insiderblmThousands of people are said to be waiting to board flights at Kabul’s international airport, just over a week after the Taliban seized the capital.
UK troops are continuing to evacuate British nationals and eligible Afghans. Here are the stories of some of those who have made it to the UK.
‘They are going to kill you’
Peymana Assad, 30, came to the UK when she was three years old. Now 30, she is a Labour councillor in Harrow, north-west London. She was visiting family in Kabul when the Taliban takeover began.
When Ms Assad received a call from the British embassy telling her she would be evacuated, she made straight for the airport. But with the roads blocked, she found herself running there on a traffic-jammed dual carriageway.
“From the back street, I saw hundreds and hundreds of people just running and walking towards the airport. People are getting out of the cars and running towards the airport,” she said.
“All the shopkeepers have come out to watch the panic and the chaos and the fear of everyone running towards the airport. And one of them, as I was running, pointed at me and he said: ‘You – if the Taliban catch you they are going to kill you. You better start running faster’.
Ms Assad found the UK meeting point – but was told she was too late. Officials had already been there and left.
“I just stood in the street – I had 3% battery and I looked at my battery and I thought if my phone dies and I’m standing here and the embassy aren’t here, then what’s going to happen? And the Taliban are literally advancing on to this area, I need to get somewhere safe – I need to go inside,” she said.
A local family took her in and let her charge her phone – which she used to call the Foreign Office and her MP in London, Gareth Thomas.
“The family were very kind, they put me in their car and they took me to the safe location point again and when I arrived there again I saw the British military were there,” said Ms Assad.
“And the moment I saw them and they saw me I just felt so much safer… and kind of sighed relief that I was safe at that point.”
