When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, Western countries evacuated their citizens and local staff from Kabul.
Finland also evacuated personnel from Afghanistan, but left behind about 45 security personnel who were guarding the Finnish embassy in the Afghan capital.
Eel has caught up Nasir*, one of the guards who worked at the Finnish mission in Kabul. He fled to Islamabad shortly after the Taliban took over.
Yile did not reveal the security guard’s name or face in this article due to safety concerns.
Pakistani authorities ultimately deported Nasir in 2022 because he did not have a visa.
More than 200 former Afghan soldiers and officials have been extrajudicially killed since August 2021, despite the general amnesty the Taliban announced shortly after taking power, according to a UN report.
Nasir and his family then returned to Kabul and eventually found work with an international organization. However, the family’s previous home had been occupied by the Taliban during their absence.
safety concerns
Nasir said he is lucky in many ways compared to other former guards who are still unemployed.
During the meeting with Eel, he gathered together 11 former security guards who worked at the Finnish embassy in Kabul.
Security at the Finnish mission was managed by a Finnish company called FRF, which subcontracted the work to a local company, Tahiri Protection Risk Management Consulting.
The men said the security team consisted of 18 people and that no one had evacuated to Finland. Some of them fled to neighboring Iran.
At the same time, security personnel protecting embassy staff, their families, and people in leadership positions were also evacuated. He said these were people the Foreign Office considered to have been working in a “visible role”.
Finland evacuated a total of 83 people, including families, in these “visible roles”.
Guards said it was difficult to understand why the Finnish government left them behind.
“What’s the difference between us and those who were evacuated?” one of the guards asked.
Nasir and other security personnel were on the front line guarding the perimeter of the embassy’s gates. Their work was dangerous, as suicide bombers often detonated themselves at the first checkpoint.
This happened in May 2017, when terrorists detonated a water tanker loaded with explosives near the Finnish embassy, completely destroying the German embassy building. Among the more than 150 victims was an Afghan security guard at the German embassy.
Former guards said they felt abandoned and betrayed by both their employers and Finland.
Taliban supporters do not look favorably on those who have worked for the West.
“That’s why we can’t get jobs from the state. We are enemies of this regime.” Ilya* Said.
The guards claim they were previously forced to submit biometric data to the former Afghan interior ministry. Sensitive data may now be in the hands of the Taliban.
The guards are still alive but say they don’t feel safe.
“My brother went to get his passport. When ministry officials found his name in the biometric data, they said he was working for foreigners,” he said. Hakim* He worked with his brother at Tahiri Protection Risk Management Consulting.
Hakeem said his brother was severely beaten and jailed for several weeks.
Eel has seen photos of the injured man at the hospital, but has not been able to confirm the cause of his injuries. After the incident, the man fled to Iran.
“The Taliban don’t care what kind of employment relationship we have with the Finnish embassy or how visible our position is,” Ilyas explained.
Finland remains silent
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it has not conducted any follow-up investigation of the security guards who worked at the Kabul mission. Veikko Kirjunenhead of MFA’s South Asia unit.
He said that both Afghans who had taken refuge in Finland and those who had not, were in contact with the ministry.
“I am aware that various incidents have been reported, but I cannot comment on individual incidents,” he said, adding that he considers the possibility of arrests and assaults extremely unfortunate and regrettable. added.
Guards said Finland had evacuated their Afghan employers. Aziz Tahiriwho posted a photo from Helsinki Airport on Facebook.
The guards’ contracts with Tahiri remained until the end of 2021, but the guards said they did not receive all the compensation they were entitled to.
Nasir said Tahiri still owed him $2,400.
Eel contacted Tahiri on her Finnish phone number, but she did not want to comment. He said he had forwarded the matter to FRF, a Finnish company that had subcontracted security services to Mr Tahiri.
FRF did not respond to Ale’s inquiries.
Meanwhile, MFA’s Kirjunen said the ministry pays all salary claims and cannot comment on matters with external companies.
Nasir said that in recent days neither Tahiri nor Finnish FRF officials have responded to his calls or messages.
“We would like to go to Finland or at least receive our unpaid salaries,” he said.
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