I won’t leave family stranded in Pakistan
Glasgow cabbie fights to save wife and kids
A SCOTS cabbie who was left stranded in Pakistan after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban can return to the UK but would need to leave his wife and young children behind.
Jan Mohammed Ahmadzai won’t leave without his family and is desperately waiting for the UK Government to get them out.
The 42-year-old has lived and worked in Glasgow for 16 years and was visiting his wife and children in Kabul, where they live, when the city fell to the Taliban in August last year.
In November we told how the family had been authorised to get on a British evacuation flight, but outbreaks of violence made it too unsafe for them to get to the airport.
Instead, they fled to Pakistan. Jan has a British passport, but he has been forced to delay his homecoming as he is terrified to leave his family in danger. Wife Wakeela and children Wajid, 11, Yousaf, 10, Leena, seven, Sammi, five, and baby Ishaq do not have British passports as they remained in Afghanistan while
Jan worked in the UK. The family have pinned all of their hopes on the new Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, which they are eligible for, but have heard nothing since it started on January 6.
Jan said: “I can come back to the UK but what about my family? I can’t leave them.We cannot go back to Afghanistan. It is not safe, my story and posts have been all over social media so I’m sure the Taliban will have heard my story. So we are still stranded in Pakistan.”
Jan added: “We are not safe. I was staying with a friend here in Pakistan and I did a media interview. Then two people were asking about me and asking where my friend lives. In that area there a lot of Taliban members – so I’ve now had to change location.
“If I leave my kids and my wife there with no relatives then what is going to happen to them? Who is going to look after them?”
Glasgow North West MP Carol Monaghan says the UK Government has a “moral and practical obligation” to provide diplomatic support to the family.
A Government spokesperson said: “We continue to do all we can to help remaining British nationals and their eligible family members to safety.”