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ABC News
ABC News
National
Eric Tlozek

Calls to urgently save former ADF interpreters on the run from the Taliban in Afghanistan

This letter from the Taliban to an Afghan father highlights the new danger facing the families of people who worked with Australian forces in Afghanistan.

"Your sons worked as interpreters with the infidels, the Australian forces and many of our Mujahideen [Taliban fighters] have been martyred due to their spying, so our Islamic Emirate has decided to take its revenge," it said.

"Hand them over to us so that they can face their Sharia Law punishment."

The threat is not just to the former interpreters and other ADF staff, called "Locally Engaged Employees" or "LEEs" by the Australian government, it is to their parents and extended family.

"If you disobey, then your death is lawful too," the letter states.

"We paid a visit to your house yesterday so that we can restrain and take these spies from you, but there was no one in your house."

"You are informed as a last warning that these two persons should be handed over to the Islamic Emirate and if not surrendered, then you will be responsible for any action taken against you by the Mujahideen."

It is the latest evidence that Afghans who worked for Coalition forces during their long occupation of Afghanistan are now being targeted by the Taliban.

Many more people at risk

"They're running to save their lives every day," former ADF interpreter Raz Mohammad, who lives in Australia and advocates for remaining ADF staff, said.

"They have to change their residential address every two weeks, maximum four weeks."

Other interpreters and families managed to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover but remain stranded in third countries, like Pakistan.

They said their lives are not much easier.

"We are facing security threats a lot," one told the ABC via WhatsApp.

"We have received death threats and there are threats from every side for us. This is because we have worked shoulder by shoulder with the Australian Defence Force."

Former Australian soldier and federal Labor candidate at the last election Jason Scanes, who served in Afghanistan with local staff, said the new government had done more to help interpreters and their families reach safety, but that many people were at increased risk. 

"We have seen a number of interpreters arriving here in Australia, we've seen families reunited, but now we need to focus on those interpreters and extended family that may be remaining in Afghanistan," Mr Scanes said. 

The ABC understands that 219,000 Afghans have applied for protection visas in Australia and there is a huge backlog of visa processing.

The government has granted visas to 8,600 Afghans since July last year, a month before the Taliban took Kabul and resumed control of the country. 

In a statement, the government said it was prioritising former ADF staff and immediate family members who had made it out of Afghanistan, because it was too difficult to help people still inside. 

"The government is prioritising former LEEs and their immediate family members in recognition of the unique and exceptional contribution made by these individuals and their families," the statement said.

"Given the processing and operational challenges for persons inside Afghanistan, priority within the refugee pathway will be given to refugees who are located outside their home country and are referred to Australia for resettlement by UNHCR."

'They don't have time to wait months'

Raz Mohammad urged the government to do more to help people leave Afghanistan.

"We need that right now, because people's lives are at risk there, they don't have time to wait months or years," he said.

Jason Scanes said more action was needed to get those affected to Australia.

"There's a number of people left behind that don't have passports, so they can't leave safely to cross a border into let's say Pakistan or somewhere like that," he said. 

"What I would like to see is that the government looks at the LEE visa program and they make sure that it is adaptable, that it is responsible to the needs of those Afghan interpreters … and that we discharge our moral obligation to those individuals for the service that they gave to our diggers overseas."

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