An Afghan man living in British Columbia is pleading with the federal government to help get his wife and children out of Afghanistan.
Global News has agreed not to identify the man out of fear the Taliban could target his family.
“We cannot live under the Taliban regime; it’s insane. They’re killing everyone. They’re killing the women, especially,” he said.
“They’re just locked behind the window and sitting at home. With no choice, they have to just live there until they find a solution to get out of the country.”
The Vancouver man’s three and six-year-old daughters remain in Kabul, where they’ve told him the sounds of AK-47s and exploding rockets are a continuous background.
“That unfortunately hurt me too much, I couldn’t sleep. Always the picture is in my mind,” he said.
“I’m just lost, desperate and lost. I don’t know what’s going to happen next minute in my country.”
The 31-year-old has been in North America since 2019, when he was attending a conference in the United States.
At the time, his family warned him not to return to Afghanistan because he had become a target and his life was in danger.
He says he made the painful decision not to go home, and was eventually able to enter Canada and gain “protected person” status.
He has been fighting to get his family here since then — plans that were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and then the rapid fall of the Afghanistan government.
So far, he’s only been able to contact the government through the Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada website.
Now, he’s pinning his hopes on a pledge by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accept 20,000 Afghan refugees.
“If I could get any chance to get in contact with the government of Canada, through that process, and bring my family to the airport and get my family out of the country — that’s the only hope I have. There’s no second option,” he said.
“I begged to them. I cried to them. I said they’re going to kill my family. Not that I’m different, I‘m same like other human, but due to my activities, they know my family. They’re going to be targeted.”
About 1,000 people from Afghanistan have already fled to Canada. Two Canadian planes have been deployed to make regular flights to and from Kabul to aid with the evacuation.
But on Thursday, Trudeau said it would be “almost impossible” to get many more out in the weeks to come, as the Taliban blocks Afghans from exiting the country.
That isn’t stopping the man from holding out hope his family could be on one of the ongoing flights.
“My greatest fear (is) my family (being) killed one day,” he said.
“I hope I can get them here and one day they can be a future for this country.”