A former Canadian military interpreter has been arrested by the Afghan Taliban, CBC News has learned.
“One morning I went there [gym] With my father,” said Bashir Ahmad Azizi’s son, Bashir Ahmad Azizi. He worked as an interpreter for the CAF until at least 2007, when Canadian troops were stationed at Kandahar Airfield, along with other Western coalition forces.
According to Azizi, while his father was taking a break, Taliban gunmen showed up and handcuffed him.
The son fled to a nearby diner and waited 15 minutes to make sure they were gone before emerging, he told CBC News through an interpreter. That was over a week ago.
The family was in hiding for two years.
He said his father didn’t like to talk much about his military service, but was always proud of his military service.
The family has been in hiding for two years since they were unable to board a flight leaving Kabul in August 2021, when NATO forces fled following the Taliban’s occupation of Afghanistan.
This is also the second misfortune the Azizi family has faced in the last month.
Azizi’s son-in-law, Sanaullah Azizi, and his pregnant wife had arrived in neighboring Pakistan several months ago to stay in a safe location pending final approval from Canadian immigration officials.
But they were forcibly returned by police in Islamabad as the country ramped up mass deportations of illegal Afghan migrants in November.
featured videosPakistan has begun rounding up and detaining illegal foreigners in a nationwide crackdown primarily affecting Afghans who have been in the country for decades. Many Afghans say there is no way to return to Afghanistan and that they fear living under Taliban rule.
Sanaullah Azizi also said through an interpreter: “We are very cautious. We will never go outside.”
He told CBC News that he wrote a memo to the Canadian embassy in Abu Dhabi, which oversees some of the immigration process for Afghan immigrants, to alert staff to the Taliban’s abduction of Bashir Ahmad Azizi. showed.
He received a response from the embassy, which simply noted that his application was still being processed. I would like to thank you for your continued patience.”
No one has heard from Bashir Ahmad Azizi since he was taken away by the Taliban.
His son Bashir, the eldest of five children, said he decided not to tell his youngest son, who is only 10, what happened to his father.
“My dad just told me he was out on business,” he said.
“It could happen to anyone,” says the immigrant.
News that the interpreter was taken by the Taliban resonated among other Afghans waiting to enter Canada, including those who managed to stay in Islamabad to avoid police who are still rounding up migrants. I’m calling.
“It could happen to anyone,” said Mohammad Younas Nasimi, a former CAF military contractor who has been waiting for more than two years to see if he and his family will be approved to visit Canada.
featured videosThe Canadian government is warning would-be Afghan immigrants to Canada who are waiting for their applications to be approved in Pakistan to remain in the country and contact them if they are detained. Pakistan has ordered all undocumented Afghan immigrants to leave the country by November 1 under threat of deportation or arrest.
“Each of us faces the same threat here, because even now, if you are caught by the police in Pakistan, you will be deported and you will have to go back to Afghanistan and face the consequences.”
Some observers believe that one way for Canada to help people like Azizi is to discuss Afghanistan’s financial needs with the Taliban through diplomatic channels in exchange for human rights guarantees.
Nipa Banerjee is a resident expert at the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa and a former Canadian diplomat based in Kabul.
“Removal of sanctions [by western countries such as Canada] That’s one thing that can be done,” she said as an example of a gesture the Canadian government could offer.
What else Ottawa can do, she says, is “offer options for women’s rights programs.”
featured videosAfghan women say hope for the future is fading as the Taliban mark two years since they took over the country and imposed ever stricter Islamic laws and codes of conduct on the population. .
Some Afghans still arrive from Pakistan
The Canadian government has a special representative for Afghanistan, David Sproul, based in Doha, Qatar, who works with the de facto Afghan Taliban government.
Documents obtained by CBC News through a freedom of information request last year show he met with the Taliban more than a dozen times and wrote to colleagues urging the regime to provide safe passage for Afghans wishing to leave Afghanistan. was.
However, when contacted for comment on this story, the Canadian government did not make him or any other minister in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet available for interviews.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a statement that it sympathizes with the plight of Afghans at risk but cannot comment on individual cases.
He also did not say how many former Canadian government or military personnel are currently being held by the Taliban or what the general procedures are for dealing with such matters.
The department said it will continue to communicate with customers about the changing situation. “We treat each case with great urgency,” the ministry said, adding that “we are offering a range of options for our deported clients,” including arranging travel to Canada where possible. We are considering it.”
Since November 1, six charter flights carrying Afghans have arrived in Canada from Pakistan.
