Afghan evacuees – five years on

Five years after arriving in Australia, Afghan refugee Khalid Amiri has completed a university degree, he has been working as a tutor and Melbourne University and has recently embarked on a young leadership program.

“I am still in the process of building a life and career in Australia, but I am looking forward to the future,” Khalid said.

“We are happy and grateful to have received such a warm welcome from the Australian Government and people,” he said.

Aa a prominent Afghan journalist, Khalid and his family were forced to flee when the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

They were part of the dramatic airlift evacuation that saw around 180,000 people, with connections to foreign governments and militaries, flown out of the country.

“I had a career in digital media with the national broadcaster RTA (Radio Television Afghanistan). I was a senior producer and presenter,” Khalid said.

“It was hard to leave a job I was passionate about. I was working 12 to 15 hours a day for something I believed in and thinking that our democracy and national government was getting stronger.

“One day I was writing about how the national army was getting stronger and repulsing the Taliban and next I was writing news that the Taliban are entering Kabul.

“We were shattered and broken hearted at the channel. As a state TV employees, we had been publishing anti-Taliban propaganda, so everyone was worried. I felt I had to stay on but some of the younger staff members said they want to go home so I told them to go and be safe.

“We had already been getting threatening messages from the Taliban saying that we should be calling their dead fighters ‘martyrs’ in our reports.

“When we refused, they would say things like ‘get ready we are going to blow up you and your TV station’,” Khalid said.

He said there was general panic when people realized the Taliban were taking control of the capital.

“Everyone rushed home that afternoon. I packed my laptop in my bag and went home. I was told to switch off my phone because I could be tracked by its signal,” Khalid said.

“My mum was crying when I got home. She was saying ’they will look for you’. So, I moved in with a relative who lived in another part of Kabul. I was there for four or five days and then I went to the airport,” he said.

Helped by an actor friend, Khalid used some theatre craft and subterfuge (the details of which he does not want to reveal) to get past several Taliban checkpoints and reach Kabul’s international airport.

There, he was reunited with his parents and four sisters who had made their way there separately. However, their troubles were only just beginning.

Khalid and his family spent two nights outdoors at the airport trying to find a way in and on to a plane.

“It was very difficult and scary. A lot of my friends didn’t make it to the airport and there were people climbing over each other,” Khalid said.

“There was tear gas and heavy gunfire into the air. My mum fainted twice and my baby sister was frightened. There was no food but we were able to buy bottles of water from some boys,” he said.

After a night out in the open Khalid manoeuvred his family close to one of the entries across a half-meter deep drain. On the other side of the gap were US soldiers.

“I got into the drain to try to get the coalition soldiers to see my visas – I was there from 11pm to 6am. The soldiers started asking for nationals – for US and British passport holders and others,” he said.

Khaild and his family finally got into the airport.

“The moment we were safe we breathed a sigh of relief that we were in safe hands,” Khalid said.

“We were on open ground with other families with their bags from 11am till about 3am when we got on a military flight which took us to Dubai where we spent eight days in a camp,” he said.

“Now all I had was a bag with my laptop a spare pair of jeans and an extra T-shirt.”

From Dubai, Khalid and his family were flown to Darwin, where they went into quarantine, and then to Melbourne.

Khalid says that while in Dubai Khalid struck up a conversation with an Australia soldier.

He asked me what I was reading. I said I didn’t have anything to read but that I was keen to get hold of a book called ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#$%’ which is about how to live a good and happy life when things do not always go well,” he said.

“He returned a few days later with a copy of the book he had written in it: “Welcome to Australia. You are just as much as Aussie as the rest of us”.

“I will always treasure that book,” Khalid said.

He says that despite the trauma of fleeing his homeland is optimistic about his future.

“I am happy and grateful to have received such a warm welcome from the Australian Government and people,” Khalid said.

“But I don’t want to be called a refugee forever. I want to develop a career in the media here in Australia,” he said.