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PLEASE HELP US Canadian embassy security worker pleads for help as Taliban move in

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    • Bureaucracy over fingerprint appointments keep family off Canadian evacuation flights as Kabul crumbles

    Author of the article:

    Bryan Passifiume

    Publishing date:

    Aug 15, 2021  â€¢  3 minutes ago  â€¢  3 minute read  â€¢  16 Comments Security ID issued to Ahmad Ferdaws Rahimi, former security watch commander at Canada's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan Security ID issued to Ahmad Ferdaws Rahimi, former security watch commander at Canada's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan Photo by Supplied Article content

    Canadian bureaucracy is standing between desperate Afghani embassy workers and our country’s collapsing promise to ensure their safety.

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    And things are getting desperate.

    Ahmad Ferdaws Rahimi spent years as a watch commander with the contracted security forces at the Canadian embassy in Kabul.

    He was also a member of the strategic advisory team for Operation Argus â€" the Canadian contingent that served as key advisors to Afghanistan’s now-fallen government.

    And now, with the Taliban marching back into the Afghani capital, he’s a marked man.

    “I’ve been threatened and targeted two times, but fortunately I survived,” Rahimi told me on Sunday.

    “During the past week, I haven’t slept.”

    An RCAF C-17 Globemaster on the ground at Kabul Airport on Aug. 14 2021. An RCAF C-17 Globemaster on the ground at Kabul Airport on Aug. 14 2021. Photo by Ahmad Ferdaws Rahimi photo

    At the same time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood on the manicured lawns at Rideau Hall announcing the dissolution of parliament in an attempt to secure a majority in the House of Commons, Rahimi told me his family is being prevented from boarding any of the evacuation flights because Canadian officials insist they first make arrangements to be officially fingerprinted.

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    “We are impatiently waiting to get email from IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) to schedule biometrics,” he said.

    Panic in Kabul reached a fever pitch on Saturday as advancing Taliban forces captured opposition stronghold Mazar-e-Sharif, just 400 km northeast.

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    Taliban fighters then made a beeline towards Kabul, holding on the city’s outskirts before advancing Sunday evening Afghanistan time, with residents and reporters reporting armed insurgents walking the streets.

    Journalists across Canada, including those here at the Toronto Sun, are being inundated with desperately heartbreaking pleas for help from the scores of Afghani interpreters, embassy staff and others who put their lives on the line to help our 14-year effort to liberate their country.

    Ahmad Ferdaws Rahimi with his five children in happier times in Kabul, Afghanistan Ahmad Ferdaws Rahimi with his five children in happier times in Kabul, Afghanistan Photo by Submitted

    And while Rahani awaits an email from officials to schedule his fingerprinting appointment, he watches in terror as Canadian aircraft depart Kabul’s airport without him.

    “If the Canadian representatives stop me at the airport, I can’t get back to the city as there is fierce fighting,” he told me Sunday morning.

    “They will not permit us to board any plane unless we get an official email.”

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    This is the scene on the tarmac at Kabul airport right now.

    Those making the dangerous journey to the airport are being met with chaos. Absolutely nobody in control, and thousands milling about, desperate to leave.

    Canadian troops are also mixed in with the crowd, I'm told pic.twitter.com/S5eUu7QmGh

    â€" 𝘽𝙧𝙮𝙖𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙪𝙢𝙚 (@BryanPassifiume) August 15, 2021

    Rahimi probably knows better than most how dire the situation is in his country.

    He also spent a year working security at the German embassy, and spent a large portion of his career in aviation security, both at Kabul’s airport and as security manager for Kam Air, Afghanistan’s largest private airline.

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    Constant threats, warnings and attempts on his life proves that Rahimi is clearly on the Taliban’s hit list.

    Stopping to buy some food on his way home from work in 2019, armed gunmen made their move.

    “I was about to get out of my car when I saw a dark Mercedes-Benz arrive, very quickly,” he said.

    “Someone had a pistol in his hand before pointing it at me, I jumped behind the car and they fired at my car before fleeing the area.”

    Police and forensics experts investigated but the gunmen were never found.

    “Anti-government extremists know exactly about our backgrounds,” he said.

    As the sun set in Kabul on Sunday, Rahimi and his family â€" part of growing throngs of interpreters and Canadian embassy workers massed at Kabul’s airport â€" grow more desperate.

    “Please, please help,” he messaged me.

    “Please, somehow help.”

    bpassifiume@postmedia.com
    On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume

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