Western groups desperate to save Afghan workers left behind

Milan, Aug 20 (AP):
The Italian charity Pangea helped tens of thousands of Afghan women become self-supporting in the last 20 years. Now, dozens of its staff in Afghanistan are in hiding with their families amid reports that Taliban are going door-to-door in search of citizens who worked with Westerners.
Pangea founder Luca Lo Presti has asked that 30 Afghan charity workers and their families be included on Italian flights that have carried 500 people to safety this week, but the requests were flatly refused. The military coordinator told him, not now. Dozens of flights already have brought hundreds of Western nationals and Afghan workers to safety in Europe since the Taliban captured the capital of Kabul.
Those lucky enough to be rescued from feared reprisals have mostly been Afghans who worked directly with foreign missions, along with their families.
European countries also have pledged to evacuate people at special risk from the Taliban – feminists, political activists and journalists – but it is unclear exactly where the line is being drawn and how many Afghan nationals Western nations will be able to evacuate.
Pangea’s staff in Afghanistan is getting increasingly agitated. Lo Presti says they are specifically at risk for their role creating the kind of independence for women that is at odds with the Taliban’s tenets.
Pangea is an enemy because whoever creates awareness and rights is the enemy. We now have to hide,’’ Lo Presti said from his base in Milan. Pangea gave loans to help 70,000 women open their own businesses – hair and beauty salons and bakeries – and many of them support families with at least eight to 10 children. The Italian Foreign Ministry touted the arrival of activist Zahra Ahmadi and female researchers from the Veronesi Foundation on a flight carrying 202 Afghan citizens, noting the special attention to those who worked for Italy and who is under threat, such as women and young people.
Yet still unprotected are untold numbers who worked with aid groups and other nongovernmental organizations in the fledgling democracy. Also included are those who assisted US and NATO forces and are now stranded and being hunted by the Taliban. Many are deleting contacts with the West from their phones, or memorizing key numbers to maintain contact.
An Italian-Afghan doctor who worked for Italy’s development agency broke down after arriving on an evacuation flight and offered a harsh assessment of the West’s decision to leave the country.
We need to save those people in Kabul. We left them in Kabul with nothing,’’ Dr. Arif Oryakhail told reporters, his voice breaking. They cooperated with us, we trained them as obstetricians, nurses, doctors. They were working and now they are abandoned, our hospitals are abandoned.
A German network has closed its safehouses for Afghan nationals who worked with coalition forces, calling them death traps.
The Taliban are going door-to-door looking for local forces,’’ said Marcus Grotian, an active German soldier who runs the network. This was foreseeable, and there has already been a visit to one of the safehouses by the Taliban. Thank God it was empty.’’
He is fielding 400-500 calls a day for help from stranded former workers and feels helpless. Afghans who were key to aiding the NATO deployment now are throwing away their documents, and trying to get by, he said. We don’t know how to help them anymore.