naine Saidy (right) worked as an interpreter for Australians in Afghanistan.

Every day his team at GAP Legal Services grows more anxious for the Australian 449 visa holders abandoned by the Australian Government, as Taliban reprisals take hold.

“Hundreds of Afghans who qualified for and were issued Australian Humanitarian visas have been left to a fate worse than death as brutal beatings are inflicted on them for their previous service to Australian government funded projects,” Mr Kolomeitz said.

In December the GAP team lodged an urgent appeal to the Australian Government in a “very detailed and compelling evidence-based report”.

Dr Kay Danes OAM, who works with Mr Kolomeitz as a human rights adviser, said the report validated the strong connection between several former DFAT-Funded project workers and our government, those who now face persecution as a result of that connection.

“Among them, 30 vulnerable women and girls,” Dr Danes said.

“I don’t know how much longer we can keep them from being found.”

Lawyer Glenn Kolomeitz. Picture: Owen Hammond/APAC Sport Media

Dr Kay Danes OAM, pictured in Afghanistan, is working pro bono.

Dr Danes and Mr Kolomeitz have been working pro bono and so far helped 3500 people flee to safety.

“Every day there’s a new message or an email,” Dr Danes said.

“The trouble is we don’t have the resources to help everyone. What I wouldn’t give for some billionaire to make an offer to fund some of this work, or our government to broker a deal with Qatar to get our people on a plane to safety.”

Foreign celebrities have more recently organised charter planes to take the “elite” on special flights out of Afghanistan. The Taliban has also assisted in those evacuations.

Mr Kolomeitz says it’s lucky for those who have the means and the status to generate that sort of good will.

“We’ve been fortunate to get a few of our Afghan judges on those flights too but it’s a different story for an Australian Embassy cleaner or driver. Their status doesn’t have the same bargaining power.”

Most of the people we are helping who remain behind have expired Australian 449 visas.

“It took us so much effort to get the Government to issue those visas and now they’re completely worthless,” Dr Danes said.

“I can’t even express how frustrating this all is.”

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