Help save my friend’s family from Taliban
Dubliner’s desperate plea as time runs out for visas
A DUBLIN man who is in hiding from the Taliban with an Afghan family has said it is as if the Irish government has left them to die.
Richie Hedderman said he has been met with ‘complete radio silence’ from Minister Roderic O’Gorman, who is in charge of issuing visas, and the Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney.
Mr Hedderman, who runs a gym in Dublin, tried to help his friend, Helay Sultan, escape the Taliban along with her parents and four siblings.
Ms Sultan, who worked as a teacher and a woman’s rights activist with NGO Capacity for
Afghanistan, received a death threat from the Taliban a couple of weeks before the fall of Kabul.
Mr Hedderman said the Taliban have also attempted to kill her father, who was a university professor, by putting a bomb under his car, and have issued a death threat letter to her brother, who worked with the Afghan government.
Ms Sultan kept working until Kabul fell in August. The family ‘emptied out their life savings’ and went to hide at a friend’s house. ‘From that moment on, they didn’t go outside, they sent their friends to get food, to get medicine. They essentially had heightened fear in their friend’s house,’ Mr Hedderman said.
He then started working on getting visas for Pakistan for the family, which were cleared after three weeks. They also managed to secure a letter of invitation from the Pakistani embassy to cross the border.
He said an effort was then made to ensure the family could get through Taliban checkpoints, where a list of people the Taliban wanted to kill or arrest would be present.
‘People who were threatened were on that list, so we’re nearly certain that their names were on it,’ he said.
‘This was during a particularly scary time because the Taliban had recently released a decree that any woman over the age of 20, who was not married, would be forcibly married to a Taliban fighter – and Helay is 20, so that was fairly terrifying.’
The family crossed the border to Pakistan on October 2, where they met Mr Hedderman.
‘The home was raided only a few hours after they crossed the border. A neighbour texted them to let them know that a few hours after they’d met me, the Taliban kicked in their door and essentially went looking for them, so they are clearly high enough priority targets for the Taliban to send in a search party specifically looking for them.’
Mr Hedderman has been setting up the family in apartments and trying to support them in Pakistan, but there is concern over their Pakistani visas which will run out on November 2.
‘They’re nervous and they’re still quite scared, essentially, now with a higher profile from being in Irish media and now having lost everything – like their home has been given away to another family – they are as good as dead if they get sent back.
‘In fact, they’re also in great danger if I leave them here and that’s why I can’t bring myself to just leave them there and head back home.’
Mr Hedderman has been given the support of at least eight TDs and three councillors from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, the Green Party and Labour.
Of the Government, Mr Hedderman said: ‘At this point, there is political support within their own party, I just don’t get it, especially considering an Irish citizen is in danger as well.
‘I really don’t understand what is taking them so long to essentially save eight lives.’
Sinn Féin spokesman on Foreign
‘As good as dead if they get sent back’ ‘Every delay has implications’
Affairs John Brady TD, said: ‘I am calling directly upon the Taoiseach to use his influence to intervene in this matter immediately, to bring Richie, and the Sultan family to Ireland as soon as possible. Every moment of delay has potentially serious implications for the safety of Richie and Helay’s family.’
The Department of Equality and the Department of Foreign Affairs have been contacted by the Irish Daily Mail for comment.