Family on one of the last flights out arrive in Britain
A Scots family who managed to escape Afghanistan on one of the last flights from Kabul is back in Britain.
Abdul Sedeqey,
32, wife Khalida, and children Sowayba, 8, Rabia, 6, and three-yearold Abdul, travelled to Afghanistan on a family visit three months ago but became stuck after the Taliban seized power and flights out of the country were cancelled.
We told last week how the family witnessed stampedes and crushes which left women and children trampled and hurt and added people were so desperate they continued to sleep at the airport even after a suicide bomb attack left around 170 people dead.
Sedeqey, whose three children were born in Scotland, said he felt like crying after they were evacuated onboard an RAF C-17 cargo plane last week.
The pizza chef said: “We sat on the floor of the plane and the sound of the engines was so loud that it was deafening. But we did not care about any of that. We were just so happy to be back home.
“I feel like we are getting a second chance at life because we didn’t know what was going to happen in Kabul. My wife and I and our children are safe and that is all that matters. When we landed I just wanted to hug the children and not let go.”
Sedeqey first arrived in Scotland in the 1990s, when he was eight, after his family sought sanctuary here due to dangerous instability in their country. They returned for visits after a Nato-led assistance force ousted the Taliban and brought security to Afghanistan in the 2000s.
The family are currently spending a mandatory 10 days in Covid quarantine at a hotel in Essex and expect to return to their home in Glasgow’s South Side this week.
He said: “We are all in one hotel room and only get out for about 25 minutes twice a day so it is difficult. Scotland is our home now and my children are Scottish. I feel more Scottish than Afghan now and we are so happy we are going back.”