A British dad stuck in Afghanistan has cried out as he is being forced to choose between abandoning his children or remaining in danger.
The Bradford father was left bleeding and terrified after a horror knife attack during an attempted kidnapping in Kabul this month.
He claims thugs attacked him because of his UK citizenship and he’s now in fear for his life, hiding along with his wife and two young children.
The man’s whole family was included in an evacuation list in August but the dad has since been told that he alone is eligible for evacuation.
His wife and two children are Afghans, though his children may be entitled to British citizenship.
Speaking of the UK Government, the father said: “They don’t care about us. How can they do this to their own citizens?
“They are supposed to help their citizens, not leave them to their deaths.”
Since the Taliban came to power, Brits remaining in Afghanistan face extreme danger.
Recalling how he was attacked in Kabul earlier this month, the British father said: “I was going to the pharmacy to get insulin because I am diabetic.
“On the way back from the pharmacy, a car stopped and three people came out.
They grabbed my hand. They had weapons with them and their faces were covered.
“They had knives. They were kidnapping me. I don’t know who they were because I couldn’t recognise them.
“They had the same dress as the Taliban.
“It wasn’t a random attack. It was organised because I am British.”The father has been attacked in “multiple incidents” and even had his driving licence taken off him because it has a British flag on it.
He’s now unable to even go outside for fear of further violence.
The victim was born in Afghanistan but moved to the UK as a teenager in the mid-2000s with his family – he has since become a British citizen.
In 2014, he married an Afghan woman, with whom he has a four-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son.
But his wife hasn’t been able to get a UK visa, leaving her and their two children to live in Afghanistan.
Imran Hussain, the Labour MP for Bradford East, has been attempting to help the attacked father, who is his constituent, for months.
Hussain said: “I’ve been dealing with this case since the fall of Kabul in August, and I’ve raised it repeatedly at the highest levels of Government, including with the Prime Minister in Parliament, as well as with the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary and the Defence Secretary.
“However, no Minister has provided me with any real, meaningful response, even as my constituent’s life and the life of his family are in danger.
“Despite being a British national, the Government have abandoned him in Afghanistan and placed his young wife and children in harm’s way by ejecting them from Kabul Airport into dangerous streets where a horrific suicide attack took place just hours before.
“If this was not bad enough, they now refuse to allow his family to join him on flights out of the country, forcing him to choose between taking a flight and deserting his family, or remaining in Afghanistan.
“Given the very real danger that my constituent and his family are now in, with threats against his life and the life of his family, the Government and the Foreign Secretary must treat this case seriously, and urgently work to ensure that he is allowed safe passage back to the UK or to a third country alongside his family, before it is too late.”
