Afghans speak of despair, uncertainty after the evacuation to Qatar

DOHA, Aug. 21 (Reuters) – Afghans fleeing their country this week have spoken out of their desperation to leave loved ones behind and the uncertain future ahead for the Taliban’s rapid capture.

The Taliban advance has led to a massive evacuation of Afghans and foreigners amid fears of retaliation and a return to a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

“It was very difficult to leave my country,” a veiled woman told Reuters in Doha, Qatar. “I love my country.”

He explained that before the Taliban arrived he had never expected to go anywhere.

The woman said she fled with her husband, a dentist and three children, for fear that her work with international humanitarian organizations would make them a target for the Taliban.

He described traumatic scenes at Kabul airport as thousands of people claimed aboard evacuation flights.

At one point, when the crowd tried to rush to the airport, he recalled, a man standing next to him was shot in the leg by “military.” Reuters was unable to verify the claim independently.

“It was shocking and I didn’t know what to do.”

The woman is one of hundreds of evacuees temporarily housed in a Doha residential compound, visited by Reuters.

The Qatari government is hosting thousands of evacuees until they can enter a third country.

A man on the premises told Reuters that he did not expect the Taliban to keep its promises, which include respecting women’s rights and an amnesty for people working in government or with foreigners.

“The most disturbing thing is that there is not much hope for the future,” said the man, who arrived in Doha this week with his wife, three children, parents and two sisters.

The man, a lawyer, said he feared that if he had stayed in Afghanistan, he would also have become a target of the Taliban, in part because of his work with international companies.

“It will be a very, very different and challenging life ahead,” he said.

Afghan Reuters spoke in Doha all asked for anonymity because of concerns for family members still in Afghanistan.

“It’s not easy because they’re not safe,” the man said.

“I have a lot of expectations to help them get out of there and sometimes you really look really helpless.”

Another man, a sophomore law student, spoke of the Taliban looting when they took control of Kabul and said he had seen armed militants intimidating people as they headed for the airport.

Evacuated to Qatar with his sister, he does not know how he will be able to complete his studies. He left behind his wife, whom he married in a video call before evacuating.

“Our minds go home because our families stay. My wife is there. My parents are there, my brothers. I just hope they are evacuated … in case that doesn’t happen and things go wrong, I think I would think so and I want to go back. “

Report by Alexander Cornwell; Edited by Giles Elgood

Our standards: the principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.