Siblings stuck in Kabul chaos
A Sydney cabinet-maker and his 23-year-old sister are trapped in the chaos of Kabul.
A Sydney cabinet-maker who raced to Afghanistan three months ago when his parents contracted Covid-19 is now trapped with his 23-year-old sister in the chaos of Kabul.
Abas (not his real name), who has lived in Australia for three years and has an Australian passport, promised his parents before they died of the disease he would save his sister from the Taliban.
“Within a week his mum and dad both passed away and now his sister is in his care. His mum’s dying wish was not to leave his sister behind,” his distraught wife told The Australian.
She said her husband’s sister was on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s evacuation list and had a letter from Australian officials to get her through the airport gate. But Afghans patrolling outside the airport for the Americans refused to let them through.
“He received an email from DFAT, and a phone call, telling him to go to the north gate of the airport,” she said. “But at the gate when he showed his passport to an Afghan security guard there, they said to him, ‘Your passport is fake’.”
The pair have tried many times to approach the airport gates, without success, as tens of thousands of Afghans try to escape.
The northern beaches woman said her 32-year-old husband was close to breaking point.
“By the time he gets to the airport the crowd is already built up. And everyone comes in together. They are stepping on children, women, men,” she said.
“Last time, on Saturday, he was literally 50 metres away from the north gate.
“We called DFAT saying, “This is where he is, this is what he is wearing. Can someone please go and tell the Americans and Americans tell the Afghan guards in charge to take them out of the crowd. But no, nothing.
“Then the gate closed for 48 hours. I said, “Please don’t give up, go to the south gate’.
“His sister has been stopped for not having the right documents.
“She doesn’t have an Australian passport, she just has an Afghan passport and an email from DFAT.”
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